Grass is riz

For the first time in months, a shining beam of glorious light escapes from gunmetal cloud. The tiniest sensation of warmth tickles across bare skin and with it comes a sense of well-being and satisfaction that we had almost forgotten. We incline our collective faces to the sky for an instant before going back to what we were doing before. A circle of daffodils rise on a grass verge. We decide to leave the raincoat in the car. Spring is in the air.

And how welcome it is. On behalf of you, dear reader, allow me to raise my middle finger to rain, scream obscenities at snow and plant my metaphorical boot right in the metaphorical nadgers of winter in general. In six month's time the idea of snowy fields, cold noses and winter evenings might fill me with a wistful longing, but for now I’m happy for winter to piss off for good. It’s been a long, cold slog (I need not provide a link confirming this, you’ve all seen the flippin’ papers. We almost ran out of grit for the roads. Grit for the roads, people).

The cold months are of particular difficulty for sufferers of Seasonal Affective Disorder (known colloquially as the winter blues). S.A.D. is a mood disorder that may either contribute to clinical depression or affect people who have normal mental health through the rest of the year. I’ll give you the Wikipedia rundown to save you the time:

“Symptoms of SAD may consist of: difficulty waking up in the morning, tendency to oversleep as well as to overeat, and especially a craving for carbohydrates, which leads to weight gain. Other symptoms include a lack of energy, difficulty concentrating on completing tasks, and withdrawal from friends, family, and social activities. All of this leads to the depression, pessimism, and lack of pleasure which characterize a person suffering from this disorder.”

Doesn’t sound like much fun, does it? Although S.A.D. is a recognised condition the symptoms above might sound familiar to many more people than have been actually diagnosed. The most important sufferer from these symptoms is, of course, me, and this weekend’s worth of sunshine has done me no end of good.

S.A.D. is generally believed to be related to the amount of light (specifically sunlight) that people are exposed to, largely because of the success rate of ‘light therapy,’ a treatment involving (shockingly) very bright lights. In as many as 85% of cases exposure to bright lights for a timed period each day leads to a reduction in symptoms, a pretty good statistic even allowing for the placebo effect.

Obviously there isn’t as much sunlight around during the winter, but even the average cloudy day is normally brighter than being inside. The problem is winter being such an icy bastard, and conditions generally keeping us indoors. This means less vitamin D (normally obtained from sunlight) and crucially, less exercise.

There are multiple studies linking exercise to increased well-being. Not only does the occasional run around make you physically fitter it also releases the delicious endorphins the keep you cheerful. Anybody that regularly goes jogging knows the feeling of satisfaction and self-righteousness that kicks in after you’ve been running for a while and it’s become clear you aren’t going to die. Very few of us do as much exercise as we ought to, and the rain and cold provide a huge stumbling block even if we were so inclined.

This leads to a depressive cycle that can, in some cases, become self-sustaining. You feel like crap because you aren’t getting enough exercise and vitamin D. So you can’t summon the strength to face the weather and go outside for longer than you can get away with. But the more depressed you get, the more you crave sugar and carbs (another acknowledged effect of S.A.D). Eating more combined with less exercise leads to weight gain, which makes you even more depressed, making you even less likely to face the weather and get some exercise.

Now, running around a bit isn’t going to fix all your problems. It is, however, a good way of reversing the above trend, and also serves to illustrate the following point:

In a self-sustaining cycle, removing one contributing factor may be enough to cause the system to decay entirely.

This is often proved, much to our detriment, in the various ecosystems that humanity likes to play merry hell with around the globe. Remove one element of, say, a food chain, and the rest of the system begins to degrade. A recently noticed and popularised example is the poor old honeybee, whose mysterious disappearance could lead to a devastating effect on world food sources.

However, sometimes a system that is generally agreed to be corrosive can be upset by the introduction of only one positive element. A mixture of problems that together are insurmountable can be rendered mundane by the loss of only one one. Just one action can be enough start a new, more amiable trend.

Knowing is, of course, half the battle, and the above realisation sure comes in handy. It certainly isn’t going to be blue skies from here on out (it’s only March) and there’s always the next winter to come. But taking one single action might prove to be the tipping point on a slide that is positive in nature. I would suggest using that as a motivating factor the next time the weather’s getting you down. Every run around, every visit to the gym, every minute spent out in daylight, every healthy meal you eat is... well, it’s nothing, on its own. But it’s the start of something else, a tiny part of a positive process, and I think remembering it makes things easier. When the weather outside is draggin' you down, it might make it easier if you think to yourself:

“Every moment spent outside is a bit more vitamin D, a bit more exercise, that will make me marginally fitter and marginally happier, and I’ll eat marginally less crap and so be more inclined to exercise, and if it keeps going like this I’ll be a fucking supermodel in six week’s time.”

Spring is sprung. Go outside and see.