I don’t know about you, but February always seems to be a rough month for me.

Emotional highs and lows. Negative temperatures. Cabin fever. Ice. Snow. Less activities and events offered. Dry indoor heat that massacres your skin. Do you feel me?

Currently making a mental note to schedule a WARM vacation next year for the majority of the month! 🙂

This Sunday, I had a bit of an emotional breakdown about winter. I got super complain-y (it pained me to hear myself word-vomit negativity), and was telling my man that there was nothing to do! During our days together, I felt like we have been having trouble finding activities to do this time of year!

I’ve always been a summer girl myself, but especially now that I work from home, it’s even more of an ordeal to leave the house or get out of my own patterns since almost everything I do is right here. I don’t have to leave to go to an office, so sometimes I just don’t leave at all! It’s super easy to become a hermit when your whole life is at home (or so it feels). The icing on the cake is negative temperatures, wind chill, and icy road conditions. Any of you work-from-homers know what I mean!

So I took to my journal and wrote down a few ways that I could not just survive, but really THRIVE, the last few weeks of the season, which I just had to share with you!

My Winter Thrival Checklist

• Take a Vitamin D supplement
• Sage My Apartment :: clear out the negative energy!
• Citrus Scents :: burn candles/incense or diffuse essential oils to feel more awake
• Create a “Things I love” Pinterest Board :: my little mental & visual escape when I’m feeling down or uninspired to remind me of things that I could be doing now or can’t wait to do once it warms up!
• Create Something :: pottery class, painting, sketching, sewing, weaving, a vision or mood board – something DIY that I can do with my hands and have a tangible result to be proud of!
• Learn a New Language :: via Coffee Break podcasts
• Clear The Clutter :: go through one area of the apartment per week to get rid of things that no longer serve me
• Visit a Botanical Garden :: Phipps for my fellow Pittsburghers!
• Move the Energy :: schedule an acupuncture or reiki session, massage, or some new and delightful service I haven’t yet tried
• Grow Something Green :: Plant some seeds or buy a plant and continue to grow it indoors – something green or vibrantly colored to liven up your living space, or something that you want to plant outside in the spring
• Fresh Flowers :: maintain a constant stock of fresh flowers on my desk
• Create a New Routine & Schedule :: this way, I’ll create a new habit by the time summer comes so that I’m able to get outdoors as much as possible while still getting the most important things done first thing in the morning and keeping my sacred morning and evening time for my rituals to begin and close out the days
• Lady Dates :: set conscious time aside each week for tea/coffee, lunches, dinners, brunches, movie nights, simultaneous dog walking, work dates at a coffee shop, etc. with my girlfriends!
• Bundle Up :: embrace the season and learn to find the cold invigorating, by going for a walk with a warm drink in hand, snow tubing, or skiing somewhere close by
• Tropical Kitchen :: have a caribbean themed dinner with lots of tropical fruits, coconut shrimp, and other relevant fare to take a little hiatus (at least in the kitchen!)
• Yoga! :: one of my favorite things to do – bonus when the room is heated and it feels like a little retreat!

I hope you found this list really helpful and that it gave you some new ideas of things you can do to engage and play throughout the next few months before we can really start getting outside without freezing our bums off! 🙂

I’d love to hear from you – what is your favorite way to keep your spirits high throughout the cold and sometimes brutal months of winter? Leave your answers in the comments below!

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If you’re feeling like you’re in need a physical and mental re-boot, join me and Suzanne Nagel at Yoga Flow (Shadyside location) this Friday, February 27th from 8 – 10 PM for an Empowered Flow workshop!

We will be igniting the manipura (solar plexus) chakra through Suzanne’s brilliant flow, and I’ll be adding in awesome affirmations and questions to really help you activate your center of power through clear intention & action.

What are you feeling called to create? Join us to clarify, affirm, and create it! Hope to see you there!

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Love & Light,

Emily