Those of you familiar with my writing will already have an awareness that I get pretty cheesed off when people are labelled with having a disorder when actually they are perfectly natural human beings.  It is the labels that increase the anguish.

SAD (Seasonal Affective – dare I say it – Disorder) is not getting off the hook!  And as the long nights are creeping in and the weather outside is chilling – I have been beckoned to reassure some of you where it may be easier to convince you that you have some sort of disorder, that in-fact the opposite is true.  You are awake! Your instincts are in tune and your inherited behaviour is what it should be.  The ‘disorder‘ is just as appropriate a label for those members of society who do not recognise what is natural for some.

If you have identified with the symptoms of SAD, then let me congratulate you! You are a human being whose natural spirit has not been completely wiped out by man-made rules and regulations of when you should get up, get out, be active, and pretend that winter isn’t happening.

Putting on weight? of course you are!  Embrace it!  Your body is naturally storing carbs – it does not know that the supermarket is open all year round, your beautiful body is protecting you!  In the spring you will naturally want to get out and about and be more active and those few pounds will soon disappear again.  Love your body all year round, it is doing exactly what is should.  Deprive it and you risk losing the very essence of who you are!  A good idea now is to make seasonal veg stew, feed your body what it needs, then it will not make you crave the carbs that are laced with flour and sugar that will block your oxytocin and make you feel like s***.  Listen to your body and reap the benefits of a happy life right away!  No stress.

Now of course I realise that in this day and age the reality is that we all need to work all year round (at least until society catches up to working more in the summer days and less in the winter – but that’s a bigger task than I can tackle!) – but what you can do is identify what you must do and release yourself from what you do not have to do.  Take every opportunity that you can to enable your body to curl up in the warm and enjoy wholesome winter food, long baths and movies!  You will feel wonderful for it.  Your stress will drastically reduce, and you can face your days at work knowing that in between you can return to natural hibernation mode.

Natural light therapy is a wonderful thing, in the sense that it attempts to trick your beautiful natural being into thinking that it’s not really hibernation season, but surely tricking our bodies will leave them with more turmoil and confusion, creating even more inner stress.  Work with what is natural, not against it.  Let your body feel the seasons and do your best to nurture and work with them.

You do not have a disorder my friend.  You have evolved beautifully, and your natural instincts are still intact.  Congratulations!

Just a quick blog post as I’m tired – in otherwords naturally in hibernation mode – and loving it!!

NB* We have all evolved differently and so some will not understand hibernation (i.e. bird v hedgehog) – but that’s a different blog for a different day! (spring possibly) 😉