I’m a reformed winter-hater. I grew up in a beach town in the U.S. where summer reigned supreme. And I, like so many others, used to bemoan the changing seasons as the nights got longer and the temperature dropped. Winter felt like the most depressing season, a gloomy time lacking light and cheer.
But a little over a decade ago, I moved to Tromsø, Norway, a city over 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. There, the winters are extreme: The sun sets in November and doesn’t appear again until January, a two-month period known as the “Polar Night.”
I expected to find winter misery. Instead, I found that people in Tromsø celebrate winter, embracing the polar night as a season of coziness and beauty. They focused not on winter’s limitations, but its opportunities.
My research as a psychologist supported what I was experiencing firsthand: that people in Tromsø tend to have a positive “wintertime mindset.” I’ve spent the last decade helping others around the world change their relationship to winter.
If you find yourself feeling down, try these evidence-based strategies for making winter wonderful.
