Want to feel the joy of winter season? Don’t bore yourself by staying indoors all throughout winter, go out, have fun, enjoy!
Winter Season
I feel sorry for winter. Always the brunt of jokes, poems, and social media memes. All so full of scorn and derision, blatantly telling winter to go away, counting down the days until winter’s end before it even gets started.
It seems a shame, really. Not for winter, of course, but for the people who struggles to deal with it. I’m all about embracing things head on, and I try to live in the moment. I love to encourage others to get all they can out of every situation, too, and I have some tips that might help you not only endure the season but to get some real joy from this time of year.
12 Ways To Find Joy This Winter Season
1. Get out!
Outdoor time is rejuvenating. It is worth it even if you have to pile on a few more layers of clothing. Go for a walk or a snowshoe . Get on a sleigh ride. Learn to play ice hockey. Target shoot. Take up snow skiing. Sit on a chair on your porch and breathe in the fresh air.
Pick the perfect snowshoes here
2. Appreciate science and the natural world
Watch birds in the park or at the feeder in your backyard. Notice trees and learn about them. Visit an aquarium or science museum. Check out the evidence left behind by woodpeckers. Watch squirrels cavorting. Enjoy the squiggly patterns of mice and voles tunneling beneath the snow. Pull over beside the road to enjoy the sight of deer in the field. Enjoy your own animals, too—both livestock and pets.
LIVESTREAMING – Nature TV – Click to Watch
3. Decorate This Winter Season
Use the time you are indoors to spruce things up. Hang new curtains. Finish that afghan for the study. Touch up paint on the kitchen cabinets.
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3. Create Something This Winter
If you do wood burning art [get ideas here], or are a rug maker, or port, or engage in web design, winter is a great time to do it. Learn to make butter or hand-dipped chocolates. Think about your garden layout. Get ready to order spring peeps. Crochet a hat. Whatever you are passionate about creating or dream of trying, take time in this slower season to go for it.
5. Play Outside!
Board games with the kids, word games with your partner, cards with the neighbors—whatever is fun and frolic for you, make it happen! You can chase someone around the house with silly foam projectiles, or throw a ball or disc around outside for the dog.
6. UNPLUG
Spend some time without devices. Be unavailable. Let your phone go to voice mail. Let your social media friends be without you long enough to miss you. Let the world live without you for a time, and let yourself live without the world.
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7. Hit The Off Switch
Shut off the television and radio. Bask in the silence that exists without it, or enjoy the sounds of the household. Hear the birds outside, or the shouts of kids playing on the sidewalk out front, or the bustle of people going about their day on the street, or the hum of the ceiling fan.
Realistic Homesteading Reflections
8. Engage This Winter Season
Look for what is right in front of you. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to embrace the obvious by reaching beyond it. Instead of only dreaming about climbing the highest peak in the state this summer, spend a winter afternoon hiking a neighborhood hill. Go ahead and make plans to take part in the big spring building project at the homeless shelter, but don’t pass up a chance to donate a coat or a bagful of canned goods now.
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9. Get Warm This Winter
Spend a little time in a place that’s sure to make you feel like you’re in the tropics. Swim some laps in the public pool, work out at the gym, visit Great Aunt Edie who always keeps her thermostat cranked up high, or hunker down in front of the pellet stove. Being toasty warm always puts a happy spin on things in winter.
10. Be Active
In addition to outdoor recreation and indoor workouts, there are lots of other ways to be active as well. Rearrange a closet, plan and host a formal dinner party, hang out with three-year-olds, volunteer at the animal shelter, sign up for a bus trip to a garden show, go out with friends, make bread, go roller skating, or attend a live sporting event. Whatever speaks to you, answer with a yes.
12. Socialize In Winter
Nothing soothes ills like being in the presence of others. Go to neighborhood pot lucks, invite friends over to watch the game, make a shopping date at the outlet stores, set up a progressive dinner with a group, join a reading or writing club, play basketball or role-playing games with a group from work, smile and nod at people you encounter in the checkout line, and chat over the fence with your next-door neighbor.
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11. Be Giving This Winter Season
Gifts are fun to receive, but even more fun to give. Start planning for your next gift-giving occasion now, and get busy shopping and crafting. If you love gifting but don’t want to wait, go ahead and give some now.
13. Reflect
Breathe deeply. Meditate. Pray. Bask in the glory of being alive. Be grateful.
Winter can be great. These tips can help you create happiness despite the season, and it just might happen that instead of simply tolerating this time of year, you could come to love it. Don’t blame winter for being winter. Just dive in, revel in every moment, and don’t come out until spring.
Winter can really be so much fun. Just try not to imitate these winter fails from CompilationFailTV:
So are you going to give these tips a try this winter? Let us know below in the comments!
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