Winter bliss: experience light and joy this winter.

Is this the best winter of your life? Or are you experiencing the blues or the blaas? For most of us, winter is an emotionally and physically stressful season. Colder temperatures, shorter days, and more illnesses are realities. But you can create greater health, peace of mind, and pleasure for yourself.

Winter dark-time brings greater possibility for introspection and quiet peace. All of nature is resting and gathering energy for the burst of spring to come. You have a similar cycle that wants to gather energy for your personal creative spring. Meditate, go deep inside and to find your creative center, then do something you've dreamed about, write, paint, learn Italian, take up knitting, or create some art or craft that excites you. Dark days also give you time to catch up on the good books you've been stashing away.

Darkness can produce what is known as SAD, or seasonal affect disorder, caused by not enough light coming into our eyes. People are affected differently by light, but most of us feel better when days are sunny and long. If you feel depressed as the days get shorter, you need more light. (1) Be sure you go outside in midday when the sun is highest in the sky, and sit near a window when you work. (2) You will benefit by using additional bright lights at work and at home. Try halogen lamps or full-spectrum light bulbs for sun-like brightness, and balance incandescent bulbs with florescent at work. The combination of the two gives you a more balanced light spectrum, which is healthier. Put extra bright light on your desk. If truly depressed, you can buy SAD-lights made for alleviating seasonal depression.

To create inner light to truly sustain yourself daily, breathe deeply, imaging a small sun radiating from your chest, your heart chakra. Imagine the sun's light expanding to bathe every cell in your body and then shine past your skin so that you become a sun.

Winter is traditionally a time that focuses on family, God, and renewal. These times can be uplifting, joyous, and expanded. For many, holidays can be downright depressing. Painful memories of Christmases (or Hanukahs) past color our feelings. And we keep hoping it will be better. But if those people haven't changed, who wants to spend time with dysfunctional family doing the same old thing that "makes" us miserable? We may develop situational depression caused by these specific distasteful events. (3) Be in reality when you go to your family gatherings. Don't secretly expect the family you wanted as a child but didn't have. Change yourself instead.

Change is under our control, and it's about us only. You can change--they may or may not. Every day you can and must choose to be happy and expansive. Don't let others pull you down. Every moment is a time to choose love over fear (or hate, pain, etc). John Pierrakos, MD, who created a holistic therapy called Core Energetics, said, "The tragedy is not what happened in your childhood, the tragedy is that you do not live life fully now."

At every moment you can choose to breathe fully or control your breath; to move and dance through life or contract in fear. Try dancing every day to keep movement alive in your body. Sing and breathe, and cry when you're sad or touched. Don't hold back the flow of your life force! (4) You will be more alive and healthier every day of the year.

You can change and you can nurture yourself. Find people you love to be with. Invite a new friend to dinner. Throughout the winter, nurture yourself by taking time Out to go for a walk, read an inspiring story or book, listen to the music you love, and call a good friend who understands and cares about you. Laugh more and watch only funny movies. They are healing. (5)

Then there's the anxiety of holiday shopping with its accompanying worries: who gets what and we don't have the money anyway. Anxiety gets amplified with the increased debt factor. Make your gifts or donate to a charity in honor of your friend or family member. Don't go into debt. Absolutely refuse the temptation.

Winter brings parties and family gatherings where we eat and drink too much of the wrong things. Then we get depressed, gain weight and feel like slugs. Big suggestion: Don't eat so much! Eat a big salad or a fruit and protein smoothie before you leave for the party. You can then just snack on the good stuff because your body will already be nurtured with what it really needs.

Colder weather often brings with it colds and flu. And if you have school age kids ... Yikes! Who would blame you if you wished winter already over? To stay healthy, eat well and continue exercising outside all winter. Cut out sugar; it undermines the health of your immune system. (6)

Since you are your bodymind, how you feel and what you think creates your physical body and vice versa. Being happy and peaceful is the best way to ward off colds and flu and all dis-ease processes. We know that happiness creates an expanded and strong energy field that generates a strong vital force keeping us physically and mentally healthy. Germ theory is not the entire story, but do wash your hands often when out in public. Vital force theory is what you need to remember. When a large group of people are all exposed to flu germs those who have a strong vital force do not get sick while those with a weak vital force do. (7) So ... keep your vital force cooking! Chi Kung, brisk walking, core energetics exercises, yoga and other exercises, fast dancing, and good sex keep positive energy moving, creating more aliveness and health.

Above all, accept yourself for where you are. All these suggestions are good ones, and resolutions and commitments to yourself are very important. If you break a promise to yourself, learn the power of self-forgiveness, recommit and move on. Soon it will be February, and here in the South we often see the first crocuses peeking up out of a cold earth heralding another spring-the promise of life. Praises be! We will have made it through winter and happily made it the best one ever!

Footnotes: (1.) Light: Medicine of the Future; by Jacob Lieberman (2.) Health and Light: The Effects of Natural and Artificial Light on Man and Other Living Things; by John Nash Ott (3.) DSM IV Diagnostic Criteria: by American Psychiatric Association (4.) Core Energetics: by John Pierrakos MD (5.) Head First: The Biology of Hope and the Healing Power of the Human Spirit: by Norman Cousins (6.) Wellness Directory of Minnesota (7.) Homeopathy: Medicine for the Twenty First Century, Dana Ullman

Pamela L Chubbuck PhD has over thirty years of experience as a holistic psychotherapist, she is a senior faculty member of the International Core Energetics Institute where she teaches in the Europe, South America, Mexico, and the US as well as directing Core Energetics South's training program. To reach Pare, call 770-388-0086 or visit www.core-energetics-south.com.

RELATED ARTICLE: Into your life this winter.

* Become the sun

* Use more bright light in your home & at work

* Create something you have dreamed about

* Choose love over fear

* Choose expansion

* Bring more light into your home and office

* Invite friends to dance at your house

* On a cold night, spend time outside around a warm campfire with friends

* Sing regularly

* Laugh more

* Tell jokes

* Make dinner with a friend

* Take a long hike in the mountains

* Volunteer your time to help others

* Feel the silence of a clear winter night

* Meditate