Seasonal Changes Affect Women’s Mental Health
The annual shift from the warm, lazy days of summer to the cooling, darkening days of fall can and often does affect women’s feelings, stirring melancholy to rise up to the surface.
Many of us feel echoes of loss and the hints of winter’s upcoming celebrations and darkness. The changes in sunlight, temperature, and return to time indoors can stimulate and disrupt us.
For those of us who have a harder time keeping an even keel, we may suffer during changes of season. Fall can feel like a wind sweeping through, stirring us up and scattering us around.
Is it hard to trust the natural shifts and changes in our own inner and outer worlds? Do we turn depressed or anxious, destabilized, or fall into painful states of being? If so, we may need extra attention and TLC to adjust.
How can we accept these natural, predictable yearly shifts? How can we prepare for the upcoming transition into fall and winter?
Here are some ideas from Villa Kali Ma, as to how we might embrace the wisdom of nature’s seasonal shifts and go more gracefully into the next chapter.
Do women struggle with mental health more in the summer or fall season?
Seasonal Affective Disorder is triggered by the change of season, most commonly kicking in around the fall. Although some women struggle with summer, too, more of us tend to struggle at the end of summer, as darker seasons appear on the horizon.
This struggle shifting from summer to fall has natural and social components. In part, we are affected by changes in sunlight, the amount of outdoor time (nature and being outdoors are healing and regulating, and good for mental health), and dropping temperatures.
At the same time, many women are affected by the long-reinforced pattern of fall being a back-to-school time of year, as well as anticipation of the winter holidays, which bring family topics to the fore.
Signs of Seasonal Affective Disorder include losing energy, feelings of sadness, and a dropping away of feelings of connection, purpose, and inspiration.
We also might find ourselves turning to self-soothing behaviors like overeating or spending aimless time on the internet or phone, as our old coping behaviors appear in response to the increase of sadness and pain internally.
What are some ways women can maintain their mental health in the fall?
Take Care of the Body
When it comes to maintaining a better state of being during the shift of seasons, there are many body-oriented hacks that help.
Focus on nutrition, taking advantage of the sun when it is there, good workouts, sufficient sleep, and weekly time in nature. In general, when we keep our bodies happy and supplied with mood-regulating hormones through these natural practices, our state of mind will be much more resilient.
Stay in Connection
Connection with others is key to reducing isolation. Think of ways you could get more emotional contact with safe support during this time. People in recovery can double up on meetings, or attend a recovery-themed retreat. If you’re in therapy, you might consider scheduling some extra sessions, following the principle that prevention is the best medicine. Dedicated time having fun with positive friends and loved ones may do the trick, too.
Embrace the Season
Deliberately enjoying the best sides of a season can help, too. If we consciously choose to enjoy the golden light of Indian Summer, the arrival of squash and pumpkins at the farmers market, or the smell of drying walnut leaves, whatever it is that we personally love, we can align ourselves with the beauties of the season.
Journal to Prepare for Fall
Here is a suggestion for a journal writing prompt about the seasonal shift:
What do I love most about this time of year?
How might I get the most out of what this time of year offers?
What is hardest for me about this time of year?
How might I protect and care for myself during the difficult sides of this season?
What does fall mean to me personally? What does it mean to nature? What does it mean to my fellow humans?
Make a Fall Self Care Plan
If you think about it, each season is only 3 months long. Can we make and commit to a 90-day plan? If that feels too long, go month-by-month, starting with September. Think about what you can put on the calendar that will help you feel loved, supported, and treated like you matter.
Here is a way you could put that plan together.
Step One: Brainstorm
Free write and get out everything you think and feel about how you could have a good experience of this season, fall 2024.
I believe I can have a positive experience this fall by…
My vulnerabilities and areas of need this fall are…
Step Two: Remember Your Tools
Now that you’ve thought about the season from the bigger picture point of view, generate a list of all of your tools.
Be creative. Self-care can mean a lot of things. In our opinion here at Villa Kali Ma, a good self-care plan will address these very important pieces at the very least:
-Body – exercise, nutrition, sleep
-Emotions – feeling our feelings, connecting with others, releasing
–Inner Child – connecting with ourselves, having creative fun and giving ourselves our attention, scheduling things that will give us joy
-Support – getting help, contact, and connection with others
What are 10 tools I have that support my body to be happy?
-I can sleep in on the weekends
-I can make myself green juice
-I can go to yoga 3 X a week…
What are 10 tools I have that support my emotional health?
What are 10 tools I have to give love to my inner child?
What are 10 tools I have to help myself get support from others that help me?
Step Three: Put Self-Care on the Calendar
Whatever you came up with in your brainstorm and your list of tools, take a few pieces out and put them on the calendar. Choose low-hanging fruits, things that feel easy, fun, doable, and energizing. Where there are foreseeable difficulties, see if you can couch them between acts of self-care. Make a plan that feels good to you personally.
Villa Kali Ma offers mental health programs
Villa Kali Ma is a unique healing facility dedicated to helping women experience true mental health and happiness, at the deepest levels of being. We offer programs to treat traumatization, heal emotional wounds, and repair thoughts about ourselves and the world we inhabit.
Our experienced staff are prepared to address any variation of women’s suffering, and we have many tools, practitioners, and modalities at the ready. We treat addiction, trauma, and mental health troubles with a compassionate and effective blend of Western and Eastern modalities.
Villa Kali Ma supports women’s mental health
Since it was founded, Villa Kali Ma has served women’s mental health loyally, bringing innovative, alternative, and evidence-based breakthroughs to women in need of healing. We unite the best of the West with the ancient healing wisdom from the East.
