Ideas for wellbeing in winter

Hilda Campbell shares COPE Scotland's thoughts and ideas for keeping well and improving your wellbeing during the winter months.

Each year COPE Scotland produces a winter wellbeing booklet with tips and ideas for self-care and self management. These do not replace professional advice; however, we know this time of year can be challenging and, listening to the voices of lived experience, we have created some resources which may help overcome these challenges or mitigate their impact. You can check out the booklet here.

We also are grateful for the work the ALISS team put into keeping this search engine available for people and are keen to promote that in the booklet too. It can be a challenge trying to include all services and supports in one booklet, ALISS offers people the chance to find out more about what is in their area, or, if they are a group wanting to promote what they do, this is a great space to do that too. ALISS stands for A Local Information System for Scotland, this link shares more.

The contents of the winter wellbeing booklet arose from listening to the voices of lived experience around what mattered to them and what would help. There are many tools and resources which fall under these headings:

• Tools which can help ground us when life feels overwhelming.
• General tips for wellbeing in winter.
• Ideas for wellbeing as we go into 2025 and beyond.

You may also find this video of interest; it offers some ideas about ‘coorying in’ in winter.

A colleague recently shared a poem with us:

‘’In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.

In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.

In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.

I realized, through it all, that…

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.’’

– Albert Camus, The Stranger

Let us all search inside ourselves for our invincible summer, as no matter what the world throws at us, as a wise wee bear once said …………….

“You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – AA Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

We can come through this, caring about each other, putting kindness out into the world, remembering we matter, people care, COPE continues to care. We may no longer have our direct one-to-one service, but through our website and sharing our tools and resources we believe we can still make a difference, as we know things are challenging for people, but looking after our wellbeing, perhaps we can find ways where it does not hurt as much. Thank you for reading.

In kindness,

Hilda.

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