Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, will look a little different for everyone. But if you notice you’re more irritable, your sleeping or eating patterns have changed, or you’re more anxious or depressed, you might be experiencing SAD.

We’re sharing four things that can help you find a mood boost in the darkest, coldest days of winter. We recommend creating a list you can easily reference, either in a notebook or on your phone’s notes app, of things that make you feel good. Either take inspiration from the ideas below or brainstorm your own! Personalizing an approach to support yourself through the next few months is a great way to show yourself some love.

Support

This can come in many forms, like a regular coffee date with a friend, scheduled therapy sessions, or speaking to your doctor about medication. Consider who in your life makes you feel supported and tap into that! If you feel intimidated going to the doctor, read this blog post for a little...

Today’s blog is a guest post from Marisa over at Le Salon Literary Discussions. She runs a bookish business that offers reading recommendations, monthly online book discussions, and more!

Reading can be such a great way to relax. It can also be educational and help you learn new ideas and see yourself in new ways, which can be invigorating! No matter which you choose, both of these can support a sense of self-care. 

I know it can be challenging to find time to read these days between work, life, TV, and scrolling. If you need a few tips on how to make some time to pick up your book or e-reader, I’ve got some advice that might help. My biggest tip is to make sure you are enjoying what you are reading—and that will look different for everyone. From romance to graphic novels, thrilling mysteries to classic novels. Here are some book recommendations to get you started.

Non-fiction books to support your body and mind:

• Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About...

You’ve probably heard that the how you speak to yourself can lead to more or less self-esteem depending on what you say, what words you use, and the tone (negative or positive). It might be a conversation in our own mind, but there is power in your inner dialogue!

Recent research shows that speaking to yourself can also help sooth anxiety and reduce feelings of stress. Instead of hiding from these intense emotions, addressing them in a curious and kind way allows you to go slowly and see that they aren’t as overwhelming once you look at them. We’ve all been in the situation where putting our head in the sand has made a task seem that much more impossible.

While you may wish your anxiety would go away, there is no need to fight it. Begin with first observing what you are feeling—is it a flutter in your chest? An electric feeling up your legs?—and then ask your anxiety what is the concrete cause for these reactions. Maybe it is an upcoming review of your...

Take a deep breath. And another one.

Binges are full of emotions before, during, and after. Food has a way of giving us a sense of calm and numbness, but anyone who has eaten emotionally knows that the intense emotions that lead up to a binge and then the ones that follow after—guilt, shame—can leave you feeling so much worse than before any food was eaten.

Emotional eating is a common coping mechanism that many people use to manage everything from stress, to not getting enough sleep, to depression. While your mind may be telling you there is something shameful about emotional eating, the truth is that it is a sign that you are doing your best to manage everything life throws at you. And sometimes life can be overwhelming or scary or just plain crappy.

So, you’ve binged on all your favourite foods in an attempt to escape your negative feelings. As you slowly come out of the binge mentality and regret begins to blossom, take a moment to pull out your journal and try...

This blog post is the one of a series where we’re giving advice on tools you can try and see if they are worth adding to your ‘toolkit’ when you’re faced with emotional eating. Some tools will work for you and others you won’t find as helpful—check out our previous posts here and give some of them a try!

When suffering from a low mental health day do you ever find yourself Googling how to improve your mood? Often, we come across the same line, something like “just work up a sweat and you’ll feel good in no time!” again and again. Sounds like advice from someone who doesn’t know what it feels like to be depressed or anxious, right? Chances are you’re already aware that movement makes you feel better, but you can’t force yourself to do it when you’re not in a great space mentally. And that is completely ok!

When we hear the term ‘working out’ we often think of intimidating gyms,...

How many of you are using your cell phone as your alarm clock? Hey, we’re guilty of it too! But looking at your screen—even if it’s just to hit the snooze button—can set your mind racing. There are many benefits to the technology we have access to, but constant screen and sound notifications, from texts to email to social media alerts, can divide your attention (hello mindless eating while scrolling!), shatter your focus on a specific task, and even skyrocket your anxiety. 

 So, what is the solution?

Let’s face it: we’re not going to get away from using technology. But we can set boundaries around how and when we use it. The key is to start small! We’ve already suggested how putting away your phone—even just 30 minutes—before bed can be beneficial. The next thing you can try is to add to this time little by little to create more of a buffer between the last time you looked at your phone and when your head hits the...

This blog post is the one of a series where we’re giving advice on tools you can try and see if they are worth adding to your ‘toolkit’ when you’re faced with emotional eating. Some tools will work for you and others you won’t find as helpful—check out our previous posts here and give some of them a try!

Getting a good night’s sleep plays a crucial role in maintaining a balance in our body and mind. It’s so easy to get caught in a bad sleep cycle: we wake up to a day that feels like an emotional rollercoaster and makes us eat emotionally as we try and counteract the effects of tossing and turning the night before. Overdoing it on these tasty stimulants—sugar, carbs, coffee, and soda—can not only add to those feelings of up and down but also prolong being stuck in the cycle, leading to another terrible night’s sleep and more emotional eating.

We have totally been there! Sometimes it’s anxiety that keeps you from...

You’ve picked up a gorgeous new notebook, you have a specific pen you love the feel of. Finally, you have some quiet time to yourself, sitting down you open to that first blank page and… have no clue what to write!

We’ve previously given a few ideas on how to start journaling, but we know for ourselves that sometimes the words just won’t come. Either you’re distracted or have so much to say you don’t know where to start—both can feel overwhelming. So, here are a few ideas to get that ink flowing and fill up your pages. You don’t have to start with number one and work your way through all of the prompts, choose whichever you are called to write about. Or maybe reading one of the prompts gets you thinking about another topic you’d like to write on.

Remember: there is absolutely no wrong way to journal! Your notebook is truly your own space to be honest, vulnerable, funny, or sad.

These ideas below are to help you focus on things...

This blog post is the one of a series where we’re giving advice on tools you can try and see if they are worth adding to your ‘toolkit’ when you’re faced with emotional eating. Some tools will work for you and others you won’t find as helpful—give them a try! Did you catch our last post on journaling?

There are many ways you can practice breathwork, but at the core of every technique is a focus on how deep and the speed you inhale and exhale in order to bring awareness to your body. The main benefit of breathwork is to lower stress levels and even help calm intense emotions. But studies have shown that you may begin to also experience other benefits, such as increased focus, more self-love, better sleep, and it might even boost your immunity!

By intentionally focussing on steadying your breathing you can create a sense of calm throughout your body as you’re your heart will stop pounding in panic and may even lower your blood pressure. How...

This blog post is the first in a series where we’re giving advice on tools you can try and see if they are worth adding to your ‘toolkit’ when you’re faced with emotional eating. Some tools will work for you and others you won’t find as helpful—give them a try!

The act of writing down your emotions and experiences has a lot of benefits: it can help calm your anxious mind, be an outlet for angry thoughts, or even create a happy memory for you to return to whenever you’re feeling upset. Journaling can also seem like a way of meditating: making you slow down and allowing you to focus only on yourself for a moment.

There is no on-size-fits-all to journaling (which means you can’t fail at it!) but one good way to start is to get off the digital devices—laptop, phone, tablet—that take over our days and pick-up pen and paper. Even buy yourself a notebook! Something with a quote or art on the cover that speaks to you. Some...