When the winter season in Canada gets you down
Credit to Author: Margaret Jetelina| Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2018 20:09:29 +0000
Dark nights, dark thoughts? Stay mentally strong as a newcomer in Canada
For many people, including newcomers to Canada, the winter season, with its dark early mornings and evenings, together with the drop in temperatures, signals a habitual downward spiral in their mental wellbeing. More “down” days than usual; less energy; more sweating over the small stuff; less emotional resiliency when things don’t go according to plan or when reality doesn’t meet expectation. In short, dis-ease. Discomfort and dissatisfaction that, when ignored, can increase your risk of ill health.
In addition to the change in season, when adjusting to a new life in a different country, the uncertainty and challenges leave us vulnerable to emotional stress. When we feel unsettled and unhappy for a long period of time, it can erode our self-esteem. Confidence in our capability to adapt and start over can fade, and our sense of self-worth can plummet. It takes more effort to get things done.
With a lack of self-belief, we may overlook opportunities, procrastinate or, worse still, give up on our dreams and goals. Ultimately, we don’t create the new life we want for ourselves and our family. It can then be all too easy and convenient to blame external circumstances for how we feel and get stuck in that downward spiral of emotional stress.
Studies show that unhappy people are much more likely to get physically sick and take longer to recover from illness and surgery. On the flip side, there is much research to show that people with higher levels of happiness and wellbeing live longer and more successful lives. What more motivation do we need to take responsibility for living our best life, despite the circumstances we find ourselves in?
Accept what you can’t change
We all know we can’t change the weather and number of daylight hours that come with each season. If we choose to live in Canada, it is more helpful to accept the weather for what it is — one of those situations we can’t control — so we need to navigate around it, put up with it, ideally without too much complaining.
Wishing it were different is not going to change anything and only leaves us feeling frustrated and stressed. Beyond weather, it’s important to recognize other circumstances and situations in our lives that we can’t control or influence so that we don’t waste time and energy resisting or stressing about them.
Change what you can control
To keep moving forward toward our goals and to stay healthy, we need to pay conscious attention to what we think about and focus on, most of the time. All too often, we get in our own way, sabotaging our progress with negative thoughts and self-talk, complaining about our circumstances or other people. The good news is that what we think about and how we think are entirely within our control, regardless of the circumstances.
It is important to remember this because our thoughts create our moods, our moods and emotions affect our behaviour, which in turn influence the results we get in life. It can be very liberating to remember that it is possible, although not always easy, to let go of any negativity that is holding us back and change our perspective, even for a moment.
A more optimistic outlook, with a proactive, can-do-will-do attitude will have us feeling more capable and acting more confidently. It will provide the emotional resilience we need to bounce back from setbacks, especially on these darker, colder, wetter days.
For the sake of our health and wellbeing, we would do well to follow 13th-century Persian poet Rumi’s advice to “be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.”