Two weeks ago, my little city of Lexington was hit with a massive, paralyzing snow storm.  We were at a standstill, and the little movement in my days felt numb and in slow motion.  When the snow finally stopped falling, it took me (and it felt like the rest of Lexington too) a few days to mentally start functioning in any form of our productive capacity. I’m not proud of my snowy weather accomplishments (online shopping for snow clothes, frenetic texting, movie marathons, addictive Duolingo activiy, at home workout videos, joining and quitting match.com…), and somehow looking back on the week feels like hazily remembering a dream.

They say depression is easiest to fall into during the short, dark days of winter, and being snowed in for a fraction of the time many people are, I totally get it. In fact I have massive respect for those who survive and even thrive in cold weather climates.

However, for me, I have to find ways to keep up the pace while the snow insists on staying around as a pull towards lethargy.  I want to find what I can do to dethaw mentally without waiting for the snow to melt and the spring to warm me up. I want to find ways to work with and enjoy the season instead of biding my time until it’s over.

This week I’m implementing the methods that I know will get my heart racing again and exploring new activities to get me back in the business of getting things done and having fun as I do them.

This week, I’m going to explore the following:

  • Podcast to follow
  • Class to try
  • People to talk to
  • Thing to let go of caring about +Thing to especially care about
  • Letter to write

If you can’t tell, checklists are one of those things that gets me going. Hopefully mine will translate to you too, if you need it. In the meantime, enjoy this gently energizing playlist to warm that frozen ambition. It’s on Spotify playlist called Cheating June.

  1. Live While We’re Young by Johnny Swim
  2. The Underdog by Spoon
  3. Underdog by Imagine Dragons
  4. Budapest by George Ezra
  5. Bleeding Out by The Lone Bellow
  6. Bleeding Out by Imagine Dragons
  7. Step by Vampire Weekend
  8. Do I Wanna Know by Arctic Monkeys
  9. Good Kisser by Usher
  10. Hollywood Nights by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
  11. Does This Mean You’re Moving On? by the Airborne Toxic Event
  12. Love Runs out by OneRepublic
  13. Walk by Foo Fighters
  14. 3×5 by John Mayer