Facing the Winter Blues: Supporting Your Mood Through the Colder Months

As the days shorten and temperatures drop, many people across the UK notice a change in how they feel. The darker months can bring tiredness, lack of motivation, or a general sense of low mood. While winter can offer moments of calm and reflection, it can also feel heavy, leaving some of us struggling to maintain energy and positivity.

How Winter Can Affect Our Wellbeing

The shift in light and weather during winter can have a real impact on both mind and body. Shorter days mean less exposure to natural light, which can influence sleep, energy, and mood. At the same time, cold weather often discourages outdoor activity and socialising, which can add to feelings of isolation or disconnection.

Physical health can also take a dip, as colds and flu are more common and motivation to exercise can drop. When the body slows down, it’s natural for our mood to follow. Many people find themselves craving comfort foods, sleeping more, or feeling less enthusiastic about daily life.

These experiences are common and understandable. Recognising that they are part of the body’s response to seasonal change is the first step toward managing them with kindness and care.

Practical Ways to Lift Your Mood in Winter

Although winter can be challenging, there are simple and effective ways to support your emotional wellbeing.

1. Make the Most of Natural Light

Try to spend time outdoors during daylight hours, even on cloudy days. A short walk in the morning or a few minutes near a window can help boost energy and support a more balanced mood.

2. Keep Moving

Regular movement releases endorphins, which help lift mood and reduce tension. This doesn’t need to be intense exercise — walking, stretching, or gentle yoga can all make a difference.

3. Practice Mindfulness or Reflection

Taking time to pause and check in with yourself can help you stay grounded. Mindfulness, breathing exercises, or journaling for a few minutes each day can reduce stress and bring a sense of calm.

4. Nourish Your Body

Winter often brings cravings for heavier foods, and it’s fine to enjoy them. But balancing these with meals rich in whole grains, fruit, vegetables, and protein can help stabilise mood and energy levels.

5. Stay Connected

It’s easy to withdraw during colder months, but social contact plays an important role in wellbeing. Reaching out to friends or family, joining a group, or even a short conversation with a neighbour can help you feel more connected and supported.

6. Keep a Gentle Routine

Having some structure to your days can bring a sense of steadiness. Regular sleep patterns, consistent mealtimes, and planned activities — even small ones — can create a rhythm that supports emotional balance.

How Therapy Can Help

Therapy offers a space to explore how you’re feeling and to understand what the winter months might bring up for you personally. It provides an opportunity to pause, reflect, and reconnect with yourself in a supportive environment.

As an integrative counsellor, I draw on Gestalt, Transactional Analysis, and Existential approaches to help clients explore their thoughts, emotions, and patterns of relating. This way of working encourages awareness, authenticity, and choice, helping you find new ways of responding to life’s challenges.

Through therapy, you can develop a deeper understanding of what contributes to low mood, identify practical coping strategies, and build resilience. The therapeutic relationship itself can offer warmth and connection, especially when life feels cold or uncertain.