Winter Mindsets
Every year around this time in Cleveland, there is a meme circulated on social media about Ohio’s 12 seasons. This year, here in mid-March, I think that we have passed first winter, fool’s spring, second winter, and are now likely in spring of deception.
I mean, I’m really hoping we are there or maybe, just maybe, beyond. I wouldn’t mind skipping over third winter.
For the first time in about nine years, it was a real winter here from the start of January through the end of February. Snow on the ground that didn’t melt. Sidewalks and driveways that were continuously icy. Salt and snow melt shortages at hardware stores. Snow days out of school. Cold days out of school.
It was a lot even for me. Through my decade in Cleveland, I have developed a fairly strong “positive winter mindset”, a concept I have taken away from exposure to information about how the Scandinavian cultures think about winter. The key is not only to accept winter, but also to embrace it as a special time. It’s part of a cycle of nature and life, and a time that allows for rest and restoration before the seasons that bring back light and warmth.
There are two different Scandinavian approaches to embracing winter time that have gotten traction in the mainstream and social media in the past five years. One is to get happy inside. This is the concept of hygge among the Danes and koselig among the Norwegians. While, like everything these days, there has been effort to commodify the concepts – the candles! the fluffy throw blankets! the woolen socks! – the concept is not focused on the things that make us cozy.
Instead, it’s the feelings and emotions of comfort, belonging, and togetherness that lead to coziness. Time at home, with loved ones, not only offers protection against the weather outside, but offers time to strengthen relationships which, time and time again, has been shown to be the bedrock of happiness.
The other approach is to get happy outside. This the concept of friluftsliv among the Swedes, a word that roughly translates to “open air life”. This less known word and concept first started to appear in the US media during the pandemic when people across the globe were figuring out ways to spend time and be together outdoors.
In Sweden, friluftsliv contributes to time spent on winter sports – cross-country skiing, snowshoeing – but it also contributes to an ethos of just get on out there despite the temperature or weather. Put on layers, a reflective vest, a headlamp, and continue with your morning jog, walk to school, or playground time. The associated saying is “There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes”.
The Swedes and Norwegians particularly are well known for the high-value placed on nature and spending time outdoors. If you believe in looking at data, correlations, and possibly causations, it’s not hard to connect some dots between time outside and high-rates of self-esteem among adolescents and consistently high ratings of contentment among adults in Scandinavian countries. Economic structures may also play a part, but that’s a discussion for another blogger to take on.
As this year’s winter closes out in the Great Lakes region, I am looking forward to what’s ahead. Perhaps exactly because it felt like a dark, hard winter in ways beyond just the weather, the spring feels that much sweeter.
Come the summer months, it will be time to live outdoors, radiantly, with gratitude for sun and warmth.
