SAD? Always look on the bright side of life

Idon’t think it is too early to declare a success. This is the year I have defeated SAD. Seasonal Affective Disorder is that miserable mood many of us experience during the short dark days of winter.

We get up in the dark and get home from work in the dark and I long for it to pass.

I love the daylight. I love our location on this planet that gives us long summer evenings where the sun goes down slowly and is only absent for a few hours before creeping back into view again.

I much prefer it to being in places nearer the equator where the day changes to night so fast that it feels like someone flicked a switch.

With January in the rear view mirror we are through the worst of it. The minutes of daylight added each day are becoming noticeable. There is some light well after five in the afternoon.

By the end of February we will have two more hours of daylight and then an additional two in March before getting that extra hour on Sunday the 26th which gives us the beginning of really long evenings and messes up early risers who have been getting used to morning coffee outdoors.

My defeat of SAD without a trip to the sun was as much by accident as design. I am an early riser. But I am not all that disciplined about going to bed. I resolved to make sure I went to bed about an hour earlier. Lo and behold I found myself going though the month of January without being woken by the alarm once. Instead I emerged into wakefulness fully rested and relaxed and flicked on the radio for the news at six feeling very virtuous and completely unrushed. There is no doubt that lazy time early in the morning is very good for a feeling of well being.

My second resolution, which I kept to without much effort, was not to have a drink on a night before a work day. I fell by the wayside once due to particularly good company. If you call two glasses of wine falling by the wayside. I won’t be beating myself up about that one. Whoever came up with this five/two approach to dieting, or anything in life, is on to something. There is no all or nothing feel to it so it is relatively easy to maintain the target behaviour.

And the third thing that I did as far as possible was to go for a walk in the daylight, usually around lunch time.

This usually means in Kilkenny that you bump into someone you would not otherwise meet for a chat. I am not sure which is most beneficial — the daylight, the exercise, or the conversation.

I have no idea if this totally unscientific analysis of my behaviour, mood, and defeat of SAD would work for anyone else.

But as the daffodils are about to appear I am ready to take on the world, have a laugh, and continue to enjoy life.