Are you tired of Winter? Here’s some ways to think of Winter in a more positive way.
You see, ways to think of Winter in a more positive way is something that I have tried really hard to do over the past years. It’s important to do. Before I found positive ways to approach Winter, I was miserable.
You see, Winter can be hard. I mean there is plenty to hate about winter. There’s the cold. There’s the rain, snow, ice, whatever precipitation falls where you are at. And then there’s the loneliness aspect. Those are the main reasons that people dislike the winter months.
But what if we looked at Winter in a different way.
Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth for the touch of a friendly hand. And for a talk beside the fire. It is the time for home.
Edith Sitwell
And when I saw that quote, I thought: Yes, that is what winter should be about.
And there are five simple ways that Winter can be a wonderful time and that’s what I’m gonna focus on today – How we can make winter shorter by actually enjoying it.
Listen to the Podcast:
I Used to Despise Winter
I’m going to be sharing with you my love for winter. Yes, it’s true that I did not use to like winter, but in the past year or so I have come to like it a lot more and appreciate it a lot more, too.
Yes, it’s true that I work out in the Winter weather. I’m a farmer and so I raised livestock. In fact, just the other day we had an ice storm and the day later it was very cold and the teens and my whole family and I were out breaking ice off of our electric fence that holds our cows and on corn stocks and you know what?
My little girls loved it so much, they just hit that ice right off that electric fence and it was magic for them. It was really fun and it was good exercise. So it’s little things like that, that amidst the cold snow and loneliness that we can learn to appreciate winter and not only to appreciate the long winter and make it, we can learn to appreciate the long winter and make it even feel less long.
I know spring is right around the corner. If you love winter, trust me, it’ll be here before you know it. So today I’m going to share my appreciation with you in five ways amidst the cold, the snow and the loneliness you might be feeling. I’m going to share with you ways that you can appreciate winner.
Winter Temperatures vary Everywhere
Even if you live in a warmer climate, chances are you’re going to have some sort of precipitation, rain, humidity or ice. For example, I traveled to Louisiana during Winter and I was so surprised when temperatures were cold. It was like 40’s and 50’s and I was not expecting that kind of weather. I was expecting it to be warmer.
So I do know that the South get winter temperatures. I understand that. Here in Kansas, we have temperatures all over the place. Last week it was in the fifties and sixties and then we had an ice storm over the weekend dropping the temperatures into the 30 twenties teens, thirties you know, low temperatures, freezing and it was frozen here for a few days. And my husband jokes that we made Elsa (from Frozen) mad.
Temperatures winter is might be my look a little differently for you. You know, it might be just a matter of loneliness when when people leave and go on holiday during the winter or you might be snowed in for long periods of time or you might have to work out in it or drive in it. And that’s not very much fun either. I will admit that.
1. Winter is Kind
This first one can be hard to grasp. Because, if you take winter day by day, you may start to think that winter is not kind. It is a barrel of flame being thrown at you in the form of cold and ice and loneliness.
But if you do start to be more by yourself and if you are faced with hard, tough moments and times, you might just start to actually think more inward. And what I mean by that is you may actually start to think for yourself.
You know, we are faced with so many distractions, so many people telling us what to do and how to do it. And we have Google and we have the internet and that tells us everything that we wish to know in a matter of less than a millisecond.
But what if we lost access to those things? What if we had an ice storm and which we did the other day and we lost electricity, we lost the internet, we lost everything. What are we going to do?
Have you ever just sat in the quiet and have you ever just sat looking outside, looking out the window in the dark and just thought, thought inward, about things that you need to do or maybe just don’t think about anything. Just sit there and see what comes into your mind. You’re going to start thinking, but it’s gone.
It’s not gonna be forced. It’s not going to be something that you knew you’d be thinking about. Something that just pops into your mind and those kinds of thoughts can be life changing for you.
So winter CAN be kind. And that aspect, because it brings you more to yourself, makes you think about the most important things of what you were put on this earth to do. You know, sometimes a thought will pop into your mind as like, “Hey, this actually makes a lot of sense.”
You know, that’s, that’s more or less how I’ve gotten a lot of my good ideas when, when I’m doing my chores outside in the cold and I’m just thinking to myself, “Man, this is tough.” But then I just get into it. I see what needs done and the animals are thankful for me and I’m grateful to be out there and taking, being able to take care of them.
So it makes me more grateful for what I have and what I’m able to do, but also, but also winter is kind because it helps us find who we truly are. It makes, helps us think to become more humble and to appreciate things a lot more.
I hope that makes sense to you on why winter is kind and I, I hope that you can kind of see where I’m coming from on that to become more humble and grateful and to look at the end at how winter has changed you as a person.
2. Winter is Quiet
Winter should be rest time. A lot of us put way too many activities into our winter instead of just staying home.
A few podcast episodes back, I talked about how we were going to stay home for Christmas. It was going to be the first ever that we’ve stayed home for Christmas and not gone anywhere. You can listen to that episode here.
And you know, that was the nicest Christmas break ever. We stayed home for two solid weeks, didn’t go anywhere. We played games, we, we did our chores and we just relaxed and had some really nice quality time together.
Even if you don’t have anybody with you, if you’re alone by herself, winter is a really nice time to enjoy that quiet and to see how kind winter is to you when, when you take that time to really embrace that quiet and that and that rest and everybody needs rest.
You know, we go, go, go all the rest of the year with our work, with activities that we’re doing with travel. We need some downtime to rest, to be away from the outside world. We need to have that chance to really stop and think for ourselves and challenge our mind to read.
It’s a time to just realize what our path is and to really embrace it and go forward with it. Doing that can also help us figure out what we’re going to be doing the rest of the year and help us to live more intentionally.
3. Winter is Beautiful
The other day we had an ice storm. I just couldn’t stop looking at the beautiful, beautiful shapes and the glistening icicles off of the trees and off of our gates and off of our fences.
It is beautiful. Yes it can be annoying and it could be a hassle for people. But have you ever taken the time to really appreciate it?
You know going back to that movie Frozen, watching Elsa create her beautiful ice castle and everything. Winter is the perfect time to be creative and you can see that and the way that snowflakes are shaped and icicles and just ice designs that you can see all around you.
I saw some beautiful, beautiful pictures on social media after this ice storm and I mean I just couldn’t get over how much I’ve never noticed before how beautiful winter really is. It really is gorgeous. I’m finally glad that I’m seeing that seeing winter for what it is a beautiful quiet time to sit down and appreciate everything that we have around us.
You know, again, gratitude and thankfulness isn’t just for one time a year. It’s for all year – Being thankful for what we have and what we’re given. It’s a great time to be thankful for in winter too, so keep that in mind. Winter is beauty. It’s a beautiful time, not only outside but also in ourselves too on how we can be more beautiful people on the inside.
4. Winter is for Hard Freezes
As a farmer and gardener, I appreciate hard freezes. You see, those little insects that come into our gardens and eat all of our plants freeze this time of year.
So what we do typically in our gardens is on a nice warmer day, we were able to actually get into our gardens and till the soil. When we work the soil, all the little insects that over wintered into the ground come to the surface. And then, they freeze.
The freeze should have done a lot of damage to the bugs if not killed them. I’m hoping a dead hard freezes will help for later seasons. This also applies to goat parasites or any, any livestock parasite that lives in the ground. A hard freeze is a good way to manage them as well.
If you have seasons that don’t really freeze, then you’re not gonna see a big change or difference in how those parasites are being managed. So for you in warmer Winters that don’t really have a lot of hard freezes, there are some really good reasons for hard freezes – It takes care of the bad bugs.
Especially if we get a lot of rainy weather as well because parasites just love those 50 degree weather after rain – that is their prime growing period. But if we have those freezes and we’re bound to see less problems going down the line. Yes, we will have problems.
I’m not going to say we don’t have any problems with parasites here in the North – We do. But following the hard freezes, it’s a very significant difference. In Kansas, we just don’t know what the weather is going to be like. You can’t predict it. It’s always different. We never know when we’re going to get freezes or when it’s going to be 50 degrees. So, I am very thankful when we have hard freezes for that reason because it does seem when we have a more mild winter, we have more trouble with parasites.
I believe that that is very significant.
5. Winter is Renewal
Think of Winter as a brand new season. A brand new you with all that quiet time, time to think, time to rest, time to look at all the beauty around you. You are going to be all ready when it comes time to break out into your new you.
One of the biggest reasons that we don’t or can’t succeed is because we’re tired. We’re overworked, we feel underappreciated. And that’s why in Winter, you can use it as a time to renew yourself.
Take the days where you’re shut in somewhere thanks to snow or ice as a renewal day. Take a day that you can use for you, for yourself.
If for some reason you don’t get those snow days or you don’t get time in, I want to make a challenge to you to schedule it in.
What are some ways or places can you go by yourself to where you can get that renewal time for you doing whatever you need to do? It’s also better known as “self care.”
You know, maybe you need a weekend away in a hotel. It doesn’t have to be far away. It doesn’t have to be expensive. You could go and stay with family for a few days if you know they’re going to be at work or whatever. Just make sure that you have, make sure that it’s going to be a place where you are not going to be disturbed while you’re living out your renewal time.
I can definitely tell you from experience that taking care of yourself, taking that time for renewal is going to really matter throughout the year. You’re going to feel less burnout and more renewed and energized.
So friend, those are the five ways to think of winter in a positive way. Think of it as kind, quiet, restfulness, beautiful, renewed and be thankful for those hard freezes.
Wrap Up and Resources
As promised, I have a couple of things for you:
Also I’m going to be sharing with you my reading list because winter is a great time to read and to catch up on books that you’ve been wanting to read. So I’m going to share that with you:
Go Here to the Reading List Page
I hope these 5 ways to think of winter in a positive way has changed your mind about this long cold dreary season. If you loved this post and want more, please visit the following podcast platforms and subscribe:
– Apple Podcasts
– Spotify
– Podbean
– PlayerFM
– Deezer
And while you’re over there, feel free to leave us a five star review. I truly hope you’re enjoying your winter and I hope that this will give you even more reasons to love it.
