Cold Weather or TMS

Being young, I loved winter. Building igloos, making snowmen/women, being outside in the frigid air.
NOW winter is dreaded. Partly because I am not as agile, fear of falling on ice and snow gives me pause. Winter holidays are no longer anticipated, but dreaded. Also, the shorter days, offering us less sunshine (when the sun is shining) can bring my mood down. For me, the dread of winter comes from fear, mixed with sadness. I have worked this winter to push myself through these doldrums. Made plans with friends, getting out when walking was reasonable.
When February comes I am lifted, somewhat, anticipating the first crocus bloom and looking forward to the daffodils of March.
So, getting through another winter is then again a joyous celebration as the redbud trees begin their bloom in April.
These are my thoughts.
Karina, your thoughts are?

Lainey

 

Hi Lainey ,

Thanks for that and very reconizabkle.
My thought on this: as i kid i was more Okay with winter but not a fan even back then ..
i suspected for many years i do suffer from winter depression. I have a special lamp for 10 years.
My father suffered the same problem , and as soon as october he was telling us how much he disliked fall and winter.
So i can see how i am the same. Must say when i worked outside the house (before Tms took my job) it was milder. More do able.
Back then i also still could drive in our car which was also a lot better
Since i am at home its worse. And like you i do try to still go out for a walk. And also meet friends.
But its a matter of pushing my self many times. And this i consider a good push ‘ cause if not i totally hybernate.
My husband does not have this so luckily someone instead of myself drags me out too.
But i just not have been well last weeks.
Low mood, more pains, sadness
Many times when spring finally was here i was almost to exausted at first to enjoy right away.
Its a bit of a strugle cause : i am completely honest to myself about hating the season. But because i must face it every year i am not okay with myself feeling that .. complex?

 

It's easy to tell if it's the cold weather itself contributing to the pain or if it's entirely conditioning to the cold weather. Are you a) outside freezing in it or are you b) inside looking at it? If you are outside in it but dressed warmly, that's the same as b). If you're outside freezing, then your body is doing what it's supposed to do - your muscles are tightening up and you're shivering, so dress warmer. If it's b) , then it's definitely a conditioned response or you need to turn up your home heat because you're freezing.
I bought a Canada Goose parka 4 years ago. Best investment ever. I never hunch my shoulders now when I'm outside.

EileenS, Toronto Canada. Our groundhog said there are 6 more weeks of winter.

PS, Read Day 10 of Alan Gordon's new program. If you are truly cold, his somatic tracking method would be very powerful in allowing your brain to understand that tight muscles and shivering isn't scary, dangerous, a reason for pain, etc.

 

Those silly groundhogs. Did not realize the Canadian GH's were in on this too.
Alan's somatic tracking is good. I have used it to track pain I had while sitting in a car for a long drive. My mind finally gave up on sending the pain signals.
I totally get karinabrown hating the season and the associated pains that occur with this onset of winter.
Karinabrown, maybe your father's problem 'taught' you that winter is not good for you. So much of our learning as a child is just by association and meta-messages from our parents and others. Particularly the TMS sensitive people, like those of us on this site, would pick up on these 'teachings'. I hope that your winter weather subsides somewhat so you can begin to feel better.
The best to you.
Lainey

 

Yes some more weeks to go.
Just saw some green new leafs in our garden so somehow nature is getting reading for the new season.
There is a flue epedemic message on the news. The only good thing is now its sunny finally after weeks of dark skies.
Cold but sunny
Wish you well too

 

I’m not that psysically cold. Cosy well heated home. Winter pretty mild so far , so its not that i guess.

 

I hate those flu dire warnings. Another scare tactic to feed into our human desire to stay in fear. There's nothing different I can or would do because of the warnings, so I choose to ignore them.

 

I do to try to ignore.
Like a true worrier sadly this is added to my worry list
Its also hard ignoring when every around is sick and talking about it..

 

I do notice however that when the temperature goes down and a central heating system turns on, my allergies - ear, nose, throat, whatever - begin flaring up, especially if I'm living in an environment with wall-to-wall carpeting. Fibres circulating through the ducts? But I suppose my reaction to the fibres could be a conditioned response based on seasonal change. Interesting to note that allergies are often seasonally triggered, which points to some strong emotional conditioning and programming associated with change of any kind. For instance, when I moved from Tuolumne Meadows, where I was allergy free all summer, into a Denver apartment with law students in the fall, my allergies went crazy. They had rugs and a central heating system. I moved away to a little house to study round the clock for my Ph.D. orals. No allergies there while I was megadosing vitamins and avoiding caffeine. After passing my orals, I moved back in with the law students down in the basement apartment on Colfax Avenue in Denver, but my allergies had totally vanished. If I was a behavioral psychologist, I'd say my allergies in the fall were triggered by my anxiety about the upcoming oral exams. After passing them, the same environment produced no allergic reactions when the stress disappeared. Also, I'd been having a great deal of fun that summer living in Tuolumne Meadows on the rescue team chasing women and climbing rocks and really didn't want to return to grad school and give up having fun. But there's no doubt the same exact environment produced allergies at one time and didn't produce them at another. The only thing that really changed in the same environment were my emotions.

 

Like BruceMC says, I am conditioned to feel the cold, probably because I have no body mass; I am one of those skinny guys who can eat anything in large quantities. It doesn’t seem to help warm me up, because I am always cold. My BMI says I am “Normal” at 20.92. Do normal people feel as cold as I do? I have concluded my age is a big factor, I reason that most of the Muscle Beach weight lifters of the 1934 era in Venice Ca lost most of their muscle mass in old age. In old age your muscles are supposed to turn to fat, if this is the case why have I got any I am 70 this year? I would also suppose my metabolism and personality type A - T has something to do with it.

Several years ago I tried to buff up like SteveO, with devoted gym time, a trainer for two years I worked out to put on more mass, I actually put on 13 lbs. It was all to no avail, because as soon as the windsurfing season came I lost the 13 plus another 10. Whilst I enjoyed working out it wasn’t my hobby.

I agree cold weather does not cause pain, but my response to cold weather and conditions is an involuntary hunch to reduce body surface area, as we do to conserve heat. This in turn often adds to my point of TMS tension pain in my neck (similar to Emre).

My lovely wife is less than sympathetic since she is a “hottie”, her answer to my whining is: “Put a sweater on.” Sometimes a non TMS answer is the one we need.

 

Hi ElieenS,
I am going on a Rockie Mouintain trip Vancouver to Calgory late April this year, bearing in mind what I just wrote, do I need a Goose Parker? Living in Sothern California I don't have any winter clothing!

 

I don't know about the Rockies in Canada in April, but was talking a ride up in the mountains of New Mexico in April, with the intentions of having a picnic, but there was at least a foot of snow on the picnic table when we arrived.
Lainey

 

Are you doing the Rocky Mountaineer trip? If you are, excellent! We did the trip in Sept 2016. Don't go out and buy a Canada Goose coat if you live in Southern California. They're expensive. Tell me if it's the Rocky Mountaineer trip, then I can better tell you what to pack. I have also been to Calgary and Vancouver on their own several times.

 

Thanks EileenS, yes it's the Rocky Mountaineer Vancouver Jasper Calgary all inclusive trip. My wife booked it up last year, she is thrilled. My ambition is to do Yoga on the Glacier trip. We got a good deal, do you think its because its cold in April. Do I need thermal underwear?

Thanks Lainey for reminding me that altitude equals cold. I watched an Everest climbing program last night and felt cold just watching. I also remember that most picnics in UK it rained. The definition of an English summer is: "One Fine Day".

 

Yes, you definitely need thermal underwear and yes, you probably got a good deal because it's April. lol. We did your trip in reverse order. It had snowed in Banff the day before we got there, which was late September, while in Toronto it was still t-shirt weather most days. Pack thermal underwear, lots of sweaters, warm gloves, a toque(woolen hat), a winter jacket if you have one, and boots if you can fit them in your luggage - at least warm hiking boots. You will do lots of hiking. It's very cold on the Columbia ice field, and the further north you go on the trip the colder it gets. You will probably see lots of snow in April. Even in Toronto, we usually get a snow storm in early April before winter is over and Alberta is colder than it is here.
Vancouver will be mild, but not as warm as Southern California. We were in Ramona, California, for a week one March and I would say Vancouver will be like Ramona in March.
It will be an amazing trip even though it is April. Take a real camera if you have one because you will take lots of wonderful pictures. You might see the Bighorn Sheep up close when on the train. They were far away when we passed them, but the train attendants told us they come down by the tracks in the winter. Plus, the food on the train is absolutely delicious! It's a trip of a life time. Have a wonderful time.

 

Thank you Eileen,

We are both very excited; this is the first trip to Canada. We often go to Maui for the windsurfing, but it’s become too expensive in later years. The Rockies trip will be a great treat for us both and as you say trip of a lifetime. We have actually seen programs about it on TV and never imagined being able to go on it. Thanks to my wife’s research and investigating its all booked up and paid for.

I have already found thermal underwear on Amazon, its dirt cheap and a good secondary use would be for polishing rags for my truck, (after they are washed of course), I love my frugality. Good point about a camera, we don’t have a good one yet.

 

I have disliked winter for as long as I can remember, although it has definitely gotten worse as I've gotten older. I'm sensitive to everything I feel, and I tend to react strongly. I have noticed that when I get cold, I STAY cold, *long* after I get inside where it's warm. I dislike the hot, humid summers where I live, too, but the heat doesn't linger inside my body once I get someplace cool the way the cold lingers in me after I get someplace warm. Whether or not that's just my constitution or something conditioned (like maybe my muscles have trouble relaxing after tensing up against the cold, so my circulation can't get going again), I have no idea.

I'm working on something a little bit this year (begrudgingly, so not as wholeheartedly or frequently as I'd like). I can't really hide from the gloom of winter. I can stay inside where it's warm, but in doing so I usually heat the house warmer than I reasonably should, which runs up our electric bill and wastes tons of resources. And there's no hiding from the gloom. It's cloudy here more often than it's sunny in the winter, and my mood is profoundly affected by the cloudy days, for whatever reason. I've realized that the gloom is WORSE inside, where the light is filtered by the windows and the rooms are dark. It's not the same to light a room artificially during the day. My brain seems to know that, too, because I have a much harder time sleeping when I've been inside under artificial light all day. So I've been forcing myself, on days when I have the willpower, to go outside. When it's super gloomy and my town just looks too ugly and gray and tired, I head out into the woods. The woods are gorgeous in the winter, even when there's no snow on the ground. They are so peaceful and stately. And the color and warmth and character of the wood offers comfort and a cradled feeling against the steely, heavy gray sky. I feel supported out there. I usually return home glad for the exercise and a little happier.

I'm also actively working on not tensing up against the cold. Usually I tense up way more than I need to. My husband is from a cold-weather part of the country and has been teaching me to take deep breaths when I tense up my shoulders, tell myself nothing is actually wrong, and let my shoulders melt back into place. Unless I'm literally freezing or under-dressed for the cold, it works! I've noticed I tend to furrow my brow when I tense up against the cold, which sends a message to my brain that I'm unhappy. Letting my shoulders melt usually melts that grimace off my face, too, relaxing my whole mood.

I think it's just like with any other TMS stuff. Hiding from it and contracting away from the perceived cause just makes the discomfort worse. Heading out into it anyway so that your life isn't limited by it takes away power from both the stimulus and the discomfort. I think it's a take-the-bull-by-the-horns type of thing. And get a really good coat and invest in lots of long underwear.

 

Hi fern,

Yes its all just like you discribed.
Inclouding the ‘raised shoulders’ which i am sure gives me upperback pain.
I am working on that too by keep checking my posture and also are doing breathing exersizes. I do go out dressed as a polar bear to go into nature. Do feel slightly better after that. But its somehow draining. And to think i live in the netherlands where winters are considerd to be mild. I think also the gloom coming from peri menopause is involved this winter much more while menopause seems to be getting closer these feelings seems to be stronger.