This past weekend I was in Brooklyn, NY for the WELL Summit and I really enjoyed it. One of the things I’ve been trying to do is being able to incorporate layers of mental health and wellness together the way I would like to see it. This was my first Wellness summit and I loved everything about it. From the vendors, the variety of foods that were served (since I’m partly vegan, sometimes I don’t want just salad, there are other creative ways to be plant-based), the talks on self-care, burnout, and just focusing on your passion. A nice little boost when I feel I got side tracked a bit.

So, in preparing for moving forward with things in my life, being single again, and the weather changing, I thought I would check-in about mood changes.

Seasons Changing 

I always talk about planning and one of the things I’ve noticed lately is how at times things can sneak up on us to the point where we can feel a bit overwhelmed in moments because we think are unexpected. I guess what I mean is as the days get shorter, we’re getting less sun, our mood changes a bit and we can at least have a plan now on how to deal. As you know, we stay indoors more, and this is a time to be mindful of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). This is still under the umbrella of depression and usually occurs in the late fall towards winter months. The symptoms of depression apply, from low energy levels, sleep issues, lack of motivation, mood changes, etc. To be able to manage this and anything going on in your life as the days start to change, it’s about recognizing the patterns of how you feel.

What I wanted to go into is how we prepare for these moments, when our moods change because of external factors out of our control. What is that plan and how do we stick to it?

Things To Do When Your Mood Changes 

• Keep track of when your moods start to change or just anything about you starts to be a bit different, collect data to see find possible triggers and keep this as something you use as each month comes on, so you identify the pattern.
• Get your Action Plan together in how you will continue to push through in some way regardless of how little the task is, so you still feel like an active participant in being able to pull through this change.
• Build up an arsenal of things that bring you some happiness, keep them in a central location, have a mental note of this and use this when you feel things within you start shifting a bit. You want to get a handle on things before it’s too late and you’re in the midst of chaos or stress. There’s a few self-care boxes out there that can be of help as well
• Read Heart Talk
• Schedule some cuddle times with your significant other, pet or just have a moment for you where you take time to just be in the moment doing something that helps you relax.
• Keep some organization going in your life. Look at aspects of your life that seem to get disorganized around this time and plan a way to keep yourself in line in some way.
• Make sure your sleep routine is under control.
• Eat healthy, your diet can play a bit factor in how you feel so make sure your having a healthy and balanced diet.
• Get rid of things that no longer bring you joy, remove things around your place that no longer serve you anymore and create a minimalistic space of things that you like to look at.
• Have a look at your routines, what’s going to continue to work now and what needs to change to?

Prepare yourself and be in control of you regardless of how things change around you. Just because certain things can cause mood changes, doesn’t mean you have to let it be that. You can start to take an active approach as the sunny moments start to dwindle away.