If asked to describe winter in three words, many of us might default to terms like cold, grey, and depressing. However, what we may not immediately realise is that framing winter in such negative terms can profoundly shape how we experience the season.
This kind of language is hardly surprising, as winter is often portrayed in bleak and desolate tones, particularly in literature. Take Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for example:
“It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them.”
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is little better:
“A sorrowful sight I saw: dark night coming down prematurely, and sky and hills mingled together in one bitter whirl of wind and suffocating snow.”
However, winter does not have to be a bleak and depressing experience. It can be enjoyed and celebrated no matter where you live in the world.
Tromsø, Northern Norway
Kari Leibowitz, author of How to Winter, spent time living in Tromsø, a city in Northern Norway, to explore how its residents navigate some of the harshest winters on Earth.
Situated over 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of the Arctic Circle, Tromsø experiences a sub-Arctic climate with consistently sub-zero temperatures throughout the winter. The chilling Arctic winds often make the already freezing conditions feel even more biting.
Adding to the challenge, Tromsø endures the Polar Night, a phenomenon where the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon for two entire months, enveloping the region in continuous darkness.
The Wintertime mindset
Leibowitz’s research focused on how the people of Norway thought about winter, which she called ‘wintertime mindsets’. Rather than dreading the long, dark days, as she had expected, their approach to the season was one of excitement and comfort.
The challenges of the season were obviously acknowledged, and there were many. Heavy snowfalls or icy conditions can make travel challenging. The area is also surrounded by mountains, and heavy snowfall can increase the risk of avalanches in certain areas, particularly in steep, remote regions.
Like the UK, it’s cold, lacking in light, and commutes to and from work are often done in the dark.
But while the British are very good at winter-bashing, Norway do it differently. Rather than seeing winter as wasted time and something to get through, they engaged with the opportunities to be had.
Mindset and beliefs
The crucial point that Leibowitz highlights is that winter is not something that just happens to us. We are able to shape how we experience it. It all comes down to our mindset and our beliefs about the season.
If we expect winter to be dreadful, it will be. Everything will be viewed through that lens of negativity. We won’t adapt to the season, and we’ll look for things to confirm our belief that winter is a dreadful time of year.
Nothing about the light or the temperature or the cold will change. Winter will still exist. How we approach it and react to it are the only things that can be altered.
“Beliefs about winter matter: the stories we tell ourselves are consequential, and the interpretation of how we feel in winter can determine whether dark days feel gloomy and monotonous or cozy and restful.” ~ Kari Leibowitz.
The opportunities of winter
In Norway, they adopt what Leibowitz calls a ‘positive wintertime mindset’. For some it’s a time to embrace high-energy outdoors pursuits such as skiing and snowboarding, ice skating, snowmobiling and tobogganing.
For others it’s a time for calm, contemplation and a slower pace of life. A time of relief from the high-energy extraversion of summer and the busyness of the rest of the year. It’s viewed as a time when people are expected – and allowed – to seek calm and enjoy some quiet contemplation.
Winter is also seen as a time for intimate candlelit dinners, reading by the fire, baking, crafting, listening to music, playing boardgames, inviting friends around, enjoying warming drinks and winter comfort foods.
There’s the opportunity to enjoy cosy pub lunches, binge-watch TV shows, read the paper, try a puzzle, take up a new hobby, or venture outside and enjoy what nature has to offer.
Hygge
Low lights, fairy lights and scented candles are often used to create a cosy, calm space with bean bags, comfy chairs, and extra blankets for warmth.
Often referred to as Hygge, Leibowitz reminds us that it’s less about buying blankets and scented candles, and more about changing our relationship with darkness. Embracing it rather than dreading it, leaning into it rather than awake, and enjoying the peace it brings rather than impatiently waiting for it to end.
“We don’t need fancy stuff to feel hygge. With the right mindset and intention, any space can be made hygge; without such intention and emotion, no amount of fuzzy blankets and candles can make a gathering feel cozy.” ~ Kari Leibowitz
Nature in winter
When we embrace winter as a season to be celebrated, it’s much easier to notice that nature can be spectacular during the colder months.
There are cloud patterns, frost that sparkles, icicles along the edges of roofs, new buds on bare branches, the first signs of snowdrops, rising fog, colourful sunsets, starry nights, and the sound of winter birds.
The stillness of a snow-covered landscape or the crunch of frost underfoot reminds us that winter holds its own quiet charm and wonder.
The power of mindset
Importantly, how we react to the darkness of winter can reflect how we deal with other difficult, dark times in our lives and circumstances we did not choose and cannot control. It also demonstrates the power of mindset in shaping our experience of the world.
“Our mindsets influence our behaviour and inspire action, and our actions reinforce our mindsets. When we view darkness as a part of winter to be treasured, we are more likely to dim the lights, light candles, and invite the night to envelope us in a cozy quiet atmosphere.
Simultaneously, the very act of luxuriating in candlelight and letting in the darkness reinforces our positive mindsets about winter, reminding us that even darkness can be a delight.” ~ Kari Leibowitz
There is plenty to be enjoyed and celebrated in winter. There’s beauty in its stillness and warmth in its quiet magic. But only if we choose to look.
