Surviving Standard Time — For The Last F^ck!ng Time 🥂
Anyone who knows me knows I’m an Olympic-level sleeper. I could go head-to-head with a college student to compete in zzzzs on any given weekend.
Which you’d think would make me a fan of America’s annual ritual of setting the clocks back to Standard Time. We get an extra hour, afterall.
As it turns out, few things make me cringe like shorter days do. So much so that I start getting bummed on June 22nd because June 21st is the longest day of the year, and we start losing daylight with each day that follows.
Maybe it’s because I’m a summer baby and I always gravitate to the sunny spot in a room. Maybe it’s because I’m a shrink and I know the impact that shorter days have on people’s anxiety and depression.
Over the years, I’ve learned some hacks to get me through New York’s winters. This year I decided to share some of my best with you. And the bonus? This is the last year the US is engaging in this masochistic endeavor. I guess they figured with the global mental health crisis that’s followed the pandemic, now might be a good time to rethink a tradition that no one even seems to recall the purpose for.
Here are my 5 tips to get through the shorter days of winter:
Get Light. Daily. I’m not going to tell you to sit in the fucking cold just to get sunlight, because there’s absolutely no way I’d do it. I will tell you to buy yourself a therapeutic light and shine it so it hits you indirectly a few minutes a day. I start using mine in October each year and I stop in March. You don’t have to spend a fortune either. Here’s the one I use.
Feed Your Soul. I know. Make you want to roll your eyes. But there’s a reason why most people gain a few pounds in the winter. Humans naturally eat more when it’s cold out. And if feeding your soul conjures up visions of standing on a scale in March with tears in your eyes, I got you. You can get ahead of the cyclical weight gain by thinking through your favorite things to eat in the winter (or just reflect on those things that put the pounds on you each year) and find healthier recipes for them now — before you start craving them — so you’ll have ways of meeting your needs that won’t give you springtime remorse.
Surround Yourself With Delicious Smells. Pick some scents that make you feel joy and calm. Different scents work for each of us and there is definitely a scent that will work for you. Go to Whole Foods and start sniffing the essential oils to see which evoke emotions of calm and joy. They won’t be the same, so get them both! Nothing helps me relax like Lavender. And nothing brings me joy the way Thieves and Pumpkin do. So I buy a mixture of candles and essential oils each fall and I light my place up till it glows. Here’s a great lavender oil. Here’s my favorite pumpkin candle. I make my own thieves because I think it’s overpriced. If you want my recipe shoot me an email at darcy@askdrdarcy.com + I’ll hook you up.
Plush Fabrics! Did you know that touch is the one sense we can’t live without? When I think of winter, I think of all the amazing fabrics I want to curl into. Which is why my place is always stocked with delicious throw blankets for every preference of warmth, weight, and texture. Unfortunately I’ve found that cheap blankets aren’t good and good blankets aren’t cheap, so I can’t hook you up with affordable suggestions. However, if you want to spoil yourself with a great blanket this year, here’s one that’ll make you feel like an adult in a baby blanket, and this one’s great if you run hot and need cooling + calming.
Makeup Therapy. I’m talking cosmetics here. Every fall I drop some change on a couple new eyeshadow pallets, lipsticks and gloss. It’s a little something I do to treat myself, and with brands like ColourPop, it doesn’t have to break the bank.
The time I spend doing my makeup each morning feels therapeutic to me. It’s a creative outlet because I change my makeup look every day. It’s the one thing I do without a plan. I sit down in front of a mirror that illuminates entirely too much of my naked face and I feel like I’m doing art (if you saw what I begin with, it would all make sense to you 😉
And I’ll let you in on a secret: I almost always put more effort into my makeup on days when I feel emotionally low. Even if I don’t get a compliment, it makes me feel better every time I look in the mirror because I have evidence of my self-care.