While most people in St Andrews are aware of SAD (seasonal adjustment disorder) that comes during winter time in Scotland, its summer counterpart is less well-known but just as real.
Summer is my favourite time of the year! Having to move on from long sunny days spent by the beach, family vacations, and the glow you get from a summer tan can be a dreadful feeling. Looking back at your summer memories and most importantly realising how the incoming of fall means getting back into a school routine might leave you feeling bluer than you would expect. Below are some tips that can help you move into autumn with the same fabulous summer vibes.
1. Finding a creative way to preserve your summer memories
Working through negative emotions is much easier when you keep yourself busy! This can be done through making a scrapbook, a collage, creating a playlist for fall, making healthier meal plans to follow, or even starting a new tradition. Make time to preserve your summer memories, but don’t forget to get excited about awesome events that the new season has to offer!
2. Focusing on yourself
Summer can be a socially exhausting time! Spending most of your time with friends and family, working summer jobs, or being outdoors, it becomes difficult to find time for yourself. For a change, take a moment to think about your long term goals, have a self-care night, or plan out your upcoming week! Taking time for yourself can be refreshing and help you to mentally prepare for the new season!
3. Declutter and reorganize
Responsibilities and commitments from school work can be so overwhelming that reorganizing your room can be a great relief for your mental health. It also may be a way for you to get excited about a new routine!
4. Ignore social media FOMO
It is definitely time to stop scrolling through everyone’s summer vacation photos on Instagram. People present their best lives on Instagram and obsessing over these edited verisions of people’s lives is only an invitation to feeling worse about the summer ending.
5. Cuddle a puppy
Hands down, this tip is the secret to conquering sadness fast. The hormone, oxytocin, released from petting animals is literally responsible for making you feel happy. Therefore, the recipe for the quickest mood boost is to visit someone who owns a dog for some puppy therapy.
Ultimately, to get over the end of summer blues it is important to keep reassuring yourself that change is not always a bad thing and to try not to resist it. Reaching out and discussing it with friends or family might be comforting. Taking every day and every feeling one step at a time and fully embracing change can help you see all the positive and exciting aspects of each passing season. The end of summer blues is very real and felt all over the world, and it is definitely much easier to address when you are aware of it!