Pushing Past the Winter Zone

Last week was tough; my whole family was in the winter zone. The winter zone is the tired, sloggy, no energy place we all go when the cold and dark take over. It is almost like hibernation, except that humans cannot hibernate or at least most humans cannot. In our home we were all retreating to staring at the TV or or in my youngest daughters case "studying" in her room for hours alone with her phone.

A couple of days ago I had had enough. I decided to avoid the TV and try to draw my family back together. I know it is early, but I think my plan might be working. I started by building a fire in our fireplace. For me a fire is calming. I like watching the flames and feeling the warmth and the best part is that my daughter likes it too. Just the idea of a fire in the fireplace brought her downstairs and out of her room.

Next I suggested we play a game on the Wii. We have had the Wii game for several years and probably for the last year or so we have basically ignored it. My thought was that even though I am terrible at the games it would get us back to communicating and help us move out of the winter zone. Next thing I knew my daughter was bringing her homework down by the fire and requesting that we have dinner there.

The icing on the cake was when my daughter came home yesterday and said "Can we have another fire?" and so we did. More homework was done by the fire and all of us sat together again, spending time as a family instead of going in different directions. The secondary advantage has been that everyone seems a little happier, less sloggy and less tired.

Perhaps this crazy plan to draw us back together is working? It cost us nothing and we gained time together, a warm place to visit and a better attitude. It is so easy to become stuck in a routine. Your watching everything playing out as it always does, you know it is not working for you, yet it is familiar, so you just stick with it. All I really wanted was to feel like I had control over this pushed down feeling of winter and in the process of changing things up we have gained some communication and some laughs too.

I guarantee you that we will have another fire tonight. It is exams week and studying is happening every night. With the fire going it gives all of us a chance to be together and still read, study or talk. We are not heading off into separate parts of the house alone. We are fighting back and not letting this winter take us down.

Taking on the winter zone has helped bring us all back to life. We seem more rested in the morning and we are accomplishing more in the evenings. We are not allowing the cold and dark nights to get the better of us anymore! I challenge you to step out of your winter zone too. Join us in fighting back Old Man Winter. Since we cannot hibernate, we might as well make the best of it.