Monday, February 4, 2013

Fighting the Blahs

It has been a serious struggle to pull myself out of a horrible mood the past 10 or so days.  Thankfully the storm cloud overhead is starting to clear, but sometimes it's all I can do to get myself out of the house on those days. 

But never fear!  This post is not doom and gloom.  Looking back over the last several days, I'm able to pinpoint some triggers that I've found usually lead to storm clouds taking over my precious little head.  
  1. Overdoing it on the beverages.  Two weekends ago James and I had a date night that resulted in this lady consuming an unhealthy amount of adult beverages.  It took me two full (miserable) days to recover.  On the up side, the not drinking at home thing has worked out really well. 
  2. Consequences of overdoing it on date night.  Because of said recovery, I didn't wake up early the next day to go to church, run, walk Hannah, or read my devotional.  I hate missing church, especially when it's because I'm being, for lack of a better word, stupid, because I really love our church and our worship leader, quite literally, rocks!
  3. Giving up.  Since I was recovering, I was behind on water, and because I was behind on water, I kept not waking up to run.  Since I wasn't waking up to run, I didn't wake up early to read.  Since I wasn't waking up early to read, I wasn't walking Hannah.  So I quit.  
At times like this I find I am living Romans 7:5-20:
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So frustrating!  This last week I tried to pull myself out of the blues, fighting hard to get myself outside and look at the bright side of things (however all I could think of that made me happy were red velvet cupcakes and chocolate donuts with red wine).  Since I knew I had to make a serious effort to get back on track, I decided to take some action that would force me into happiness, if not gratefulness.
  1. Thank you cards and notes to friends.  Izzy and I sat down while Paloma napped and wrote some friends notes.  Isabella had some cards to finish and I had been putting off several "thinking of you" notes to friends and thank yous to people who really impacted my life without even being aware of it.  I felt so much better.  I especially enjoyed placing my pretty stamps on the upper right-hand corner.
  2. Nature.  Thankfully we were blessed with some random Spring-like days and the girls and I took a trip to the Library of Congress and played around outside afterward.  It was glorious!
  3. I took my Adderall and cleaned the apartment.  Okay so I did that because we had company over, but I was still very happy to clean, do laundry, finally organize the DVDs. 
So with more perseverance, this week will be better than last, and definitely better than the one before that.  That, is something to look forward to! It never fails.  Winter blues almost always hit me in February.  The shortest month of the year is my longest month of the year.  I am so ready to get back into my morning ritual.

What do you do to fight the winter blues?