A Winter Wellness Recipe: Thrive Instead of Survive This Winter

A couple of winters ago, my mom gifted me with a spot in a beautiful online retreat called Hibernate. Each day, we received an email with ideas to help us make the best of the short, dark days and cold weather. In one activity, the leader encouraged us to create our own winter wellness recipes. Ever since completing that exercise, I have done the same thing for myself at the beginning of each winter season.  

The idea is to think intentionally about how I want to spend these months. I’m a summer girl through and through, but I don’t want to view winter as a season to merely muddle through, waiting anxiously for warmer days. The truth is, our Seacoast winters are often long and cold–I don’t want to dismiss them as lost time. And as mothers, we spend the majority of our time and energy caring for others, which can leave us feeling burnt out and overwhelmed. It’s crucial we carve out time to focus on our own well-being. So, winter wellness recipe to the rescue! Here’s the process I use to create mine each year:

Create Your Own Winter Wellness Recipe:

1.  Think about what nourishes you, fills your cup, and feeds your emotional and physical well-being.
2. Think about the challenges of winter and brainstorm ways to ease them.
3. Come up with five to 10 ingredients to put in your recipe for optimal winter wellness.
4. Create a visual to help you remember your ingredients throughout the winter–I usually make a word map that I hang somewhere in my home. And for some items, I even may set a timer on my phone to remind me of things I want to do at certain times.

If you’re still having trouble picturing what you might add to your recipe, I’ll share mine below. But keep in mind that there’s no right or wrong recipe. Yours will need to fit your personality, preferences, lifestyle, and family. Here’s mine:

Taylor’s Winter Wellness Recipe:

1. Water: I need to drink at least eight cups of water a day during the winter. I forget more easily to do this when it’s cold out because I just don’t feel as thirsty. But winter dries me out and I need to hydrate from the inside out.
2. Fresh air: Even if it’s frigid outside, I need to at least step out of my house and breath in some fresh air every single day. And it’s even better if I can feel some sunshine on my face.
3. Vegetables: I often crave comfort food during the winter, but find that I can easily forget to add enough veggies to my diet. So I try to focus on soups and stews to keep my vegetable intake up.
4. Snuggle: Seriously, if I make sure make time to snuggle my kids each day (and not just the baby who is a constant cuddle bug), I feel better. Physical affection with people I love releases oxytocin and it’s a surefire mood booster.
5. Create: I am happier when I’m making, and winter leaves more time for creative pursuits because I’m in my home so much more. This winter I’m working on my knitting skills. I also received a small weaving loom for Christmas to learn something brand new.  
6. Connect: My family spends a lot of time at home during the winter. We home school and work from home, so we’re here a lot. I hope to take advantage of the extra down time to reach out to family more on the phone. And I plan to invite friends over to be together more often. I have experienced winters where I neglected to do this and ended up feeling isolated.
7. Move: I am going to try to move my body each day. Whether I walk the dog, do some yoga stretches, or wrestle with the kids, I’m better off with some physical activity.

The mere act of taking time to create this recipe has really improved my well-being over the past few winters. There’s something powerful about thinking intentionally about how we spend our time.  

If you take some time to create your own winter wellness recipe, I’d love to hear what you included!