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The winter blues are frightfully common. It’s estimated that about 10 to 20 percent of the population experiences some milder form of Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD). SAD is a type of depressive disorder that occurs, or worsens, on a seasonal basis, most often during the dark days of winter. A smaller but still significant population may become debilitated by it. Since the turn of the seasons is unstoppable, finding ways to cope with depression in the winter is vital for good mental health.

Check out these four ways to help ease depressive symptoms during the cold season.

Embrace The Season’s Sporty Offerings
Exercise is a great way to make yourself feel better. It releases natural endorphins into your bloodstream which helps elevate your mood. Exercise also draws your attention away from worries by focusing your mind on the physical activity. Take up cross-country skiing, snowboarding, or ice-fishing. Or simply spend more time sledding, ice skating on a local pond, or hiking through snowy woods with friends.

Get Some Sun
Wouldn’t it be nice to spend a few weeks in Florida? Not everyone can afford to take the time off, but if you have some vacation days and a little extra cash, consider scheduling sunny vacations during the deepest part of the winter, when you know you’ll need the pick-me-up.

A more affordable alternative to a sun-filled vacation is investing in a light therapy lamp. Basking in this artificial sunlight for a few minutes each day is thought to positively affect your brain’s mood chemicals and make you feel, and sleep, better.

Don’t Forget The Vitamin D
Our body makes vitamin D only when exposed to the sun. The lack of sun means a lack of vitamin D, which has been correlated scientifically with many different kinds of depression. You can take vitamin D in pill, liquid gel, or gummy form to make sure you’ve reached a healthy dose of about 5000 IU per day. You may also want to shift your diet to include more vitamin-D-rich fish like sardines, salmon, and swordfish.

Try Something New
The doldrums of winter are a great time to get busy with a new and exciting project, take a class at the local community college, or learn how to knit, paint, or play the piano. Jolting our brain into learning a new skill rewires it, gives it focus, and fights the sometimes overwhelming mood changes and emotions that are associated with depression.

Coping with the winter blues takes some time, planning and energy. But if you find yourself overwhelmed during the winter, know that you’re not alone. Never hesitate to reach out to a mental health professional, who can help you get the treatment you need and deserve.

You know how important exercise is to your overall physical health, but did you also know that exercise is just as vital to your mental health? Exercise helps you sleep better, relieves stress, and boosts your memory and mood. Physical activity has also been shown to positively affect those suffering from anxiety as well as many depressive disorders. That’s one of many reasons why it’s so important not to let cold weather, or any other factor, interrupt your healthy exercise regime.

But how can you keep active outdoors when the mercury dips low?

Embrace Winter Sports
Maybe you can’t bike twenty miles while there’s ice on the paths, but you still can get some exercise. Skiing and snowboarding are two exciting ways to enjoy the great outdoors, but they can be pricey options and difficult to maintain on a regular basis. Alternatively, you could take up cross-country skiing, or it’s inexpensive and increasingly popular cousin, snow shoeing. Also check your local ice skating rink to see if they offer pick-up hockey games for beginners.

Embrace Winter Fun
You don’t have to travel far from home to enjoy the winter outdoors. Sledding, snowball fights, building a snowman, snow-tubing, or building a snow fort with your kids are great ways to get outside and fit in a little exercise. Less fun is shoveling snow, but it is still a rigorous work out. Check out your town’s website to see if the municipality allows ice skating on local ponds.

Embrace Walking
With a good pair of snow boots, you can walk anywhere, and the extra padding you’ll need to stay warm will soon have you sweating. A regular, brisk walk in a nearby park or around your neighborhood will keep your exercise regime on track.

Embrace The Japanese Practice Of Shinrin-Yoku
Known to English-speakers as “forest bathing,” Shinrin-yoku involves walking mindfully in the woods. Some research has shown that the practice offers restorative and rejuvenating benefits, including a reduction of stress and a boost in the immune system.

No matter what outdoor exercise you choose, be sure to dress in layers, drink plenty of fluids, and know the symptoms of hypothermia so you won’t risk staying out too long in the cold. Also consider alternating your outdoor winter exercise with indoor options such as spinning, Zumba, yoga, or swimming in an indoor pool, especially during periods of extreme freezes like polar vortexes.

It’s all too easy to get distracted in the workplace. With phone calls, meetings, emergency emails, instant messages, social media, and gatherings by the water cooler, it’s a wonder anything ever gets done in the office. But distractions like these take you away from the work you’re hired to do. If not controlled, distractions can lower your productivity and leave you in a chronic state of catch-up.

To make your working life more stress-free, check out these five tips on how to stay focused at work.

Prioritize A To-Do List
Making a list of what needs to be done during the workday (or during the week) puts your time in order. Prioritizing that list helps you sort your options so that you fulfill your obligations promptly. Posting the list in a prominent place at your work space, where it cannot be ignored, will help get you back on track when distractions (inevitably) pull you away from your projects.

Turn Off Distractions
If your computer is set up to alert you to tweets, Facebook notifications, Slack, Skype, etc., you’ll find it hard to focus on the task at hand. Fortunately there are a lot of tools available to block online distractions while you work. Check out KeepMeOut, StayFocusd, Cold Turkey, and Freedom.

Also consider putting your phone on mute and setting your instant messaging options to “unavailable” when you’ve got to get something done.

Work In Spurts
Few people can work effectively hour after hour without end. An occasional break, say, every 90 minutes or so, increases your ability to focus. Spend your break away from your work space. Take a vigorous walk, have a meal or snack, chat with a coworker, or listen to music. You’ll return refreshed for another sprint and better fortified to resist distractions.

Stay Fed And Hydrated
There are a lot of really good reasons to be distracted, but being hungry or thirsty are two of the best. Avoid these excuses to leave your office by having a bottle of water within reach at all times. Also keep healthy snacks available so you don’t have to raid the vending machine when hunger strikes in the middle of a paragraph.

Use Headphones
If you’re easily distracted by the chattering going on in the next cubicle, the ringing of someone else’s phone, or the rattle of wheels on the mail cart, consider cancelling out the noise with a good pair of headphones.

If soft, ambient music helps you concentrate, indulge yourself. Consider plugging into coffitivity.com, which surrounds you with the gentle hum of a morning cafe or the rumbling bustle of a university campus bistro.

There’s no doubt about it, winter is the season of coughs, sniffles, fevers, and the flu. Research has shown that our immune systems simply don’t work as well in colder temperatures. Furthermore, challenging weather drives us inside, where recirculating air systems make catching a family member’s virus almost unavoidable.

So how can you increase the odds that you’ll stay healthy during a bracing winter?

Wash Your Hands
Germs are everywhere, especially on hard surfaces like doorknobs, railings, train poles, and bus straps. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water to avoid exposure to bacteria and viruses, and always scrub your hands before eating.

Keep To Your Fitness Routine
Frigid weather and fewer hours of daylight conspire to make even the best-made fitness plans go awry. But regular exercise promotes good circulation, which allows white blood cells and other substances of the immune system get where they need to go. A quick trip to the gym won’t only make you feel good, it can help keep you healthy.

Get A Flu Shot
The flu causes workers in the U.S. to lose about seventeen million work days per year. A bad case can lay you up for ten days or more. A flu shot isn’t a guarantee that you won’t get sick, but your odds of staying healthy are better. Consider scheduling a shot in October or November, before the flu season begins.

Calm The Carb Cravings
Snacking on carbs causes a boost in serotonin levels, which helps you feel happier. During the long winter nights, you may be tempted to reach for less-than-healthy snacks to lift yourself out of the winter blues. But the extra pounds won’t improve your overall health. Instead, seek out protein to keep your stomach full longer.

While you’re thinking about your diet, consider taking in plenty of vitamin C, vitamin E, and zinc, all necessary for the immune system to function well.

Hang Out With Friends
Though you may be tempted to curl up by a fire with a book, making the effort to stay connected with friends is important for your health. A recent Carnegie Mellon study showed that college students with a large social network have more flu antibodies in their system than those who kept to smaller groups. Hanging out with people has a positive effect on your immune system.

Get A Massage
Chronic stress can produce many physical changes in your body, including reducing the amount of white blood cells, the very lymphocytes you need to fight infection. The anxiety-reducing effects of a really good massage can significantly reduce levels of stress and thus boost your immune system.

It may sound simple, but the best way to stay healthy is to eat well and in moderation, exercise regularly, and get plenty of sleep, all year round.

New York City is the city that never sleeps, even if it’s ten degrees below zero! Though you may not want to go window shopping down Fifth Avenue with a scarf covering half your face, there’s still plenty of happy things to do in the Big Apple in the winter.

Check out these places to cheer up during the cold in New York City.

The Bryant Park Winter Village
This NYC Winter Village pops up on the grounds of Bryant Park, right behind the New York Public Library, in late October and stays until just after the New Year. Along with a 17,000 square foot ice skating rink (FREE if you bring your own skates, rentals are available at a reasonable price), the village consists of closed-in kiosks full of eateries, shops, and plenty of good cheer.

Go To A Museum
New York City has so many museums that it would take months to see them all. If you’ve already checked off the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim, MOMA, and the Museum of Natural History, consider spending an afternoon at one of the more eclectic museums, such as The Museum of the Moving Image, The New York Historical Society Museum & Library, the Houdini Museum of New York, or the Museum of the American Gangster.

The Big Apple Circus
Appearing in Lincoln Center from the end of November 2018 through March of 2019, the Big Apple Circus provides wholesome family entertainment in a warm, cozy environment. Check out their world-renowned trampoline performers, trapeze artists, acrobats, jugglers and clowns.

Chelsea Piers
The Chelsea Piers is a sports and entertainment complex located on the Hudson River with a fitness gym, sports clubs for kids, bowling, ice skating, basketball, and other classes, clinics and programs. Fortunately, it also offers drop-in activities for those just passing by. These include batting cages, rock climbing, parcour, bowling, and a day pass for the gym. It’s a great place to get some exercise without freezing your toes off.

Eat Off The Beaten Path
New York City is chock full of funky restaurants. Check out these cold-weather options:

• Meow Parlor, where you can pet a purring resident cat while enjoying a sweet treat.
• The Refinery Rooftop at the Refinery Hotel which remains open to the sky throughout the coldest winter, thanks to crackling fireplaces and the rum-spiked Chef’s Cider.
• The Cobra Club, where you can indulge in spirits…and spiritual yoga.
• Alice’s Tea Cup where you can enjoy the richest scones ever along with a bottomless pot of hot tea.

Don’t let the winter blues get you down! There’s plenty to enjoy in New York City.

The mercury is falling, the days are getting shorter, and in some parts of the country, snow is already falling. It’s not uncommon to feel a lag in energy and spirits during this frigid time of the year, especially when you have to wake up while it’s still dark outside, and you return home from work in the gloaming.

If you’re feeling a dip in mood during the change of the season, check out these seven ways to deal with the Cold Weather Blues.

Exercise
Nothing boosts your energy levels better than a hard workout. But if the prospect of jogging in sub-zero weather has you down, maybe it’s time to revamp your routine. Consider joining a local gym or signing up for a new class. Hot yoga might help you forget how very cold it is outside for a little while, while a music-blasting Zumba class is bound to raise your spirits.

Eat Right
Though it may be tempting to reach for the easy carbs when it’s cold outside, consider nuts or fruit instead. Sugary snacks and those high in carbohydrates will give you an instant bump in energy, but the crash that follows will only exacerbate your blues.

Socialize
Snow and ice are very easy excuses to avoid social events, but hanging out with friends can boost your mood. Don’t say no–at least not all the time.

Start A Fun Project
Engage your mind in a new activity that will give you joy. Take up a challenging knitting project, start that scrapbook you’ve always wanted to make, get that extra bedroom painted, or take a woodworking class.

Go Outside
If you dress right, you won’t mind the cold. A brisk walk around the neighborhood or through a park stimulates your circulatory system and opens your mind.

Get Some Sunlight
Your body craves light. Make sure you set aside some time to sit next to a window where the sun pours in, take a walk outside, or take advantage of a sun lamp or light therapy box. Everyone needs vitamin D, and many people feel a mood boost after a good dose of sun exposure.

Fly South
If your winter blues tend to get deeper as the months go by, it’s a good idea to plan an escape. Scheduling a trip to a warmer place can boost your mood just from the anticipation.

About 14% of the US population suffers from bouts of the winter blues, and six percent experience the more marked depression called Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD). If you think you may be experiencing SAD, don’t hesitate to contact a mental health care professional who can help you manage your symptoms so you feel more like yourself.

You already know that daily exercise goes a long way to combat stubborn physical issues like obesity, heart disease, and osteoporosis. What is less known is the effect of regular exercise on mental health. Vigorous activity kicks up the production of endorphins and certain pentapeptides involved in regulating and improving mood. Outdoor activity brings the added benefits of clean air and a natural dose of vitamin D.

But how can you stay fit when winter is coming?

Cold Weather Sports
When the mercury drops below thirty degrees, you may not be able to go for a jog on icy sidewalks. Consider winter friendly workout alternatives.

• Bundle up for a winter hike.
• Spend an hour at the local skating rink, or on an outdoor frozen pond.
• Go cross-country skiing at a local park.
• Go sledding with your kids; the hike up the hill can be a heck of a workout.
• Ski at a local resort.

If you’re healthy enough, consider keeping the snow blower in the garage and opt to shovel the driveway instead.

Indoor Activity
Winter is a great time to take advantage of a gym membership. But don’t get into a rut of sticking with the treadmills or bikes. Try some new classes to keep your exercise regime interesting. The upbeat rhythms of a Zumba class are sure to lift your spirits. Hot yoga may get your mind off the cold for a solid hour. Weight lifting can get your body ready for the warmer weather. The key is to mix things up so that you don’t get bored.

If a gym membership is too much of a commitment, consider joining a walking club at the local mall, learning Taekwondo at a nearby dojo, or spending an hour at a local indoor climbing facility.

Stay On Track
If most of your exercise regime is spent outdoors, it’s very easy to get bumped off track when the cold descends. Avoid the I’ll-do-it-when-the-weather-is-better temptation with these three tips.

• Write It Down. Keep to a consistent schedule. Blocking off time on your busy calendar is a great way to make sure your workout gets done.
• Keep To A Goal. Everyone exercises for a different reason. Some people do it to feel good. Others to keep in tip-top shape. Still others find exercise a great stress reliever. Whatever your fitness goal, don’t let bad weather thwart your good intentions.
• Pair Up. When you exercise with a friend, you’ve got an extra incentive not to let them down. Consider pairing up with a buddy to keep your exercise goals on track during the long, cold winter.

The best way to integrate exercise into your day is to make it a joyous part of your life. Don’t let winter get in the way!

Every online ad, radio announcement, and TV commercial insists that the holidays are a wonderful time of year, full of friends and family, good feeling and great gatherings, fine food, and merry spirits. But for many people, and for many reasons, the holidays are a time of stress and anxiety.

So how can you best deal with holiday anxiety?

Pinpoint The Pressures
For those with generalized anxiety, the high expectations of the season can naturally heighten levels of anxiety. The prospect of party after party can be daunting for someone for whom socialization is a strain. The additional worries of the season, such as finding the right gift, getting the shopping done on time, cooking for a large group, and budgetary issues can pile onto the usual worries and make you feel overwhelmed.

Even for those who aren’t usually afflicted with anxiety, the prospect of the busy days to come can bring some of the same troubling symptoms. These include excessive worry, irritability, insomnia, bellyaches, nausea, restlessness, fatigue, and fear, among others, which can leach the joy from the season.

If you can pinpoint the pressures that cause particular worry, you may be able to make a few adjustments to ease the stress. For example:

• Plan Ahead. If you feel time pressure when shopping, consider doing your holiday shopping throughout the year instead, to spread out both the expense and the stress.
• Be Crafty. If you cook, knit, sew, or cast pots in clay, consider saving your budget by baking or making handcrafted gifts for friends and family.
• Share The Load. Delegate some holiday tasks to your spouse or children, such as buying mums or decorating your home. Turn Thanksgiving into a pot luck so you only have to make the turkey.
• Pace Yourself. You don’t have to say ‘yes’ to every invitation, it’s a busy time for everyone.
• Shop Online. If venturing into a crowded mall is just too much, do your shopping in your pajamas and let the packages be delivered to your doorstep.
• Go Electronic. More and more people have opted to send personalized holiday eCards to friends and family. This will save you time, postage, and the cost of cards.

Pamper Yourself
It’s impossible to avoid stress and anxiety entirely, but you can anticipate and minimize it. Check out these tips:

• Stick with your usual daily routine as much as possible.
• Avoid excess in food and drink.
• Avoid excess spending.
• Maintain your exercise and sleep regiments.
• Accept that things will occasionally go wrong.
• Accept that this will be a stressful time but it won’t last forever.
• Spend time with someone who makes you laugh.
• Spend a little time in the sun, or under a sun lamp, especially if you suffer from SAD.
• Take time to de-stress yourself, through meditation, a massage, or just some time relaxing with a cup of tea.

Stress and anxiety are inevitable in life, but you can manage your response to it. With a little planning and self-care, your holidays might just turn out to be as joyous as can be.

Manhattan never sleeps, so it’s said. You could spend every waking moment taking advantage of everything the Big Apple has to offer: Broadway shows, world-class opera, thirty-two museums, Yankee games, Madison Square Garden concerts…and the list goes on. But what if the bright lights of the big city start to wear thin, and all you want to do is chill?

Check out these seven places to relax in New York City.

Central Park
Two and a half miles long and a half a mile wide, Central Park is Manhattan’s premier green space. Every weekend you’ll find skateboarders, bikers, and walkers sharing the many paths, kids navigating remote-control sailboats on the reservoir, picnickers basking on the 55-acre Great Lawn, and a world-class busker or two. Head to the North Woods to dodge tourists and enjoy some real peace and quiet.

The New York Botanical Garden
Located in the Bronx, the New York Botanical Garden offers 250 acres of gardens you can peruse on foot or discover by tram. Find your Zen in the garden’s native forest, river, and waterfall.

Sailor’s Snug Harbor Cultural Center
Just a charming ferry ride away, the Sailor’s Snug Harbor Cultural Center is a National Historic Landmark District that covers 83 acres of northern Staten Island full of 19th century buildings, a botanical garden, and park.

The New York Public Library
The stunning Fifth Avenue midtown library is flanked with the iconic lion statues, Patience and Fortitude, and the awe-inspiring interior is blissfully hushed. The library holds rotating exhibits and the North Hall is an official quiet zone.

Greenwood Cemetery
Brooklyn’s 478-acre graveyard may seem to be an odd place to find peace, but this bucolic National Historic Landmark has hills, ponds, and paths amid the graves of some of the most famous people of the 19th century, including Boss Tweed, Henry Steinway, Louis Tiffany, Leonard Bernstein, Lola Montez, and plenty of Civil War generals. It’s a lovely, quiet place for history buffs and bird watchers.

The Frick
Located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Frick is one of those cozy, intimate museums created from the collection of the rich turn-of-the-century industrialist, Henry Clay Frick, and exhibited in his former residence. Kids under ten years of age are prohibited. Sit in the sky-lit garden court for a moment of meditation.

The Cloisters
Overlooking the Hudson River in the Fort Tyron Park section of Manhattan, this offshoot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art houses mostly western medieval art in cloisters that form the heart of the building. The whole museum, off the beaten path, is a hidden, and peaceful, gem.

Most big cities boast about the raucous vitality of their thriving communities as well as the multiplicity of services, venues, and events. But for many people, big cities can be intimidating, a sensory overload of noise, smell, color, light, and unending activity. Some studies suggest that, because of the stress involved in city dwelling, urban residents may have a 20% higher susceptibility to anxiety and mood disorders than those who live in rural areas.

So what can you do to deal with anxiety in big cities?

Crowd Control
By definition, big cities are densely populated. Tens of thousands walk the streets, eat in restaurants, and pack the buses and trains. Even those who are not usually uncomfortable in crowds may feel some anxiety navigating the swift stream of pedestrians in midtown Manhattan at lunch time.

Many psychiatrists believe that anxiety in crowds stems from a deeper sense of helplessness. Bumped on all sides, you feel restricted in movement and sense that your options to retreat are limited. It’s this perception of lack of control that induces the anxiety, and often makes ordinary events, such as walking a crowded city sidewalk, seem dangerous in a breathless, heart-stopping way.

If you’re living or working in the city, you may be able to map a better route from one point to another to avoid the more populated streets, or plan a series of retreats into local retailers, a municipal building, or other public space to give you time to breathe. City living is done at high speed, so whether you’re a visitor or a resident, be sure to take advantage of green spaces to grab an opportunity to decompress.

Know Your Surroundings
Big cities are, well, big. It can take years to really get to know all the neighborhoods and their culinary and cultural delights. The sheer size of the buildings, the distances necessary to travel, and the overwhelming amount of entertainment choices can be intimidating, especially if your living space consists of an 800 square foot studio apartment.

One way to reduce a sense of being overwhelmed is to expand your idea of home into the immediate neighborhood in which you live. Make a point to visit the local shops, trade banter with the shop owners, and try out nearby restaurants. Familiarity breeds comfort, which may help lessen anxiety over time.

Tinker With Transportation
Boarding a morning train in any major city can make anyone feel like a sardine in a can. It can be panic-attack disastrous for those who suffer from claustrophobia. Yet driving in a big city is no better, as frequent traffic lights, aggressive cabbies, heedless pedestrians, and determined cyclists make even the coolest drivers grip the steering wheel tight. In fact, the morning commute is one of the most stressful times of most people’s day. For big city dwellers, this can mean constant anxiety.

Consider your options. Can you shift your work schedule to avoid the worst of the rush hour crush? Are the local buses less crowded than the trains? Do you live close enough to walk or bike? Is it worth hailing a cab or a ride-share once or twice a week? Can you divide up the driving responsibilities by carpooling with others? If commuting anxiety is affecting your quality of life, it may even be worth considering a move closer to your work place.

It’s a fact that city living can affect the way your brain deals with stress. If you find yourself having difficulty coping, or experiencing rising levels of anxiety, never hesitate to discuss your situation with a mental health professional.