When you think of the winter months what thoughts come to mind?

Do you think about all the winter activities you can do and the great snowy views, or does your mind start thinking about the long dark days and lack of activities to do?

Depending on how you answer that question, you might look forward to winter or dread these long cold months. This is a perfect example of how mindset can affect our perception and therefore our outlook towards winter time.

Mindset has been defined as: “selective  viewpoints  that  help  us simplify  and  organize  complex  information, and  they  include  things  like  our  thoughts,  beliefs,  and  expectations”.  According to this definition, it can be said that mindset plays a role in everything we do, anywhere from what our morning routine looks like, to our outlook and approach to health and wellness.

Study from Norway

A recent study in Norway conducted by researchers Kari Leibowitz and Joar Vittersø surveyed individuals’ mindsets during the winter months at different latitudes by using a Winter Mindset Scale. The places they surveyed were towns close to the arctic where sunlight hours in the winter are slim to none. According to what we know about lack of sunlight during the winter, one would expect that the individuals being surveyed had a higher rate of seasonal affective disorder or depression like symptoms during the winter months. However, what these researchers found out was quite the opposite, since most individuals scored low on depression-like symptoms. The reason for this lies on the positive mindset these individuals have towards winter. Since the season is longer in these places, the individuals that live there look forward to different activities during the winter, they think of winter as a time where the snow is beautiful and the air is fresh and crisp outside.

It is important to also point out that it is significantly easier to have a positive wintertime mindset when those around you also have a positive wintertime mindset. If you live in a place where there is a lot of wintertime activities and your friends and family tend to partake in them and enjoy them, it is going to be a lot easier to have a positive outlook. On the contrary, if you are surrounded by people that complain about the winter, and consistently point out the negative aspects of the winter months it is going to be significantly harder to have a positive outlook.

For example, in Norwegian culture it is important to spend time outdoors in all seasons. They look forward to cross-country skiing and the beautiful wintertime displays of the Aurora Borealis. This appreciation for winter activities as a culture is contagious and therefore contributes to an overall positive wintertime mindset throughout the Norwegian towns that were studied.

In the past, research has often neglected to include mindset as a factor that influences seasonal affective disorder or seasonal depression. However, as this study has shown, mindset can be a very powerful tool in changing how we experience winter or any other time of the year. Although this research on mindset is one of the first of its kind, it gives us an additional variable to include when deciphering the puzzle of why some individuals get hit hard with seasonal affective disorder or seasonal depression in the winter. It can also open new doors to begin questioning and monitoring our own mindset towards winter as we navigate these next few months.