We're on a mission this year: to embrace this weirdo winter. We're lighting candles, making soup, and buying snowpants.

We've survived 2020 so far and now we're going to take it up another notch. We got this!

Here are some ways we're planning on unleashing our inner snow angel. Join us!

Layer up and go outside

“There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” - Alfred Wainwright. This quote has stuck with me since I first heard it.

Being in nature is super important for our mental health. Whether it's a short walk on your lunch break or a long hike on the weekend, don't let the temperature stop you. Buy some rain pants or vintage liner pants and a good pair of boots. Your warmest sweater and knee socks or sweater tights. A toasty hat or an ear warmer headband. Seven pairs of pants. So many pants. You may look and feel like a marshmallow, but your mental health will thank you!

Cozy-ify your home

Candles and glowy string lights are as essential as toilet paper around here. Pretend you're living in the 18th century and really go ham on those candles. You want warm yellow light at all times. Take out your robe, your best sweatsuit, and softest slippers. Unearth any and all blankets from storage and layer them around the house. Got some extra fuzzy pillows? Put those out too. Add or switch out artwork on the walls to bring warm color tones and joy to a space. Dust off the stereo and get some chill funky tunes going in your downtime.

Do something for someone else

An act of service is an instant mood boost. Send a care package to a friend. Drop off cookies or a meal to an essential worker you know. Shovel your neighbor's sidewalk. Surprise someone in their inbox with a gifted subscription or donation in their name. And if you're starting to buy gifts for loved ones, remember to shop small. Supporting small businesses is nice twofold: you're both doing something nice for the person you're gifting to, and for the folks who put their whole hearts into their business.

Connect with your people

Done with Zoom happy hours? How about a monthly book club? Or a weekly recipe club — virtual Great British Bake Off? Craft night! Movie night (try Teleparty for Netflix, or just pick the same movie to watch and debrief afterwards)! Masked walks! Or host a small masked hangout on your porch, and have everyone bring their own blankets and travel mugs of hot chocolate.

Revisit a hobby

Pick up those craft supplies that you bought back in March and get back to it. Some ideas to get you started: embroidery, quilting, painting, collaging, baking, crossword-ing, coloring, reading.

Do a little purging and cleaning

We've been spending a lot of time in our homes. Chances are, there are a few thing that are annoying you or causing some mental blocks at this point. Set aside one day per week or a whole weekend to tackle small projects. Has your desk not truly been clean for a few months? Have you kept glancing up at that one upper shelf in the kitchen while cooking, and thought, "I should dust that. There are cobwebs," but still not done it? Yeah, me too. Other ideas to tackle: clean all those crusty bits out of your oven, purge your basement, sweep out your garage, reorganize your pantry, rearrange your fridge magnets. 

Don't complain about the weather

I love this from Josh Waitzkin on the Tim Ferriss podcast:

One of the biggest mistakes that I observed in the first year of [my son] Jack’s life or year or two of Jack’s life that I observed with parents is that they have this language around weather; weather being good or bad. Whenever it was raining, they’d be like, it’s bad weather. You’d hear moms, babysitters, dads talk about if it’s bad weather, we can’t go out or if it’s good weather, we can go out. So that means that somehow we’re externally reliant on conditions being perfect in order to be able to go out and have a good time. So Jack and I never missed a single storm. Every rain storm.

I encourage you to try to unlearn your thoughts about weather being "good" or "bad." Maybe instead we should live by the words Paul Rudd's character sings in Forgetting Sarah Marshall: "The weather outside is weather." It's only weather! It just...is what it is, and that's okay.

Do you have any Winter Survival tips you'd like to share as we inch toward the end of 2020? We'd love to hear about them. Let us know on Instagram!

Winter city photo by Hilary Bovay.