Autumn time, the charm of the eyes... Although autumn has two faces: on the one hand, streets strewn with leaves, like gold, on the other, a cloudy sky. And often it brings with it the blues and loss of strength. In order to effectively cope with this blues, it is important to work with physical health, and with emotions and beliefs. Step No. 0. If you haven't been to an endocrinologist for a long time, now is the time to go. Seasonal mood swings may be associated with the functioning of the endocrine system. If this is so, the effect of the following recommendations will be much higher, supported by competent treatment. For now, I will list the main stages for overcoming the blues with a list, and then I will tell you about them in more detail: Daily routine, sufficient time for rest Diet and vitamins Physical activity Meditation and relaxation techniques Creating a supportive and resourceful environment Usually, the autumn blues are associated mainly with a reduction in daylight hours and a lack of vitamin D. However, vitamins alone rarely help. Indeed, in addition to physiological reasons, our condition is also influenced by psychological ones. Summer is “traditionally” associated with relaxation, because it is the season of vacations and holidays. Therefore, we often perceive autumn in advance as a harbinger of great stress and strain. It is all the more important to maintain sleep and wakefulness. Our body is so programmed that it perceives the dark time of day as time for sleep, producing the appropriate hormones. It is important that you get enough sleep during this time. But too much sleep will lead to a state of exhaustion. The golden mean is approximately 8 hours. Even if at first you feel that this is not enough, you should not “lie down for another five minutes.” It’s better to devote these 5 minutes to exercise. Also provide yourself with short rest breaks in the middle of the day. According to mental hygiene, it is best to take a 10-minute break every hour. And lunch time should be a quiet time when you can take a breath!!! Do you think it’s unrealistic? Rest and self-care are habits like many others. It takes time to develop them, but this is a feasible task for everyone! Do not hesitate to ask your loved ones, including children, for help. If you're tired, ask your child to tell you a bedtime story instead of trying to focus on a book through closed eyelids. In our region, autumn is the most fertile and abundant time. Therefore, for thousands of years it was a time to prepare supplies for the winter. We stocked up on grain, vegetables and fruits and... fat. The subcutaneous fat layer not only stores energy, but also protects our body from the cold. This is especially important for women. It seems to me that during the preparation for vacation and during the summer salad period, you have increased your fat reserves. This means that the body’s energy reserves are depleted. The autumn diet is still full of fruits and berries, but the need for fats and carbohydrates increases. You need a large amount of foods containing the amino acid tryptophan. It is from this that your body will produce serotonin. The richest foods in tryptophan are cheese, fish, meat, legumes, cottage cheese, mushrooms, oats, dried dates, peanuts, sesame seeds, pine nuts, milk, yogurt. As in spring, the autumn diet can be supplemented with vitamins. Particular attention should be paid to that very vitamin D, as well as vitamin C. For I do not know a single person to whom a cold would give strength and energy. And, since we returned to vitamin D, pay attention to natural ways of obtaining it. Ideal, of course, is to walk in the sun (that is, during the day) every day for at least half an hour. This, apparently, is a leisurely step to lunch at a nearby cafe. If this is not possible, then you can resort to light therapy. By the way, doctors say that LED lamps with cold light have a wide enough spectrum to compensate well for the lack of sun. I don’t know about people, but they are very suitable for plants in this regard. By the way, in the spring I got a phytolamp, I’ll try to sit under it. Sport is good for health. At least non-professional is useful. It not only strengthens our body, but also promotesthe production of endorphins and the “production” of serotonin. At the same time, leave intense exercise for the morning - it will invigorate you. But before going to bed, it is better to do a little and something quite calm. You can do simple stretching, for example. And at this time, be sure to ventilate the apartment! Sports before bedtime are needed for two things. Firstly, it allows the body in general and the brain in particular to be saturated with oxygen. Secondly, it allows you to remove muscle blocks that form under the influence of stress. It is no longer a secret that our emotional state greatly affects our physical well-being. “Unlived” emotions literally get stuck in the body. So, for example, if you regularly feel the urge to run away at work, but can’t do it, get ready for a feeling of tension in the muscles of your legs or even pain in them. Everything is simple here: an emotion has appeared - this is a signal for some kind of action. The body begins to physically prepare for this action. And he prepares until the action occurs. Here, physical exercise acts as a signal to cancel the previous command. Ventilation is also very important. Personally, I’m very cold, so I don’t like this action. But! Ventilation is not only oxygen, which in itself is very important for healthy sleep. This also reduces the temperature in the apartment. When we sleep, our body temperature decreases. And when the temperature around us drops, it’s easier for us to fall asleep. Oh, yes, I forgot. Sex is also a sport. The main thing here is not quantity, but quality, nevertheless, it is an excellent addition to exercise, do not neglect it! This, in general, ends the physiological aspects of the task. So, we have given ourselves injections of serotonin and endorphins, now we need to learn how to maintain their level. And this is really difficult! At this stage, it is not enough to simply develop a habit; here you will have to partially change your worldview. The first and most difficult thing is to allow yourself to relax. I can just hear these sad sighs: “We would be glad, but children, work, who, if not us...”. This is why you need to start with permission. If there is no time to rest, and no one will help, you have a “rest ban.” Sounds absurd? And yet it happens all the time. Consciously, most often it is called “the fight against laziness and hard work,” “responsibility,” or even “self-sufficiency and independence.” Our parents instilled these qualities in us since childhood, but the child’s brain does not understand halftones. He either does nothing (laziness) or works until the system fails (hard work). The child does not know when to stop. But you are no longer children. Therefore: ask for help, delimit your sphere of responsibility, etc. and so on. I understand that this is very difficult. And spoiled husbands won’t be happy with your vacation at first. At one time, when I noticed a similar ban in myself, only a psychologist helped me. Because I myself simply did not notice when I fell into extremes of hard work. This prohibition only gives us standards of extremes, but not the normal state, so it is not clear when to stop. So, allow yourself to rest and learn relaxation techniques. The simplest exercise: lie down comfortably, turn on calm music, take turns tensing and relaxing each muscle of the body as much as possible. Breathing exercises, for example, from yoga, are also great for relaxing. Now, of course, meditation. I prefer concentration meditations: when you look at one object. The hardest thing is to turn off extraneous thoughts. Such meditations, among other things, allow us to learn to concentrate attention on the main thing, thereby protecting us from unnecessary stress. I love to meditate on a lit candle; the flame in the dark literally hypnotizes me. But the recordings (well, those where the young ladies tell you to relax with a languid aspiration) evoke a bunch of extraneous thoughts and do not relax at all. So, a summary. What do relaxation and meditation give: Elimination of muscle blocks Increased resistance to stress Improved concentration They give us a standard of healthy functioning: when the body and brain are not tense, but at the same time efficient. With autumn, many people really.