How I Use Art to Treat My Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

This time of year always lands heavy on my spirit. When the sun slips away earlier and the days turn inward, I feel it in my body and in my mood—an ache of sadness, a slowing-down, a sharp edge of irritability I don’t always recognize as my own. I fortify myself with vitamin D, B vitamins, GABA, L-Theanine, and magnesium, tending to my nervous system the way I tend to a garden that needs extra love through winter. But supplements alone don’t reach the deeper places—the places where my creativity, joy, and sense of connection live. For that, I return to my art.

Creating and witnessing art is medicine for me—real, physiological medicine. Whether I’m weaving a new fiber piece or letting color guide me across a canvas, I can feel my brain stirring awake as dopamine rises, lighting up the reward pathways that winter tries to dim. And I don’t keep this practice to myself. I seek out beauty intentionally: wandering through museums, catching live music, sitting in the hush of a gallery, or gathering with friends to make things with our hands. There’s something powerful about shared creation—our laughter, our stories, our quiet moments—all becoming part of the healing process. In community, in color, in texture, I find my way back to myself.

Art brings me home when the season feels cold and uncertain. It is how I stay lit from the inside, how I remember that joy is not gone—it just asks to be made.

🎨 ✨Create with me. If the darker seasons are weighing on your spirit too, I invite you to explore how art, movement, and mindful connection can rekindle your inner light. Join me in the 6-Week Somatic Art Integration Program and experience how creativity can become a pathway back to grounding, joy, and happiness during these cold months.