TL:DR – Tips on how to cope with feeling gloomy when the weather is dull.
A friend over on Mastodon was telling us how it’s been dull and gloomy in her hometown for 15 days on the trot. That’s miserable, it’s not easy jumping out of bed with any kind of enthusiasm when the day ahead looks dull and grey. She wanted some advice on how to break through the gloom.
I don’t like it when it’s dark either, only thing I could suggest is to set an alarm and have some specific small task to do each morning. Switch on the lights, throw the curtains wide, jump to your feet, make a start on the task, get it done and dusted quickly and then get on with the rest of the day!
Tasks could be something mundane like cleaning, reordering a bookshelf, swapping pictures and photos from room to room doing the NYT mini, Wordle, Heardle or some other puzzle as fast as you can, tuning the radio to a station you don’t normally listen to and dancing to the first song that comes on, maybe even , descaling the kettle, bundling up the laundry and getting it in the machine, doing a couple of sets of crunches and press-ups, a quick sun-salutation (one can always hope). Just a few ideas, anything to give you the initial kickstart that gets you going and moving more sprigtly through the day.
I confess that the only time I feel enthusiastic about getting out of bed especially on a dull day, is if I a big writing project to start, I have a song on the go that needs new parts added or a mix redone, or there’s a bird species in the neighbourhood that I haven’t seen before, and I want to photograph…but that can be enough. I need to take my own advice, now that I’ve typed it up!