After a long year, overshadowed with a lingering sense of loss and disruption, fall of 2016 has finally arrived. The hours shorten into an all-encompassing darkness. You slow. You shudder. You hunker down as nature fades around you. You too feel like you are fading. Like this is something you can't just come back from...
Well, buck up, bitches! I've got some things to energize you when the life around you just isn't enough.
First things first, you have to wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed! It's so hard to do that when it's pitch black outside. Every day, I wake up from fall to the end of winter, I literally just want to pull the covers over my head and call in dead, because it is so hard to rise from sleep into darkness. I know, I know, I'm such a weirdo that I would rather spend the day dreaming than to fulfill my responsibilities as a functioning member of the human race.
But if you happen to share the weirdness and need some help waking up I recommend the Phillips Wake Up Light w/ Sunrise Simulation. It's an alarm clock with a light timer. It starts gradually brightening 30 minutes before your alarm is set to go off allowing your body to subconsciously awaken with the light. With this light I'm so awake I get out of bed even before the alarm goes off. It's a bit spendy, but worth it to not spend your entire waking winter life in a state of half zomb.
Now that we're are out of bed let's wash our faces! Yes, I suppose that water alone can wake you up, but not quite like the one-two punch of using Origins GinZing RefreshingScrub Cleanser, then their Energy Boosting Moisturizer. These products are supposed to help refresh your skin with coffee beans and ginseng in the actual goo, but for me, the most immediate effect is the bright citrus smell. It hits the olfactory system boosting serotonin production. Basically, you feel like you are running through a field of orange trees instead of dragging your zom-body into the cold barren landscape.
Well, if the light and the citrus fragrance of the lotion don't perk you up there is always MOAR CAFFEINE! Kusmi Tea's BB Detox tea is amazing. BB Detox is a green tea that is ramped up with hints of grapefruit. To be honest, I don't know exactly how this is a detox (something about antioxidants and digestive benefits), but I do know it's seriously delicious, and the perfect winter pick/warm me up.
Perfect, of course, is relative. One man's long year is a child's blink. One child's winter is ice forever. All you can do is thaw the cold that immediately surrounds until the fair breath of spring brings respite. You can close the windows, turn on the heat and employ a few neat-o tricks to get by. It's not quite un-numb, but it's something until warmth and life return.
