Five Tips to Get You Through the Short, Dark Days this Season
This season calls for short days and pjs, all day. It gets dark and dreary, quickly and so does your energy! But that doesn’t mean we can’t hone in on some opportunities this season.
Here are five tips to get you through and taking advantage of building better (and brighter!) habits:
1.Build strong rituals & routines
The days are short and the prayer gaps are even shorter! It’s one wudhu for the day season. Even though they might be harder to catch, they are the most “doable” and timely with a typical workday. Take advantage of framing your day around prayer times, and you’ll have them solidified and ritualized by the end of it. Once you’re in, you won’t want to miss it.
2. Move your body & your schedule
If you typically workout or get moving in the evenings, it can feel like you’re dragging yourself out of the house to get it done in the dark. Shake up your schedule and try to get a work out in early in the mornings or during your lunch break. Daytime hours and sunshine make moving and activity feel a lot more invigorating and lively!
Habit stack your fajr morning prayer with a morning slayyyyer.
3. Laser focus towards others
It’s not hard to miss it - no matter how much we are fixed in our own lives and routines - there are people all around us struggling through the dark cold winter days. Stray away from the slumps and seasonal depression by keeping perspective. Find a way to get involved with giving back at a local shelter, declutter your closet and donate coats, scarves and gloves or shovel your neighbours driveway. Keep your head up by keeping you hands out giving.
4. Maintain optimal immune health
Be sure to check with your doctor, but taking black seed oil capsules can help to keep your immune system strong and healthy. We’ve heard of the olive oil shot in the morning on TikTok and there is research that backs that taking a shot of olive oil can most definitely optimize your health. Find a routine and time that works best for you and habit stack this habit with another one to help you keep consistent.
5. Split your evening into two parts
It gets dark early and the evenings feel never-ending! Let’s say it’s dark at 4:45pm, you’re feeling ready to turn into bed at 7pm but it’s still too early to throw in the towel for the day. Try splitting your evening into two parts. Get into routine of splitting your day into separate parts so you can focus and be mindful of how you spend that time.
Let’s say if the last prayer of the day is around 6:30pm (varies for different parts of the world), try to segment your evening between maghrib and isha prayers as one section. And after isha (6:30pm - 9:30pm) as another section so it feels more manageable and can create some sort of ease to your evening.