Dealing with the Winter blues, often a SAD time for many.

The darker, colder wintry months will soon be upon us and although it is currently Autumn we have already hit the ever increasing onslaught of the late afternoon decent into darkness.

This for many marks the start of a long period of discomfort, uneasiness, lack of motivation, feelings of slight despair and sadness and many many other unpleasant feelings and repercussions of dealing with mental health issues, loneliness, depression and for some facing a Christmas without those they truly miss.

For some it is a recognized condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder or 'Winter Depression' .

For others who haven't got it quite so bad it is just a feeling of it's another year over and a time when often constant negative feelings of it's been another bad year go over and over in their mind. Even when it hasn't actually been a bad year the negatives come to the forefront more than the positives.

The mere fact that we are actually still here is a major positive and something we need to reflect on as often as we can.

As you know from the title of this blog I am running for my health. For this very reason I try and use running as a vehicle to steer me through the darker months of late Autumn and Winter. It can be hard as I for one am not a fan of the cold and the dark and I tend to hibernate in Winter and use it as a rest period from all my running during the year. This gives me valued physical rest and gives my body time to recover for yet another year of fundraising challenges.

This year however I have come to the realization that I suffer quite badly from Anxiety and although it's been there lurking in the background unrecognized in various forms it has come more to the forefront over the last year. I've had the worst bit at the end of last year when I had months of feeling physically sick and didn't know why and I eventually narrowed it down to sub conscious links between my mind and going to work each day.

I came to this realization after talking to someone who had suffered the same and the description of the feelings and timings made complete sense. The feeling of being sick would only appear in the hour or so before my next work shift and always after I ate. I thought for months that I had become allergic to something or had an intolerance to something I ate.

At it's worst I would feel overcome and on edge as soon as I stepped in the door at work and started my shift. So much so that my heart would be racing and I would become short of breath.

To cut a long story short I had multiple responsibilities at work in a minor role and as I like to concentrate on the job at hand I was getting severely stressed when given 3,4,5 or 6 different tasks one after the other before each was one was completed adequately.

This had gone on for a while and hadn't been addressed at work and it eventually became second nature to feel stressed, pent up, angry, and unappreciated.

The physical symptoms came to a head when I ended up on a warning for not going the 'extra mile' for a guest when quite frankly I was past caring as I was feeling like crap and worthless.

That was the final straw, I sought another job and turned my current job into a 1 or 2 day part time role with the help of my employer, who to be fair once I opened up about my problems did support me and were happy to let me downgrade my hours.

I got a new part time job at a local gym full off happy people enjoying life as they worked out and felt the benefit of the flow of happy hormones you get with an exhilarating workout or indeed run on a treadmill etc and their happiness and positiveness rubbed off on me and helped me feel happier, more positive and generally a lot better.

That was last October/Nov and that major change in my routine and life helped me get through a Winter that I otherwise would of struggled to get through. Don't get me wrong it was still a struggle but I got through it, I maintained some running and workouts through the Winter instead of my usual hibernation and I came out the other side ok.

This proved to me that running for your health is so vital in order to keep us going, especially through darker times. Not just our physical health but more importantly our mental health and well being.

The main point other than giving you a slightly off tangent part of my back story is that we need to ensure we get out there when times are tough. We don't want to, we like our bed too much, it's warm in there, it's safe in there, it's not warm out there and we often feel it's not safe out there also.

How do we get ourselves out there? how do we give ourselves a fighting chance? Join a gym, join a running club, join a running group on Facebook that will keep us actively communicating with the outside world. Runners are notoriously happy people most of the time, much to the disgust of some miserable b*ggers out there. We need to absorb their positive energy, make new friends with them, become part of their huge social circle where someone is usually always prepared to listen when we need it most, and give us a kind compassionate ear, and often a friendly support PM (personal message) to check we are really ok.

What else can we do? well if you want to go out and run but like me think the bed and a nice warm flat is a nicer option, we really need an incentive...

So what are the incentives? Well thankfully this year I for one discovered a project or campaign called R.E.D Run Every Day in January online and on Facebook. It is partnered with Mind the mental health charity this year and that itself was enough to make me sign up for it, despite having no wish to run for 30 consecutive days in Jan.

Luckily you don't have to run every day, you can walk instead, it could be to work it could be around the block. Just getting out of bed and into the fresh air and participating in something is a major motivator and improver of our overall health.

You sign up on line and it gives you plenty of warnings to take it easy as 30 days of running is a big call, hence why I would suggest taking the walk option most days.

You get a dedicated R.E.D Run Every Day technical T-Shirt which you pay an optional £7.50 for and they send you a fundraising pack as well with a calendar for Jan so you can mark of your progress as you go. There is no actual fundraising requirement, it is only an option but I would highly recommend doing so as the commitment gives you some purpose day to day. I would certainly recommend at least spreading your online link around friends and family on or off social media etc to get a little extra motivational help and support along the way.

Fundraising is a great motivator and it has helped me across the years to stay motivated, physically and mainly mentally healthy as much as possible, I would highly recommend it. If you ever suffer from feeling worthless and unneeded, this is a major way of helping resolve it, I can truly testify to that.

Here is the link for the RED website,  http://www.runeverydayjanuary.com/ have a look and click 'Join the movement' to get started. There is also a Facebook group to join with lots of like minded souls on there to help support you and who will share in their own personal journeys along the way. I have joined the group myself and they are a welcoming and open bunch of people.

If you join the facebook page you can find me on there as either Gru or Les Jackson, feel free to say hello.

I hope we can keep each other motivated along the way and push through the dark months and into the bright new Spring full of new hopes and dreams....

Gru.