9 tips to liven up your winter

Article by Anna Letitia Cook

As the winter months can seem long and sometimes dull, particularly just after the hustle and bustle of Christmas, I thought I would give you some fun tips to enliven the next few weeks! Please add your ideas below, don’t be shy, share with us, the more the merrier

1. Don’t be afraid to follow the seasons – Hibernate, change your food, your exercise, your daily habits. Read and learn more about Ayurveda, one of the world’s oldest holistic whole-body healing systems. They celebrate and follow the seasons instead of fighting against them – and to wonderful effect! (Contact me if you want more info about it or names of good books to read)
2. Imitate an eskimo regularly – on these wonderful cold frost sub-zero days – take full advantage while they last – bundle up and go out for long walks in nature. Appreciate the trees, the fields, the wildlife. Nothing is as good for the morale as a long bracing ‘commune’ with nature. Not only is it good for your morale, good for you physically but seeing the sun glinting on the ice, frozen spiders’ webs on grass and in hedges, the lovely fresh smells – it is true peaceful beauty!
3. Do something totally spontaneous and new at least once a week – be wild, think differently, push your curiosity and boundaries… Think you are too old to Zumba? Think again! Always had a hidden desire to write, start with an article. Closet painter? Start sketching for your grandchildren… There are endless possibilities and guess what? It’s fun!!
4. Treat yourself to a totally decadent Spa day! If there aren’t any near you or their cost rivals the national debt don’t despair create your own spa in your own home. Just turn up the heating, light the candles, put on some very low volume soothing music in the background, dim the lights and start with the gentle stretching exercises, a quick meditation and then face pack, massage oils, hair treatment, manicure… Even better, invite a couple of your best friends round and you can practice massage on each other, even create your own products. The web – and you tube – are fantastic for finding out how to do things! Maybe this could even become a regular girl’s night spa session… What a treat!
5. More interested in the humane touch? Do something good for someone else whether two legged or four. Find an association and offer to help in some way. We all have skills we take for granted and don’t think are special but to others who don’t have them, they really are. An example – It could be as simple as helping out in a shelter, visiting an old lonely person for a chat, or even better to get them to share their wisdom and experience for other, younger people (benefits them by contact and feeling they aren’t just old and useless, also benefits younger people who learn from the experience and you can be proud of making it happen as a facilitator). For our four legged friends, keep an eye out for strays or abandoned animals and help them. Feed the birds. Go to an animal rescue and play with the animals there, or take them out for a walk. During the winter, they are even more cold, miserable and lonely than during the better weather…
6. Make a list of all the things that you can only do during the winter, whether it is skiing, going out in snow and frost, curling up in front of the fire with a good book, cooking/eating special comforting ‘winter’ food… and start doing them and really appreciate the moment and the fact that you have the opportunity for doing them before summer comes around again.
7. Phone a friend! What better time than to catch up with long lost friends than during the long winter days. Think of all the reminiscing you can do and laughing over old escapades but shhhhhhhh don’t let the kids know what a wild rebel you used to be! Lol I hope my kids don’t read this article and start fishing for info – I am now a born-again saint
8. Find a perfume you love that is a real winter scent and wear lots of it. Bring back the summer association with zesty orange, tangy lemon, relaxing lavender or embrace the richness of warm spicy ginger and cardamom. Your mood and feel-good factor is directly linked to your sense of smell. Boost your mood by surrounding yourself with enticing aromas…
9. Physically – Lighten up your life literally, get out in natural light as much as possible and don’t forget to get enough sleep and magnesium! Often a lack of Vitamin D (sun and natural light) and magnesium can make you feel tired and down… You could even use magnesium oil on your skin – remember the spa treatment I was talking about?

So, which are you going to do first?  I can’t decide between phoning a friend or girls night spa treatment! Nothing like larking around with the girls

Bio:

Anna Letitia Cook is passionate about mentoring women in finding clarity and fulfilment in their life choices. She created and became CEO of her first company in the entertainment industry at age 32. Midlife approaching, hungry for a dynamic change, she refocused her experience, founding WomenUP Ltd to help women shape their own future. www.womenup.global

– UN Women’s 2016-2017 Global Champion for Change @ Empower Women

– Creator of the ‘Unstoppable Goddess 4-dimensional Life Design’ and the ‘SCOPE’ process for career fulfilment.

– Author of ‘Unstoppable Goddess: Every Women’s Guide to Freedom, Fulfilment and Success’. Launch date 3^rd Feb 2017