Embracing the Stillness of Winter: Mental Health During Chicago’s Darkest Months
When the Sparkle Settles
Midnight strikes on December 31st, and the page turns to a new year. Slowly but surely, holiday lights are taken down, leftovers are eaten, gifts are put in their new places, and we are left with the startling prospect of a new year on the horizon. For many, these winter months of January, February, and March are some of the most difficult of the year. We are forced to reckon with the darkness of the season, the cold, and the overall sense that life is harder. And in reality, life is harder. In terms of surviving, winter is and has always been harder for every living organism. Mammals spend their time hunkering down for the season, hoarding their food, growing their coats, and spending more time hidden away in their burrows to rest. Birds either migrate away to warmer weather or stay put, working hard to gather more food and insulate their nests. Some animals nearly stop altogether, lowering their heart rate and metabolic rate to conserve energy and wait for spring.
The Biology of Winter
In fact, humans may be the only species alive who are expected to continue living and producing during winter at the same rate as throughout the rest of the year. New Year’s Day comes with the paradoxical expectation of committing ourselves to a variety of resolutions in pursuit of a better life. We commit ourselves to creating a better body to live within, a better job or career to prosper within, better relationships, and a better everything. Social structures demand the same from us; we return to school with a new semester to conquer, return to work with the metrics of last year’s productivity looming overhead. Yes, the new year sparkles with the hope of a better life, but it also carries a definitive sort of pressure: do better, be better, and be different.
Improvement in the Coldest Months
The pursuit of improvement is virtuous and inherently human. So by all means, don’t stop making the resolution, don’t stop holding yourself accountable, and never stop pursuing a healthier and happier version of you. But don’t allow the pressure of both internal and external expectations to result in shame and guilt towards the current version of you.
Respecting the Rhythm of Rest
The truth is, winter demands for us to slow down. We are not so different from the bears hibernating in their den, the birds huddling together for warmth, or the fish moving to deeper water, slowing their hearts to survive the frigid waters. Society believes we have advanced beyond our natural form and will demand that you keep up with that, but there is something necessary and deeply meaningful in the stillness of winter. Yes, the world demands that we still participate in its structures and rules, and much of that is unavoidable. And at the same time, we can take a moment to look outside at the sparkling snow, the ice dripping from the branches of the trees, maybe even the slush on the streets, and remember how this season requires our respect, our time, and our own stillness. Slow down, and savor what the cold can tell us about life, about ourselves, and about our world.
Growth Begins Underground
Winter exists so new growth can arrive in spring. Soon we will see the buds arrive, peeking through the ground and beginning to open under the sun. Maybe we too have to exist, slowly, in this season, so that new growth can occur within us.