Canadian researchers trial nature trick to boost mood in winter
The start of a new year: a time for optimism, ambitious plans to improve the world, and the grim suspicion that the first couple of months may well be a miserable slog through the deepest of winter’s gloom.
But for those who fear the cold and dark ahead, help is on the horizon. Researchers in Canada are investigating a simple trick they hope will boost flagging spirits even when the days are short and frost is in the air.
“People really need something to help them get through the winter, especially after Christmas,” said Dr Holli-Anne Passmore, the psychologist leading the study at Concordia University of Edmonton in Alberta. “If people don’t like winter in the first place, they really don’t see anything good in it.”
Between January and March, the plan is for at least 100 volunteers in Edmonton – a city where winter days can mean seven hours of daylight and temperatures as low as -35C – to spend two weeks going about their normal routines, but with one small change.
The participants will be instructed, while they are out and about, to pay attention to the natural amid the human-made – the frosty tree beside the tower block, the animal footprints on the snowy pavement, the icicles dangling from the warehouse roof – and make notes on how it makes them feel.
