By Cassie Coben
The last couple of days, Scott County has been blessed with more snow than we have seen in a long time.
But after all the fun of snowball fights, making snowmen and eating snow ice cream, staying inside out of the mess can be challenging. Some people can develop mild symptoms of cabin fever, including depression, restlessness, boredom and irritability.
What can you do to combat some of these symptoms?
First of all, remember these are normal feelings and it’s ok to feel them! You can actually make yourself feel worse by thinking it’s your fault for not handling things better.
Turn up the music and dance! Play some happy upbeat tunes as loud as possible and move. Make up some of your own dance moves. Sing along. It doesn’t matter one bit if you can’t sing or dance. Just moving around will help.
Color. Stock up on coloring books and crayons, markers, pens or colored pencils. Draw your own pages to color. If you don’t have all that, no problem! All you need is some paper and a pen or pencil to draw some squiggly lines to color in!
Write. Write some letters or start a journal. You don’t have to send them or keep up with the journal. The point is to just keep busy.
Read. Spend the day with a favorite book. Get lost in the story.
Call. You can bet there are others that are feeling isolated. Call them. No need to spend more than a few minutes on the phone to do a lot of good for the other person and yourself.
Be still. Take this time to just be still and silent. Every day is so filled with noise and distractions. Stop and enjoy the down time.
Be thankful. We are all so blessed. It’s always a good thing to remember that and to acknowledge our blessings.
Disclaimer: I’m no medical professional. These are just some things that have helped me during some down times.
