Kari Leibowitz holds a PhD in social psychology from Stanford University, where she studied the role of our mindsets on our health and wellbeing. For the past 10 years, Leibowitz has been investigating people’s attitudes to winter and the ways they can powerfully affect our mood and behaviour – research that has culminated in her debut book, How to Winter: Harnessing Your Mindset to Thrive in Cold, Dark Or Difficult Times.
As a Fulbright scholar, you moved from Atlanta to the University of Tromsø in Norway. The polar night there lasts for almost two months. How did that experience inform your views of winter?
I was looking for a research project, and I began writing to Joar Vittersø, who is one of the world’s leading experts on human happiness and wellbeing. He told me that he was at the world’s northernmost university, and I thought: how does the world expert on human happiness live in this place where the sun doesn’t rise for two months each winter?
I had assumed that winter was bad for mental health, and that the people who live in Tromsø would be depressed, but I found that they have relatively low rates of seasonal affective disorder (Sad) given how far north they are and how dark and long their winters are.
How, then, does the prevalence of Sad vary according to location?
The latitude hypothesis states that as you get farther north or south of the equator and the winters get longer and darker, rates of seasonal affective disorder should rise. This hypothesis was reverse engineered by psychologists who found that light lamps were an effective treatment for Sad: they assumed that if light treats this disorder, then darkness must make it worse. There was some evidence that, within the United States, people in the north have higher rates of Sad. By the time I did my project, however, a lot of other researchers had started to question this idea.
You looked at the role of mindset in people’s wellbeing during winter. What are the beliefs behind the different mindsets that you studied, and how could they affect people’s susceptibility to winter depression?
Mindsets are our core assumptions about the way the world works and how different things will affect us. We might have a mindset that stress is either enhancing or debilitating, for example – and the research suggests that this can shape the way we cope with challenges.
Similarly, we might have a mindset that winter is limiting or that it is full of opportunity, dreadful or delightful. We conflate the objective circumstances – that winter is cold, dark and wet – with subjective things, like it being gloomy, boring and depressing, when you could just as easily make the case that it is cosy, magical and restorative.
In your subsequent study, you showed that people’s mindsets correlate with wellbeing during the winter months. Surprisingly, you even found that the further north you go, the more positive people’s attitudes are to winter, with those in Svalbard having the rosiest views of all, which seemed to protect them from winter depression. How can we cultivate those attitudes?
The first step is to appreciate winter for what it is, without wishing that it were something different, and then try to notice the things that are pleasurable about it. For example, we might bemoan that we have less energy, but we could flip that on its head and say that winter is a time to do less and rest more. You might also reframe your narrative about the weather. When it rains, your commute to work may be more uncomfortable, but you might also find this weather especially well-suited to indoor and creative tasks. Some research suggests that darkness enhances creativity. Which one of those things you focus on is going to have a big influence on how you experience the rain that day. These things might feel small or silly at first, but they train you to notice different things about the winter.
Many people dread the changing of the clocks. How can we make this more bearable?
The abrupt shift is hard for lots of people, but there are two things we can do. One is to prepare and anticipate the change. You can be realistic about the fact you’re going to be more tired, and plan to do a little bit less and have some downtime. The second is to celebrate and elevate it. You could break out the candles and have the first dinner by candlelight or have a cosy movie night at home. Do something that you can look forward to that takes advantage of the darkness and turns it into an asset, as if you’re welcoming it.
That reminds me of research on the “fresh start effect” – the idea that we can use different events to mark a new “chapter” in our lives, with different behaviours and habits.
Just doing that little bit of intention setting can really show people how much power they have to change their experience of the winter and of the darkness. You get real-time feedback on the effects of your actions, which is so powerful.
That brings us to your second strategy: “making winter special”. What are your tips?
Ask yourself what activities you can do that will uplift winter. It could be eating different foods – like soups – that you can look forward to in the same way you might feel excited by a barbecue. It could be going cold water swimming, visiting a sauna or doing a Friday movie night. Winter is a good time for indoor hobbies: making music, baking, writing poetry or going to a museum. I’m an amateur ceramicist, and it’s hard for me to get to the pottery studio when it’s nice outside. But in the winter, I can do a lot more of that. Making winter special requires a little bit of effort, but so do summer activities like going to the beach – and we can apply the same energy in any season.
One thing I noticed while travelling was that every culture does things to embrace the winter, but you have to look for them. The UK is the perfect example. It doesn’t have a reputation as a winter destination like Scandinavia, where you might go for hygge. But if I go to a London pub on a rainy day, and there’s an open fire in the hearth, and I can order a meat pie and a mulled wine – what’s cosier than that?
Finally, you advise people to go outside – a strategy that the Norwegians describe as friluftsliv. Why is that important?
It’s the hardest sell, but it’s something that I see in every winter community where people embrace and enjoy the winter. Moving our bodies, being near nature and breathing fresh air – these are all natural antidepressants, and an antidote to the experience of the “winter blues”.
How to Winter: Harnessing Your Mindset to Thrive In Cold, Dark or Difficult Times by Kari Leibowitz is published by Bluebird (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
David Robson is the author of The Laws of Connection: 13 Social Strategies That Will Transform Your Life, published by Canongate (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
