For most of my life, I’ve dreaded Daylight Savings Time. The turning of our clocks has long been a signal for me to prepare for the inevitability of my seasonal depression.

As I’m writing this, it’s ten days away - Daylight Savings Time is on November 3 this year. And every year, I do my best to prepare and combat its impacts on my mood. Most of the time, it’s some combination of structuring good habits, getting more rest, and taking care of my body. This time, I’ll do all of that, but I’m also including another approach - intentional, self-manufactured joy.

This is inspired by reading Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee. In a culmination of her life’s work, Fetell Lee explains how our environment can bring us joy, and how to bring that joy into our environment.

Considering this from a mental health perspective, we know how much our environment affects how we feel. According to the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society, a lack of visual stimulation can have a negative impact on our mental health. We also have evidence that planning joyful events improves depression, too. Martin Seligman, known as “The Father of Positive Psychology”, includes Engagement as part of his five components of living a happy life. Engagement is practicing being in the moment, doing activities you truly love, and spending time in nature. I believe that joy is part of all of this.

In this blog post, I’ll go over what I’m doing to find joy this year, and how you can do the same.

What does it mean to be joyful?

Fetell Lee defines joy as a momentary, immediate feeling of good. It’s different from happiness:

Happiness is feeling good over a longer period of time.
Joy is a feeling that can be accessed in the moment.

To learn more details about joy, I highly recommend you check out her book.

Happiness is long-term. Joy is short-term.

Why focus on joy instead of happiness?

Fetell Lee considers joy to be a building block of happiness. That means focusing on joy instead of happiness brings clarity to your path to happiness. It means you can focus on day-to-day choices, instead of a long-term change. You know what steps you can take that will lead to a happier life.

It’s similar to how we can help ourselves feel more motivated. I tell my clients the phrase: “action before motivation.” It means we often have to take action first, before feeling motivated. The motivation follows after we see the benefits that come from our action.

So, in a similar vein, focus on “joy before happiness.”

How do I find joy?

Start by defining different types of joy.

Some examples are:

Whimsical
Refreshing
Exhilarating
Grounding
Breathtaking
Delightful
Cheerful
Playful

Then, bring awareness to what already exists in your environment. Look around your living space, your work space, your commute, and any other frequented spaces. Where can you find joy? Get specific - use words like the ones above. The better you can define how your environment can bring joy, the more you can connect yourself to joy.

Use different words to define joy. This helps you find more sources of joy, and it also helps the logic part of your brain connect with the emotion part of your brain.

Next, lean into those different forms.

Diversify your joy! Humans love novelty, so the more we can find different ways to seek joy, the more likely they are to help us feel better.

Here are some of mine:

Dancing in my kitchen is exhilarating.
Taking a good bath is refreshing.
Going for a walk in the woods is grounding.
Putting a disco light bulb in my living room is whimsical.
Noticing a rainbow form in the steam from my shower is ephemeral.
Watching a sunset through the gaps in the trees is delightful.

These are also sometimes called glimmers - think of glimmers as mini moments of joy. When you don’t have the time or energy for something big, look for something little.

Make a commitment to notice the joy around you.

You can set a reminder or a visual cue to see if you can notice one joyful thing around you. Again, get specific with how you label this joyful thing. If you want to take it a step further, you can keep a Joy Journal. This can help you get better at recognizing patterns with your joy. It can also help you remember how to find joy during your tougher moments.

How do I create joy?

See how you can bring joy to the changes of the season.

Can you find joy in the snow falling outside? Can it be quieting, or peaceful? When the days are shorter, can you find joy in spending more time at home, resting and recharging? Or, can you embrace the cold, go for a winter walk, and feel invigorated?

Embracing the seasonal changes in general can lead you to be more optimistic. You’ll spend more time in the present moment (and we know that present-moment awareness can be helpful for depression).

See if you can find joy in seasonal moments. This can make the darker times easier to bear.

Make plans around joy.

Look at local events, attractions, and other happenings to identify what might contain joy. Think: a drive through a region rich in fall foliage, Christmas light tours, a mulled wine festival, a cookie baking workshop, or a kid-centric museum with bright colors and vibrant shapes. Getting out of the house is important for depression. I’m not saying you have to do something every week, but at least once a month. This is a reminder for me, too, so if getting out and about is hard for you, you’re in good company.

Plan things at home, too. Joy doesn’t have to be big. It can be a warm, spiced beverage. It can be making holiday cards with extra glitter. It can be a walk-and-talk with a long distance friend, comparing notes on what’s happening seasonally in your area. On a rare, sunny day, step outside and feel the contrast between the cold air and the warm sun.

Set a frequency that works for you, but remember that more is better.

A reminder before you go

There is no cure-all for seasonal depression, or any other kind of depression.

There are a handful of safety switches we can pull to support ourselves, but it’s also important to make peace with the inevitability of your bad days. They will still happen. It doesn’t mean you’re failing, or that you’re not doing all you can do. You are! There’s also some joy to be found in being a human who’s so in tune with the seasons. The rest of the northern hemisphere goes to sleep during this time - it’s okay if that includes you, and me.

But before I go, here’s a poem from Mary Oliver:

Don’t Hesitate
By Mary Oliver

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate.

Give in to it.

There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be.

We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed.

Still, life has some possibility left.

Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world.

It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins.

Anyway, that’s often the case.

Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty.

Joy is not made to be a crumb.

Joy as an antidote to seasonal depression