This week on the blog we’re continuing to share tips and stories around looking after your mental health in the winter. We have some words from Hilda, one of our longtime Community Correspondents and chief executive of COPE Scotland. She talks about the negative effects of the clocks changing, the difficulty of finding words to articulate these feelings (sometimes you have to make up your own!) and also shares some great resources from COPE Scotland.
There is no two ways about it, for most of us when the clocks change things can feel a little bit ‘blurrghhht!’ Tired, flat, want to hibernate, can’t be bothered. With all that has happened the past few years we may feel even more ‘blurrghht!’ or onomatopoeia of your choice (author of this wee piece loves making up words which suggest the sound it describes. Another favourite is ‘eeeeek’ if get a fright, or ‘huh???’ if haven’t a clue what that means and so on. Please have a go if you like for the word you would use to describe that feeling when you are tired and can’t be bothered. If you have never been tired or couldn’t be bothered super, please share your tips to us so we can share with others.
Sometimes having fun like this can in itself cheer us up and would make for more genuine conversations than ‘oh, how are you’ ‘oh great’ (inside thinks arrgghhhh! No, I am not great, I am totally fed up but let’s make polite noises and say fine!) Sometimes just being able to say ‘blurrghhht!’ reduces our stress, it’s not we want anyone to fix us, we aren’t broken, it’s just sometimes making polite noises just adds to our stress!
The past couple of years for most have been pretty stressful and now we have winter to deal with as well as all the issues we had before the pandemic and the new ones the cost-of-living crisis brings!
Sometimes there aren’t easy answers, but maybe wee changes can make a difference. The past couple of years COPE Scotland has put together a wee booklet on winter wellness, which we have updated for 2022 Winter wellbeing booklet. It offers some useful ideas to support our wellbeing. We also recognise the impact worrying about money can have on our wellbeing so put together this booklet Wellbeing and money We also created a wee video on ‘The coorie’ please feel free to follow this link The Coorie for ideas to stay snuggly in winter, even when money is tight.
So maybe put on a favourite tune, grab a cuppa, and have a wee read of these booklets , watch the videos in the links and work on some ideas to bring new sounds of joy into the now and for 2023 e.g.
‘ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh’ no not ‘arrrrgghhhhhhhh!!!!’ but ‘ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…….’ which suggests feeling relaxed like a weight has been taken off our shoulders
‘’wheeeee’ no not ‘whaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!’’wheeee’ which suggests fun, excitement and how we can bring more smiles into every day. The wee video in this piece may offer ideas for bringing smiles into every season no matter what challenges life throws, as its when we do not feel like smiling, we need a smile the most Laughter yoga video
To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it. CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Look after you, you do matter
Hilda 😊
Get in contact with us if you have anything you would like to say regarding winter wellness or anything else! We would love to publish your thoughts and creative work on anything to do with mental health. Email us at maddy@mindwavesnews.com or get in touch on social media. We’re at @mindwaves1 on Twitter and mindwaves_scot on Instagram.
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