February Schmebruary: If you can’t beat it, join it!

Call it what you will- the winter blues, the depressive episode, the “I don’t know why I just want to curl up in bed and eat when I should be [insert obligation+shame here].”

I’ll tell you why.

It may be 70 degrees out, and your brain might think it’s time to work and grow, but - newsflash - it’s winter. Regardless of the temperature, our biology yearns to mimic the seasonal changes in the world around us. Unfortunately for us, Houston is not the picture of stability when it comes to weather. So how the heck do we stay in sync without losing our marbles?

We have to remember that every season has an energy, a purpose, and a place in our cycles. I once lived in the foothills of the Mahoosuc Mountains in Western Maine (romantic, right?), where seasons dictate life, and people are deeply connected to the land. My friends found humor in my ravenous Texan hunger for butter-rich foods just weeks before the first freeze. Those first winter months brought upon a stillness in every aspect of our community, not dissimilar to the silence of the woods after a snow storm.

We want to feel better. For most, this is a natural tendency, but sometimes, the desire to feel better takes us so far from feeling poorly that we end up exiling the entire experience. Say it with me- what we resist, persists.

This month, listen to nature and slow tf down. (Are you listening, Sonia?)

Let the blues guide you into all the things that comfort and nurture you. For me, that’s a slowly poured cup of tea, an hour researching dreamy backyard ponds, and writing this e-mail in my pj’s from bed.