Welcoming winter

Letting the season in

We’re back!!! It’s Wintry Mix season, baby!

As the days turn chillier and the nights start lengthening, you might find yourself bemoaning the changes in light and temperature. I may have even engaged in some wistfulness at the departure of a wonderful summer spent paddleboarding on the canals of Amsterdam and tearing up the dance floor at wedding after wedding. No judgment here. But I have also been relishing the change in seasons - the relief after the heat broke, the autumn leaves, getting to wear my favorite coats again. And I’m here to help you also learn to relish the coming winter. From now on, every other week you’ll see Wintry Mix in your inbox, where I’ll be sharing strategies for cultivating a more positive wintertime mindset, embracing winter, and feeling more coziness and joy during the darkest days of the year. In each newsletter, I’ll issue a challenge for you to experiment with at home: actionable suggestions that my experience and research have shown make winter more wonderful. Together, we’ll explore how small practices and shifts in mindset can make a big difference in how we experience the season.

I’ve been waiting 9 months to use this picture

A bit about me

(If you know me well - or if this isn’t your first year of Wintry Mix - you can skip this part)

Old friends, I’ve missed you over the past months; new friends, welcome. Either way, I’m thrilled you’re here. Here’s how this newsletter came to be:

In 2014, I moved to the Arctic. I spent the year living in Tromsø, Norway - a city so far north that for two months each winter, the sun doesn’t rise. I spent that year studying wintertime mindsets, and found that people in Norway see, and experience, winter differently: by embracing all the season has to offer, they view winter as full of opportunity. 

After leaving Norway, I moved to California and completed my PhD in Psychology at Stanford University, where I worked in the Stanford Mind & Body Lab researching how our mindsets influence our health and wellbeing (there, I also fell in love with ceramics, sourdough, and redwood trees).

In writing about my research and experience (in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post) I realized just how many people struggle with winter. To share what I’d learned about how to change your wintertime mindset and embrace the season, I’ve spent the past two years writing a book. How To Winter: Harnessing Your Mindset to Embrace All Seasons of Life will be published next year fall 2024 by Penguin Random House in the US, by Pan Macmillan in the UK, and (so far) will be translated into Dutch, Romanian, and Spanish as well.

I currently live in Amsterdam with my husband, Rob, and our dog, Zeus, where I’ve learned how to bike in the rain and that the Dutch are obsessed with their own version of coziness, gezellig.

Letting the clock change change us

I’m still trying to enjoy the fall foliage and autumn produce, but we’re on the cusp of winter. In my mind, one of the heralds of the season is the shift in sunset that comes with the end of Daylight Saving Time. In Europe, that shift will happen this weekend, as the clocks change on Sunday, October 29th. In the U.S. that time change happens next weekend, on November 5th. (If you’re in a country that doesn’t observe Daylight Saving Time but are still in the Northern Hemisphere, the days are still gradually shortening and you can still play around with this week’s challenge. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, bookmark this to read in six months.)

The end of Daylight Saving Time can be challenging for many - a strong environmental trigger for those who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, and a source of complaints, moodiness, and lethargy for those who have a milder version of the winter blues. The extra hour of sleep can’t seem to make up for the tiredness many feel when the sun abruptly sets an hour earlier.

Bad wintertime mindset, great joke

This is our first chance to practice a different approach to winter: one where, instead of resisting seasonal changes, we embrace them. How does our experience change when we actively anticipate the clock change, rather than letting it sneak up on us and bring nothing but more evening darkness? What would it feel like to welcome the onset of winter nights as we would welcome a friend we haven’t seen in months?

If you were about to host an out-of-town friend who you hadn’t seen in a while, you’d actively prepare for them. You’d have their arrival on your calendar and would think about their visit in advance. You’d arrange your space: make a place for them to sleep, get a towel for them, maybe plan some activities. It might not be totally convenient, but it would be welcome.

Your challenge for the next to weeks is to embrace the coming winter as you would an old friend. Marking the end of Daylight Saving Time can set the tone for the rest of the season, and making some small adjustments over the coming weeks will get you into the headspace to better enjoy the coming months.

Welcoming winter

Step 1: Anticipate the time change

• Put the end of Daylight Saving Time on your calendar. Knowing that it’s coming and actively anticipating it will help the change feel less sudden.

Step 2: Take an active approach to welcoming the darkness

• Engage in one concrete activity to prepare for the earlier darkness: put up your cozy string lights (that’s what I’ll be doing this weekend); set out candles on your kitchen or coffee table; move your sweaters and cozy pajamas to the front of the closet; refresh your tea selection.

Step 3: Plan a specific activity to celebrate the end of Daylight Saving Time

• On the Sunday of the clock change, mark the daylight shift with a ritual. Go for an early sunset walk followed by a bath; have dinner by candlelight; make a fire in the fireplace; drink your first hot chocolate of the season.

I want to hear what you do and how it goes. Share what activities you chose - and how they felt - in the comments below. You can also always reach me directly at kari@karileibowitz.com.

Stay cozy,

Kari

Notes from the slush pile:

• Today is the last day that Svalbard - an Arctic island halfway between northern Norway and the North Pole - will see the sun for months. More about Svalbard’s darkness, and stunning pictures, in this New York Times Travel article.

• More extreme preparation for winter: Ashley Bredemus, who I interviewed for my book, lives in a one-room cabin in Minnesota with no running water, heated solely by wood-burning stove. Here she is prepping wood to last her all winter long.

• I think apple crumble is the perfect food for the cusp of winter: still autumnal, but warming and cozy. I made one this week, it was so easy, and I’ve been eating it for breakfast topped with Greek yogurt. Any recipe will do, but I used this one.

Know someone who needs these tips? Send them Wintry Mix! Forwarding is free.