S.A.D seasonal affective disorder

Are you singing the blues during autumn/winter?

S.A.D How to find the light

As we approach the longest night of the year, we often hear of people struggling with Seasonal Affective Disorder S.A.D. Classed as an extended depressive episode, these winter blues have a variety of symptoms including:

Low Mood

Loss of Interest in day to day things

Irritability

Despair, guilt

Tiredness

Lethargy

Personally, I’m not a fan of the moods felt during this phase of the wheel being labelled as depression, the abbreviation itself isn’t constructive: SAD.

We are not sad, depressed during this time in a clinical sense of trauma, struggling with life. Anthropologically we are supposed to be hibernating, resting, biologically our internal clocks want us to slow down, to stay indoors until spring arrives when we emerge once again from our pods!

It is so demoralising putting the suggestion of depression into our mouths. If we look at the ‘depression’ it’s more being like a balloon, the light, bright air that usually keeps us buoyant through extra sunshine, warmer days, reduces gradually throughout autumn/winter. A natural process, we should be following the feedback of our bodies to go within, to consume carbs for energy. How-ever being the ‘top of the food chain’ bright sparks that we are, we refuse to comply with nature and insist on celebrations, resolutions, maintaining our summer activities and rationality. Through the commercialised religious celebrations of Christmas to spend too much money, drink and eat too much of the foods we are craving, the whole feeling pretty ‘shitty’ needs accountability.

It is also important to note Our circadian rhythm is running on a different sync. Circadian rhythm is the way in which our body functions process day and night over 24 hours. Our cells act like an internal body clock to let our autonomic systems know when we require hormones to activate rhythms to flow each day. These are triggered by light to let our internal workings kick start the day. When we don’t get this, we can feel something akin to when you are sleep deprived even if you get a full night’s sleep.

As always there is the superior system to over-see the whole processes, made up of cells that use the exposure to light and dark to create a regulated body. Coincidently this is located in the brain’s hypothalamus just above the optic nerve. We battle our natural order, it’s so wrong! Our bodies, no matter how many of us are on the planet, we are created with the same built in functionalities.

Of course, although created equal, our individual traits are not. We can find differences if we are night owls or day walkers in our genetic makeup, it’s all about understanding who we are from the inside out so we don’t fall folly to calling our true humanness something negative such as depression. Teenagers are especially prone to the issues caused by the seasonal changes as they are naturally on an autumn/winter cycle needing later waking times, finding night times more productive. Our younger people should have night school!

Let’s Flip the script, let’s not call it depression which is saying you HAVE something, to instead address how we can gain something we are in fact lacking.

You’ve probably heard, we are complicated plants; just need water, sunshine and the right environment to survive. And that’s true. Our melatonin is higher, serotonin lower, but these can be brought inline so we work with our circadian clocks and also embrace the societal demands without burn out.

To help over-come the reduction in hormones due to the lack of daylight we can incorporate:

·      Light therapy

·      Serotonin boosting foods

·      Yoga

·      Meditation

·      Consciously schedule naps, sleep, activities that promote a healthy sleep wake cycle that include our eating times. If you eat before going to bed you will find your sleep disrupted as your digestive system awakens. This system is normally activated when we awaken, so the body receives the wrong signal therefore throwing out the internal clock.

If you find your physiological processes are thrown on a wobbly because your day to day rhythms are out Ayurveda is the way forward.

Our immune, digestive systems work when we are awaking and reboot while they slow down when we are asleep. If our sleep-wake cycles are upside down, then we are at risk of catching the common dis-eases around during the time. Our ease can be found within our

Eat to your seasonal need through Ayurveda. We pack on brown fat to keep us warm during winter, doshic eating can help stabilise blood sugars to work with this so when we eat to the season we can minimise weight gain (Enter celebrations that smash this mind!)

On the flip side, there are those of us who struggle with Summer! Yes, you read that right. I am one of the odd balls who refer autumn and winter. I shine on grey rainy days, the sound of the rain is invigorating and calming at the same time. I love the fall of snow but I don’t like the ‘hanging around’ period afterwards waiting for the slush to bugger off. Ice is a huge no-no too. But the lighting, the darkness for me brings me to life. Sunshine can make me miserable. Now I must add a brief edit here of what I have discovered about myself and this connection to the reverse of anthropological nature. Trauma has had a massive effect on my relationship to the weather. Not to make me prefer the rain but to absolutely detest the summer. That’s for another post but I an adaptive soul, I make it work. As I move to heal past trauma so does my relationship with the sun.  And you my loves can excel in the longer nights, there just needs to be made through conscious efforts to boost what becomes reduced during the darker days and nights

Overall, we can work to our strengths during the changes in the year, and adapt our human weakness that affect our ability to function within the demands of our busy lives.

Wouldn’t it be nice to close everything down, go home, rest, gently socialise, embrace the day and sleep through the night?

To morph into bears would be amazing, however our ancestral functions have been hijacked to comply with the modern-day lifestyle. Let’s be sure to support each other. We never know what someone else is working with each day.

Being someone else’s light will only make yours brighter.

If you struggle with any of the above or experience other symptoms not mentioned, pop across to our Yoga; The Naked Truth podcast group and join the conversations to share and find a supportive Kula, community.

Love. Yoga. Balance 

Indie

xox.