- First, Norwegians celebrate the things one can only do in winter. "People couldn’t wait for the ski season to start," says Leibowitz. Getting outside is a known mood booster, and so Norwegians keep going outside, whatever is happening out there. Notes Leibowitz: "There’s a saying that there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing."
I notice this around New England, too. I've never had issues with seasonal depression, and I attribute it to the fact that I love being outside in winter. Winter hiking is beautiful, and I'm a ski racer so I get really really excited when it starts to snow. A lot of people at school who aren't from the area approach winter with the "survival" mindset instead of the "enjoyment" mindset and they're generally the ones that have trouble. I worked on a conservation project in Alaska this summer and the whole 19 hours of daylight thing was really weird. The sun never completely set, and I often thought about how dark and depressing the winters must be if the sun doesn't completely rise. I asked one of the Forest Service people on our project about it and she said that the winter was beautiful and the Nordic skiing was absolutely incredible. Her only complaint was that she went through headlamp batteries like crazy. "Enjoyment" over "survival"!!!
I grew up in Michigan and as a child I really enjoyed the winters. However, as an adult the winters come with increased responsibilities that I'd rather not have. Shoveling the driveway, the sidewalk car maintenance, and car accidents etc. Also, the sun really does disappear for about 4-5 months. That's no small thing. I have friends with lamps they keep by their work stations to look at for 20 min a day to keep them from being depressed. I would agree that much of it is a mindset but there are certain conditions that make a positive state of mind MUCH easier to come by and chief among those conditions for most people is sunlight.