Dominique Defoe Instagram – As someone prone to depression, seasonal depression can be a b*tch. While a lot of it probably comes from the lack of sunshine and a bit of isolation, I think some of it also stems from our hyper awareness of ourselves.
Short days and long nights where people aren’t rushing out to see each other, to search for distractions, there is a natural urge to isolate. A hefty part of winter is lived alone. And alone, you feel the weight.
The other seasons give us different meanings to our lives, there’s the transitional seasons with fall helping us reflect on the past, spring encouraging us to imagine the future. And then there’s summer – another ‘who are you now?’ season but one that’s bright and fun and vivid. Full of light. Everything’s moving, everything’s blossomed. It’s easy to think that winter is the season of “who are you now?” filled with darkness. I see it as a season of protection.
Summer is recklessness, bashing yourself senseless against every aspect of your life and not stopping to think about it. Winter is for collecting the pieces. In the quiet, you find your voice. You actually have time to think and pause and spend time with yourself.
I think this sends a lot of people into a panic because we like who we could be more than who we are. But winter forces us to sit and pay attention, it is a season to protect you from the outside world and help you realize how brilliant and entertaining your inner world is. It’s a season that has the potential to help you realize that who you are now is someone who deserves as much love as who you were and who you are going to become.
Winter tells you to take a f*cking breath, you have to learn how to live with yourself before you burn out chasing versions of yourself that don’t exist yet. Springs will pass and you will become nostalgic for who you were here, in this winter, so embrace it.
#poetry #seasonaldepression #storytelling | Posted on 29/Feb/2024 01:35:06
