A very interesting article about mental reframing

asp3

asp3

Senior Member
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
The article is in the Washington Post so it might not be available to everyone.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/heal...b738d6-54fd-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html

The article discussed how one can lessen the effects of seasonal depression due to the lack of light in the winter. It mentioned that even though Scandinavians have less daily sunlight than we do in the US and sometimes no sunlight their seasonal depression rates are comparable to our. It also discusses how mental reframing helps kids who are getting oral immunotherapy for deadly peanut allergies do better when the affects of the therapy are reframed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/heal...b738d6-54fd-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html

If you can't get the WP article you can get some information from these other generic mental reframing articles.

https://www.verywellmind.com/cognitive-reframing-for-stress-management-3144872

https://www.verywellmind.com/reframing-defined-2610419
 

Sounds a lot like positive psychology and mindfulness.

Sometimes I'm out walking the dog when it's cold out -- especially when it's cold and windy, I'll find myself cursing the weather. I'll hunch my shoulders and turn my head to try to avoid the wind... But if I just relax my body and observe the cold as an interesting sensation, I no longer suffer from it.

That same technique is used in some cancer treatment centers for people in chronic pain.
 
So it totally makes sense that harvest and winter time celebrations began long ago. I think that's very much in line with what those articles are talking about.
 

Feeling the coziness of being by a crackling fire with a mug of hot cocoa or whatever and curled up with a good book or your significant other and the dog or cat at your feet is calming beyond a doubt. But, having to go out in bitter cold and perhaps treacherous weather cannot not in my opinion have a positive effect on one's psyche.
 
Lewkat said:
Feeling the coziness of being by a crackling fire with a mug of hot cocoa or whatever and curled up with a good book or your significant other and the dog or cat at your feet is calming beyond a doubt. But, having to go out in bitter cold and perhaps treacherous weather cannot not in my opinion have a positive effect on one's psyche.
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My take on the article was that reframing one's idea of being outside made that more enjoyable and less restrictive. The psyche improvement wasn't due to actually going out, it was about changing one's ideas about doing so.

I think it's somewhat summed up in a phrase I've often heard and used:

If you can't change your situation, change your attitude.

To me that doesn't mean one needs to learn to endure and accept bad situations it just means that you need to assess what you have the power to change and to learn to accept the things you cannot change.
 
Lewkat said:
Feeling the coziness of being by a crackling fire with a mug of hot cocoa or whatever and curled up with a good book or your significant other and the dog or cat at your feet is calming beyond a doubt. But, having to go out in bitter cold and perhaps treacherous weather cannot not in my opinion have a positive effect on one's psyche.
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No, but it would make you appreciate the warm fire even more!
 

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