Winter cold, low light motivation techniques

This will probably continue to be work in progress for me. I’m much better now that lyme is gone, but for those lymies out there still suffering motivation you probably find it more difficult in the winter time the higher you are in the northern hemisphere. They do have those winter sad lights, but they’re also techniques used just for your morning routine.

Face it, if you’re not working or even working ,…wintertime days off may be a challenge to get motivated in the morning. And if you’re single, your time belongs to you, so then it can be even more easy to get lazy!

I like summer mornings off work, it’s usually a little bit cooler and motivates me because I know late afternoons can get uncomfortable.

Winter time it’s just way too easy to get cozy on the couch even if you have things you need to do. I made a deal with myself the older I get I realize with myself and others that for those working when you’re older, you almost need one day just to recover from the work week, then the next day to go have fun and get things done.

The one thing I’ve read about is, it’s not uncommon for people to have anxiety on the weekends when they wake up because they realize they have so much they want to get done. When I had lime, I just about gave up on these things and did the very bare minimum. And all those years piled up to a lot of things I needed to do. As a do it yourselfer , I never run out of projects which is both good and bad.

Obviously, it’s good to make a list with a combination of things you want to do the things you need to do. Just trying to remember this will increase anxiety. It’s better off to have a list and check it off as you go.

And it’s pretty common in the winter to wake up to a cold house. The first thing you want to do is make some hot coffee but that can also increase anxiety. I have been drinking, warm tees and low caffeinated beverages on weekend mornings and slowly ease into the caffeine as the afternoon gets closer. This warms up my body internally while my brain is still relaxed.

So apparently back in 2012, some guy wrote a book on this, “The miracle morning” is probably nothing new as far as ideas go, but it’s all in one place in addition to the book they have an app for it I don’t know if it’s free or not.

https://miraclemorning.com/

Little exercise in the morning is also good. But you have to get motivated to get outside, which is a problem in the winter. So what I noticed helps is even though I don’t need to roll on my foam fitness rollers as much as I used to, it’s still a good idea to use it on winter mornings inside as it increases blood flow and just kind of wakes you up a little bit without having to go anywhere.

And I used to turn on the stereo first thing when I woke up in the morning. It’s hard for me to listen to music in the background. I end up actually listening to it. This book mentions how important silence is in the morning to keep your thoughts clear, and anxiety, low, which makes sense.

Another important thing in the winter is to open your drapes or shades, whenever it’s daytime to let what little light there is inside.

I tried all that this morning and now I’m going to finally make lunch since it’s 1 PM. I have a little bit of caffeine and hopefully get a few things done before I really tackle them full-time tomorrow, Sunday when I’m rested.

Again for myself, and I know from any others I have plenty of energy in the summertime. Even when I had Lyme, my brain was still energized in the summertime even though my body could not accomplish what I’m brain wanted it to do.

There’s not many people left on this forum anymore but if you have ideas, I’d invite you to add them as it would certainly help all people who have low motivation levels from the combination of lyme and winter time.

Maybe I will finally buy a full spectrum light this year!

I really don’t have time to use it in the morning before work. If you use it at night next to you while watching TV , will cause insomnia, when you finally try to go to bed?

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After resting up from the work week, I went outside this afternoon did some trail branch grooming next to a local stream. I don’t dare do this in the summertime because of ticks. It felt good to get out there after a rainy fall.

Myself, and others seem to use it more in the winter time through the snow. Last winter a mountain lion used it too, which explains why I heard much less coyotes. Huge paw prints in the snow, much wider than long. Definitely not a canine. Yikes. I’m sure they’ve seen me, I’ve never spotted them yet.

(Today I noticed someone else brought a chainsaw and cut down some big branches as there were some recent trimmings. Nothing like cooperation from someone you’ve never yet met on the trail. Maybe someday we’ll run into each other…..

That’s great girlie that’s kind of what we all wanna do.

I have plenty of things to do. The problem is getting motivated to do it during this time of year. Once I start whatever the project is, I’m fine,… but getting started is the problem. In the summer I am not like this unless it’s just too hot to move (different problem, all together!)

***But,…..maybe you Dont get “unmotivated” from lack of light and the cold in the winter.?***

Winter low light and cold temperatures can even decrease motivation when you’re inside. (One step beyond that would be depression, which, fortunately I no longer have.)

It doesn’t affect everybody and those people are very lucky! (but it does affect many) in northern cold climates. I would guess those people might wonder what the heck this post is about in the first place lol.

It is kind of odd how some people are affected by weather and amount of light, and some people are affected by the moon. I’ve never felt any different from whatever the moon is doing. But lack of sunlight is a whole different ball game. And supplemental vitamin D unfortunately makes me kind of edgy.

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And thanks for reminding me, I’ve been meaning to string out my solar lights on the smaller evergreens in my front yard. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.

for me the issue in the past has been not so much lacking the motivation - but that the much greater amount of motivation needed to overcome the headwinds induced by the illness

by which i mean i have always been a highly motivated person - able to make myself do what i thought i needed to do, whether it was going to be fun in the short term or not - i.e. my focus has been on delaying short term gratification in favour of long term goals - this is the basis of all significant achievement in almost all areas of life.

i think that the issue in chronic illness - is that the effort needed to get stuff done is suddenly 3 or 4 or 10x more that it would normally be.

during any illness we have all these chemicals flowing around in our bodies associated with hunkering down and allowing our bodies to heal ( there are a bunch of cytokines which do this) - we have stiff aching bodies that resist movement - especially in the mornings - and we have sluggish groggy brains that are hard to get going and do not function quite as they once did - so everything is harder.

the best thing i have found to counter this is to counter this extra headwind effect by ramping up the natural reward mechanisms that we have inherently evolved to get us to do stuff in the first place.

two ideas that have helped me do this are:

lifestyle centric career planning
(it doesn't have to be focussed on a career - its the process that's important)

and

Multi-scale time block planning

its based on the work of author and MIT computer science professor Cal Newport
he has written books on the topics of Deep Work, slow productivity and writes for the New Yorker on the impact of technology on society. he has YouTube videos and a podcast on these topics - you can find them by googling the above phrases and his name

in print it sounds a bit "Productivity Bro" but its actually quite the opposite - its not about cramming more incidental stuff into each day to get more and more stuff done - but about figuring out what's really important to you - having a v clear picture of where you want to get to and having a practical system that helps you get there.

its not a quick fix - it takes time to understand the approach, adapt it to your own life, build up your process - but its highly applicable to people with extreme challenges - such as chronic illness.

its hard to explain how much difference this can make to a persons motivation - but it can definitely double / triple or even 10x the drive you have to get stuff done - allow you to make the best use of whatever energy you do have - and is certainly a much more satisfying way to live.

In my case and others with Hashimoto hypothyroid, it might make sense to try a little more Rx thyroid replacement during the winter season, then switch back in late spring.

Per online, some Drs now suggest this in colder climates. My old one would not allow me to try that.

Hmm..🤔

We don’t get snow here except once every 10 years or so, but we do have fall leaves everywhere. Late last week, t tried raking and sweeping small oak leaves in a small section of yard between the sidewalk and curb. It was exhausting and took forever. Finally, I got the lawn mower out and mowed over the leaves to mulch them. I did that in the back yard a couple weeks ago, too.

I am not sure if it hurts the grass or not, but as long as night temps won’t get too low for the next couple days after mowing/mulching, I figured it would be okay. Mulching the leaves with the mower beats the heck out of raking.

The last couple years, I tried blowing the leaves, but I basically blew away the topsail.

I have also been listening to Andrew Huberman a lot and as you wrote, getting sunlight in the morning is very important and my nr 1 goal for the morning. I'm going for a walk outside after about 40-80 min after getting up. And almost all mornings I take a cold shower after waking, and then hot coffee/tea with breakfast.

I used to exercise often in the mornings, but had to reduce it a bit and now train later in the day instead. Working on getting into a meditation routine in the mornings instead for 5-10 min, as stress has been too high for a long time.

he mentions he uses some kind of cheap "artists light pad" thing for quick light exposure when its dark/overcast - rather than an expensive SAD specific "daylight" lamp

Many around the world this time of year have the Christmas holiday coming up very shortly.

And in my opinion, There should be a northern hemisphere holiday on the 21st , celebrating that the shortest amount of daylight in the year will be over!

After the 21st (first day of winter also winter solstice) we gain one minute of daylight each day. Which is a good reason to celebrate!

(Since it’s complete overcast up here today it’ll be dark out around 4:00). At my buddies cabin, which is on the extreme eastern edge of this time zone it can be completely dark at 345PM this week if it’s a cloudy day, which means sometimes turning your auto lights on at 3:15lol!)

I can’t imagine dealing with no light and then all day long light in Alaska. I know a guy who moved up there, it’s just weird.

Garzie, thanks for the links.

You’ve talked about that guy before I think on another thread, but I didn’t look him up.

I thought those artist light boxes probably had a more technical name, I guess not that’s what they call them!