Anxiety - Out of the Dirt

Early fall every year I get the end of summer blues. Just as soon as I start seeing the leaves turning colors and the temperatures start dropping at night my mood changes.

Then before you know it, it is dark when you get up in the morning and dark when you get off work in the evening.

When I start seeing less sunlight, in the Midwest, I get a little blue.

I know I am not the only one. Many people suffer from the lack of sunlight blues. According to the American Psychiatry Association 5 % of U.S. adults suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which is a form of depression from changing of the season or also known as winter depression. I am of this 5%. The shorter days and lack of sunlight triggers mine. That is why I know I would never make it living in Seattle.

Over the years, I have found ways to deal with this. I am not saying I do not still get blue at the end of summer. I am saying I can deal with it a little better by doing these 7 things:

Sunshine is the golden rule cure for the end of summer blues.

You must get outside and get in the sunshine as much as possible, even if its only for 10 minutes do it! Because the chances of sunshine are going to get fewer. Sit back, relax, and research how to care for your new plant.

Fall outdoor activities–

Get outside and enjoy the fall harvest. Take the dogs for walks more frequently now that the temperatures are dropping. Just stop and enjoy the changes of the season.

Get outside even if its cold.

I have a hard time with this one. I do not like the cold. But I will get out if the sun comes out on a winter day. I make myself go outside and enjoy the sunshine even on cold days.

Make plans for your plants.

I make a big to-do about bringing my plants inside too. I plan where I am going to place all of them and which ones I will hang and which room I will put them in throughout the house. Bringing in the plants is fun because now I can enjoy their beauty inside all winter long.

I also make notes of my growing season and plan for the next one.

Let in the light–

I probably pay a little higher electric bill than most during the winter, but I am saving money on doctor’s bills, counseling, and prescription drugs. I open the curtains and blinds on days the sun is shining. The rest of the time I use lamps and overhead lights. I leave them on a lot during the winter to help with the gray days that make me depressed.

Change your décor colors–

Another trick I use to keep my depression at bay, during winter months, is to change my décor in my home to sunny yellows in my bedroom and bathroom. My living room is warm neutrals like browns and tans. I lived in an apartment before and every room was painted gray. It become very depressing during the winter months. My main linen and décor for my winter bedroom and bathroom is sunny yellow and it helps tremendously to keep my mood more positive.

Add winter plants to your collection.

Coming in January

Be sure to check out the variety of plants that bloom and/or produce gorgeous foliage during the winter months.

Here is a list of winter plants: Cyclamen, Snowdrops, Winter Jasmine, Winter Aconite, English Primrose, Camellia, and many more. Also, the traditional holiday ones like Poinsettia and Christmas Cactus.

I would love to hear your ideas for how you cope with the end of summer blues.

Until next time!

Anxiety is Real

I look back to all the times in my life when I have been most productive, equally most successful and each time my life was stable, and I was at least content if not genuinely happy.

But as we all know, this is not always the case.

Twenty-twenty is a good example, a year no one could have predicted.

I was going through one of those very rough times in my life, in the late summer of 2019. In times like these, in the past, I would let my anxiety take over and make irrational, emotion-based, poor decisions that would inevitably result in a major setback in my life.

An episode of this, which I have experienced other times in my life is like taking 20 steps backward, and sometimes, those 20 steps put you deep in a hole.

I have found myself there, before, as I am sure many of you have because you let anxiety take control.

This is a blog about the natural therapeutic ways I have found to decrease anxiety through caring for a plant to caring for a Poodle. (I use Poodle as a reference here because I have two Poodles. Any breed of dog can have the same therapeutic effect.)

I was heading down the “unhappy with my life” rabbit hole. I was lonely, and my job was making so many changes I could not keep up. As a result, I was starting to let the anxiety control. When I start to let anxiety take over that is what triggers poor decisions, for me.

A New Way to Cope with Anxiety

This time was different, I decided to just focus some energy on myself. I decided to make myself a Zen room (or room I could sit, relax, meditate, and journal).

I still had two full months of warm enough weather to keep plants outside. Where better to put my Zen space than my apartment patio?

My patio would become my Zen room. I have always had a love for plants and gardening. I just had not focused on it in a while.

1. Finding your Zen room.

Your Zen room may be in your home office or living room, anywhere you have a little space to relax with as little distraction as possible.

Looking down at the 3 plants that I had neglected over the spring and early summer I decided these 3 would be my beginning patio garden. I had taken them out of the house in spring and sat them down on the patio deck and forgot about them. (I do not ever suggest doing this. This is plant parent neglect. That’s a No, no!)

My Pothos plant,” Ivy” (short for Devil’s Ivy) was growing quite well, she looked better than I had seen her in a while, so this was very encouraging. Yes, I name my plants! Yes, all of them! See my Beginner’s Level # 1 Rule: Your Plant Must Have a Name! blog here.

I looked over at my Purple Heart plant, which I had pronounced dead at the beginning of spring and thought I would throw it out. To my surprise, it had new lush, purple leaves growing. So, I picked it up and cut off the dead part, watered the new growth, and named her Violet!

I looked at my Aloe Vera plant and seen she, Vera is her name, had 2 spots of new growth that looked like baby Aloe Veras. How cool I thought! I later looked this up and learned that Aloe Vera self-propagate. In other words, they grow new plants, these are their pups, and you can separate them from the mother plant and place them in their own pots. Now I had 3 Aloe Vera plants.

The 3 Original Plants:

Ivy- My Golden Pothos

Violet, My Purple Heart

Vera, My Aloe Vera

2. Making an old hobby new again.

That weekend I visited Walmart’s Lawn and Garden Center and came home with a Boston fern, Mona the Love Fern. The following week I read about lots of plants and how to care for them and bought supplies to care for them properly and found I was spending all my time on the patio. I had made an old hobby of mine new again and this time with a fiery passion.

And so, the plant obsession began.

3. Digging in soil, planting, watering, feeding, pruning, and caring for plants.

Horticulture therapy or therapeutic effects of gardening is not a new discovery. This type of therapy has been around for a long time, think of the uses of Bonsai trees. This type of therapy allows individuals to rely on their senses more, the smell of flowers and herbs, the touch of soft leaves, and the visual vibrancy the colors of plants bring to our environment. Read my Plants for All 5 Senses blog here.

4. Taking time to research a new hobby or learn more about an existing one.

This is how I got started. I noticed a natural thing occurring while caring for my plants and learning to become a plant parent, I was much calmer. I was not focusing on irrational emotional decisions, instead, I was relaxing more and feeling happier. It was therapeutic and my anxiety was easing up.

I came home that next weekend with 7 more plants!

5. Start a new hobby that makes you money.

In January of 2020, my fiancé came home for the weekend with the flu. The flu turned into an emergency hospital stay and ultimately, the kidney failure diagnosis that ended his career.

The next few months were some of the top-ranking difficult, in my life. During the initial hospital stay, we discussed getting a Poodle puppy and starting a Poodle breeding business, as a new side hustle option. I was not sure we were going to be able to do it living in an apartment, then, he was sick, and we were up against a whole new lifestyle.

For some crazy reason, I decided to get this puppy amongst everything we were going through. Once again, I was unstable, super anxious, and about to make irrational emotionally bad decisions. But this time it did not feel like an irrational, emotionally bad decision…

It just felt right!

6. Exercise and get sunshine, while enjoying your new hobby.

I now know we needed the Poodle puppy, Bella, we named her. We watched her grow; we were able to forget everything going on and play with her. I could not wait to get home and play outside with her.

There are not many things more therapeutic than cuddling a furry, soft Poodle puppy. She was amazing, the focus was what we needed, and she got us through this tough time. Looking back now, both Erik, my fiancé and I, realize she was therapy for us during those darkest times.

Bella is very much a nurturing dog; she is going to make an excellent mom and she could even be an excellent service dog with some training. This is our next step for the Poodles.

7. Take your hobby a step further by investing a little more into it.

I have not made any irrational, emotion-based poor decisions since I started my plant obsession and now, I have 2 Poodles and over 60 plants, how could I?

Recently I have started training with Bella and Cooper, while it costs a little money, I consider it a good investment. Not only am I learning to train well-behaved dogs, but I am also finding more confidence in myself. Seeing these two learn new desired behaviors has been amazing! Through all of this, I am content and happy and able to cope with my anxiety in healthier ways.

8. Weekly plant care can be therapeutic. Make it a routine.

I do not wait for anxiety to build up anymore, I practice my plant and poodle therapy daily. When I have a tough day at work or home life gets on my last nerve I relax and cuddle up with a poodle or play fetch with them.

Plant care on Saturdays is a routine for me. I take this time to destress from my week. I allow myself to forget all about how tough life can be for at least an hour and just focus on the beautiful plants around me.

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9. Do daily therapeutic practices.

Becoming a plant and/ or dog parent is a daily practice. Every day I learn something new about caring for plants and I love caring for my Poodles.

I hope you could identify with my story and are ready to join me on my journey to natural therapy for anxiety with Plants to Poodles.

Thank you for reading!

Until Next Time!

7 Cures for the End of Summer Blues