How to combat the daylight-saving time blues!

It’s that time of year.  It’s dark by 4:30. Many people feel depressed.  This is a thing, called SAD or seasonal affective disorder.  Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that's related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year.

If you're like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. These symptoms often resolve during the spring and summer months. Less often, SAD causes depression in the spring or early summer and resolves during the fall or winter months.  There are lots of all natural things you can do to help combat these feelings.

Signs and symptoms of SAD may include:

• Feeling listless, sad or down most of the day, nearly every day
• Losing interest in activities you once enjoyed
• Having low energy and feeling sluggish
• Having problems with sleeping too much
• Experiencing carbohydrate cravings, overeating and weight gain
• Having difficulty concentrating
• Feeling hopeless, worthless or guilty

Here are some easy things to make you feel better.  Aromatherapy has long been proven to help with these mood swings.  Try diffusing some lemon or peppermint or lavender into the air.  You can do this with a diffuser or simply putting a few drops of essential oil in a steaming bowl of hot water.  Deeply inhale the scents to help relax the central nervous system. Exercise is also great for those blue feelings.  Take advantage of a sunny day and go for a brisk walk.  I sponsor a walking group on Meetup.com. We walk at Rocky Point on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings at 9am.  It’s called “Walk and Talk at Rocky Point”.  We call ourselves the “Rocky Point Pacers”. We meet in the big lot and over the years have had lots of laughs and developed many friendships!  So, don’t let the winter blues get you down, this too shall pass!