Tag: Seasonal affective disorder

Tired Of Winter Yet? See If This Helps Beat the Winter Blues!

I always look through all my books during this time of year because I am bored. Every year, I keep coming back to this simple ritual. I do it and it gives me reassurance Spring is just around the corner. It will not only refresh your room, your soul but also you. I hope you try it and find it as useful as I have.

Winter Blue Banishment

Winters can be long and Spring can seem far away in February. Confined indoors by the cold and inhospitable weather, we can become depressed and lethargic. We neglect ourselves and leave a dusty and cluttered household. Despite that it lifts the spirits to clean out all the physical and mental cobwebs, we will find it hard to do this basic task. To start, simply choose one room, preferably. the room where you spend the most time. Burn some lavender incense. Smudge the corners of the room and yourself. Then open the blinds or drapes and call out:

“Go, snow, go. Come, Sun, Come!”

Keep the incense burning and with your broom walk deosil while  sweeping the ceilings. Chant:

“Sun and broom
swept the room.
Fill us with Spring perfume.”
 

Continue cleaning  from top to bottom. When the room is finished, take a deep breath and fill your lungs with the clean lavender scent. Envision your inner room as clean and full of Spring’s perfume.

Author:
Gail Wood
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Feng Shui to Beat the Winter Blues

Feng Shui to Beat the Winter Blues

Create warm and uplifiting energy even during the darkest time of year

Simone Sanders   Simone Sanders on the topics of winter, insight, feng shui

 

Winter’s cold temperatures and long evenings bring the blues to many Sun worshippers. Fortunately, Feng Shui can mitigate the more chilling effects of the season.

Even better, Feng Shui can also accentuate the many positive aspects of winter. Remember, winter symbolizes a time of turning inward. Instead of catering to everybody else’s desires, it gives you the chance to attend to your personal needs.

Shed a little light on the subject

Installing full-spectrum bulbs throughout your home can counterbalance the effect of Seasonal Affective Disorder. These bulbs provide natural light similar to the sun, helping you to feel more energetic, focused and alert during the winter months. Varying your light sources can also lift your spirits. Have a mixture of overhead fixtures, task lighting, floor lamps and up lights throughout your home and office.

Create a cozy corner

Winter is the season of self-nurturing. With that in mind, what better way to honor the season than to position a comfortable reading chair in a corner? Add a snuggly blanket, a footstool, a small table and a reading lamp. The mere sight of your cozy corner will remind you to slow down, relax and enjoy some precious quiet time.

Fire things up

Cooking can generate much needed warmth during the winter months. Having a simmering pot of soup or stew on the back burner of your stove will fill your home with mouth-watering aromas, and fill your stomach with healthy nourishment.

Keep a journal

Writing is a perfect wintertime activity, because it invites you to go inward and explore your emotional landscape. Jotting down your thoughts, worries and dreams in a journal each day will provide a welcome outlet for your feelings.

Reach for the sky

Tall plants, chairs with straight backs, and narrow bookcases lend uplifting energy to any space. Patterns with vertical stripes have a similar effect. Integrate these furnishings and design elements into any room where you are prone to succumb to depression.

Don’t forget to warm up

Warm colors can combat the hazy shade of winter. Add touches of garnet, pumpkin, goldenrod and spring green wherever you need a lift. Keep grays, blues, blacks and purples to a minimum.

Make a comfort drawer

The natural abundance of autumn is over, so now you have to provide creature comforts for yourself. Fill a drawer in your night table or desk (or both!) with little luxuries. A box of after-dinner mints, a vial of lavender essential oil, bags of your favorite tea, a tube of scented hand lotion, a juicy pocket paperback, a packet of ginger biscuits … whatever brings you comfort, put it in the drawer. Keep it well-stocked through the winter months.

Clutter bust

There’s a good chance you’ll be spending lots more time indoors now that it’s winter. Giving yourself more room to roam will help you beat the winter blues. Create spacious pathways throughout your home, take stacks of reading material off the floor, clear the countertops, and stow the kids’ toys in cupboards when they’re not being used.

Keep it moving

Things that have lots of movement — a pendulum clock, a ceiling fan, a mobile or a crackling fire — can stir up the stagnant energy associated with winter. If you have certain rooms that don’t get a lot of activity, aim an oscillating fan at a plant so that its leaves rustle occasionally. Alternately, you can suspend a piece of lightweight fabric over a heating duct so it flutters gently, generating uplifting energy.

Love the night life

Since night falls early in winter, you might as well embrace the darkness. Eat dinner by candlelight. Enjoy a movie marathon. Play board games in front of the fire with the kids. Go to bed early with your lover, but not necessarily to sleep.

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Let’s Talk Witch – Urgh, The Winter Blues, How to Beat Them!

healing

Urgh, The Winter Blues, How to Beat Them!

Let’s stop the Winter Blues this year before they ever get a chance to appear. I always have the Winter blues but apparently they are not as bad as some. So to get a jump on the blues before the blues can jump us, I found some hints and tips to give us a headstart on them this year. I believe if you give some of these tips a try, you might be amazed at how well they work. Won’t hurt to try, will it?

1.  Adjust your schedule. Simply said, do less. Don’t overcommit and respect the season’s slower pace. Focus activities on the home front. Now is the time to settle into books, projects and other activities that require a long span of time. Have family game nights or invite friends over to share the fun.

2.  Adjust your environment. Invest in good lead-free candles for atmosphere, and if you have a fireplace, stock up on dry, seasoned wood. Light the area you’re living or working in, but leave lights off through the rest of the house. Turn the thermostat down to 65 degrees–leave blankets throws on chairs and couches and wear slippers to keep your feet warm and layers of fleece or wool sweaters for toastiness. Make your bed with flannel sheets and thick blankets and spreads.

3.  Purify your surroundings. Many houseplants are valuable for purifying the air, particularly peace lilies, rubber plants and spider plants. You might also invest in an air purifier for the bedroom and main living spaces. On warmer days, open the doors and windows to let fresh air in.

4.  Embrace winter herbs and spices.  Burn incense or diffuse oils in scents of cinnamon, clove, cardamon, pine or cedar. Sip herbal teas or fresh-made Chai. Simmer a kettle of hot cider or mulled wine with fresh ginger, cinnamon sticks, star anise, whole cloves, cardamom pods and thin slices of citrus.

5.  Eat for the season. Focus on grains, legumes, and warming root vegetables. Carrots are excellent for digestion, parsnips support the lungs, beets furnish elemental irons, and sweet potatoes are full of vitamins and fiber (and are delicious mashed with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar!). Try a hot cereal of oatmeal or buckwheat topped with sauteed apples or dried fruit. Enjoy roasted meats, homemade soup stock, and mugs of rich hot chocolate, each with a warming pinch of cayenne. Stewed fruit, crisps, and cobblers make delicious winter treats.

6.  Pamper your body. Enjoy warm baths, adding 1 cup of Epson salts, 1 teaspoon olive oil and a few drops of essential oil to each tubful. Try lavender for relaxation or thyme or rosemary for invigoration. If you skin is dry, replace the Epsom salts with colloidal oatmeal (or blend oatmeal to a powder in your food processor). Consider a weekly “spa night” in which you pamper yourself from head to toe.

7.  Feed your mind. This is a perfect time to dive into magickal study, work on garb or tool craft, or read the stack of books that’s accumulated on the nightstand. keep a daily journal to track your activities and monitor winter’s progress.

8.  Stay active. Engage in slower-paced excercise, such as yoga, Tai Chi or swimming (indoors). Take bundle walks through your neighborhood, watching for the seasonal changes.

9.  Serve the tribe. Take care of your own family, but reach out as well. Winter is powerful time to do volunteer work in your own community.

10.  Honor Yule, Christmas, Imbolc or whatever holidays you celebrate. The winter holidays are the perfect time for lights, gifts, and greenery: Be merry and rejoice!

Honor the winter’s rhythms and you’ll feel the magickal and health benefits that come from slowing down and embracing the season as a restorative time of quiet, rest, and reflection.

Excerpts taken from:

Hibernation: Embracing Winter
Susan Pesznecker
Llewellyn’s 2012 Witches Companion
An Almanac for Everyday Living

The Witches Spell for October 23 – ‘White Light Ritual’

sam9

WHITE LIGHT RITUAL

　

Best time to do this spell:

In the early morning-to make the spell even stronger – do it as the sunshine’s on you!

As the sun rises in the morning – get somewhere it can shine on you (even laying in bed is okay for this one!) as you feel the warmth of the sun shining on you – see in your mind’s eye a bright light – pure and white surrounding you and outlining your body -leaving NO openings = completely surrounding you in light and warmth (you will FEEL it too) as you surround yourself in this warm and wonderful light say to yourself out loud or merely in your head

“May the white light surround me

and protect me from all harm

this is my WILL so MOTE it be.”

　

Then simply go about your day – you can also send white light to others by simply surrounding them with white light in your mind’s eye and substituting the person’s name for me in the incantation above. you will notice immediately a change – as you walk past – people will try to catch your eye and smile – try it – it works!  You may do this as often as you like !

Living Life As The Witch – Even Witches Get The Blues

Witchy Comments~Magickal Graphics~

The Blues

Everybody gets the blues. A feeling of low energy, listlessness, and disinterest, a touch of sadness., betrayal, or even a broken heart can make us feel like retreating from life a little. It’s not just emotional situations that can cause the blues, but physical, mental spiritual and environmental situations.

Physical reason for feeling blue can include minor illnesses or imbalance, overindulgence in alcohol drugs or candy, a lack of sleep or downtime and extreme physical wear and tear caused by over.

Mentally periods of low self-esteem, social isolation, worry and indecision can cause the blues. Over thinking, over analyzing and over eating can all send us spiraling down,

Spirituality, a crisis of faith, feeling disconnected from the Sprit or higher power, and even deep-rooted questions about good and evil in the universe create chaos. Blues that come from spiritual sources can shake on to our roots.

Almost everyone experience the blues with the change of seasons, we say goodbye to summer friends, return to school or work and change out hobbies, activities and routines. Seasonal change is a well-known environmental factor affecting mood, especially the shift from  summer to winter when we feel the effect of dwindling daylight. It causes low energy, a reticence to go outdoors and sometimes a desire to stay curled up on the couch. Environmentally induced blues are not to be confused with SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is a profound medical depression associated with the lack of light.

Other environmental blues could included the heaviness that comes  from working in a poor lit conditions with little ventilation of fresh air, around a lot of electromagnetic energy, or even being around a bunch of people who are themselves very negative and heavy.

Reference:

Excerpt from “Banishing the Blues”

By Dallas Jennifer Cobb

Llewellyn’s 2013 Magical Almanac

Feng Shui for Winter Nights

Feng Shui for Winter Nights

by a Care2 favorite by Betsy Stang

 

Red is not just for Christmas! Red is the color of warmth, of fire, of yang.  It is the antidote for the cold yin nights of winter. Warm your nights with just  the right chi by practicing these feng shui tips for winter colors, light,  warmth, safety and sharing.

Winter Colors and Light

Red Replace some of your summer blues with reds and oranges.  Think pillows, quilts and place settings. You will feel warmer and less  depressed. A cozy red or burgundy throw on the chair or on the bed will make you  feel wonderful, and cut down on the need to turn up the heat.

Orange Cook orange. Pumpkins and squash are plentiful and give  you the good carbohydrates and nutrients that you need for winter.

 

Light up the Night

Get at least one full spectrum light  for a reading area. The complete spectrum will relieve seasonal affective  disorder and help your eyes. Plants love full spectrum light so you can put some  greenery nearby, and create a small winter garden that will cheer you up and  help provide oxygen for your rooms.

Long evenings mean it is time to replace light bulbs. Think energy conserving  compact fluorescents, especially for outside lights and accent areas. Your  pocket book and your planet will thank you. There are even energy conserving  Christmas lights that are now standard in Canada. Solar path lights won’t go all  night at this time of year, but they probably are on sale and will light your  way home in the evening with no strain on the environment. Additionally, in  February, as the days lengthen, they will glitter most of the night, even in the  snow, and will make you smile for years to come.

 

Warm up your Windows

Check to make sure all windows  shut well. If you have single paned glass which lets the cold wind into the  house, find some cheerful thick fabric, valances or drapes, which can cut your  heating costs all winter and is a terrific way to change the feel of a room. The  Victorians covered their windows for a reason; their homes were drafty! When you  feel an uncovered window on a cold night, it’s cold! So think warm and add  fabric.

Remove or cover your air conditioners. If removal is difficult get some  wonderful natural fabric from your local fabric store and create a cover. Tip:  Double-sided Velcro is amazing for the sewing challenged!

Watch For Fire

It is the time to have your boiler and  fireplace checked and cleaned. Too many house fires or clogged boilers are  caused by the lack of taking this step. All combustible materials create residue  which in time builds up, so be safe, be warm and be pro-active. This expense  could save you thousands.

 

Pay Attention to Your Floor, Your Grounding

Remove any  dangerously slippery bath mat. The backing does disintegrate, and think about a  cozy rug for your bedroom or sitting area. Please think about natural materials  so you are not creating a toxic environment. Artificial rugs off-gas and pollute  a closed environment; you could expose yourself and your family to illnesses.  Look for Tibetan or other tribal rugs made from natural fiber and plant  dyes.

Tell Stories; Share with Others

Get some good books. The  wintertime has always been storytelling time among all traditions, so let the  indoor time give you a chance to expand your mind, either for sheer pleasure or  to learn something new you have been meaning to get to but haven’t had the  chance.

Lastly, share your home with your friends. Long winter evenings are great for  sharing food and conversation. Being with those you love will remind you of how  much you have to be grateful for.

And as your gratitude increases take some of your old clothing and household  goods to a local shelter or Goodwill and spread some cheer around. You will also  get rid of your clutter and make room for the new.

 

From Divine Design by Betsy  Stang, certified Feng Shui consultant.