Wellness Rituals for a Cozy Winter: Creating a Health-Focused Routine

As the days grow shorter and the air turns crisp, winter often makes us retreat indoors, prompting a shift in our daily routines. While the colder months can sometimes lead to feelings of sluggishness or seasonal blues, they also offer a unique opportunity to create new health and wellness rituals that nourish both body and spirit. This blog will explore a variety of practices designed to enhance your well-being during winter, from warming foods and mindful movement to self-care routines that promote mental clarity and emotional resilience. By embracing the season, you can harness the power of winter to create a holistic approach to health that will sustain you through this time of year.

Physical Care

Exposing the body to extremes:

• Hot Therapy: This may sound obvious, but adopting techniques used by northern europeans to bring extra heat to our bodies can be very beneficial. Saunas are a great way to build up a sweat and help to detox. When our blood vessels dilate they increase blood flow around the body and help relived tensions in our muscles. Often during the colder months it’s harder to generate enough heat as you would normally do during a run in summer. Infrared saunas are great as they heat your body, not just the air around you.
• Cold Therapy: It might seem contradictory to expose yourself to cold during the winter months, but the benefit of cold water exposure is not to be sniffed at! Our bodies work best when we are regularly exposed to temperature fluctuations. We are not designed to live in a steady 21 degrees celsius all the time. By exposing yourself to cold you will start to upregulate your immune system, give your cardiovascular system a workout, increase blood flow around the body, increase your energy levels and boost your mood. Start by having a cold shower for 30 seconds at the end of a warm one. Build this up to 2 minutes or eventually get yourself an ice bath! The ideal temperature to feel the benefits of the cold is around 10 degrees.
• Keeping your bedroom cool for a great nights sleep: The ideal temp for a restful sleep is around 18*C, so if your heating is pumping you may not sleep as well as you might think. Your body temperature needs to drop slightly to get into a deep sleep, so by opening your window for a crack of ventilation you will improve your sleep. It is also much better for your breathing and air quality. Get nice and toasty under the covers but keep the room well ventilated and a little on the cooler side.

Health Care:

• Get your meals into a routine: You need three filling, warming and nutritious meals a day. When it’s much colder we require slightly more calories each day to keep up our central core body temperate. It’s why we start to crave rich, carb-heavy foods during this time of year. To avoid overdoing it, prioritise your meals to keep you full. For example, a warming porridge for breakfast, a hearty soup that has a good serving of protein and fibre, and a warm stew for dinner. Avoid summery meals such as a salad, as these don’t have the energy you need to keep you warm and full, so you’ll end up snacking. PRESS do a great Wild Mushroom Risotto or a Keralan Coconut Curry which will hit the spot!
• Get your winter supplement toolbox ready: There are a few supplements you can take every day that will help to optimise your immune function for all the winter coughs and colds that go around. First up, a high dose vitamin C. Vitamin C is an amazing antioxidant and a co-factor in many chemical reactions that happen within our cells and it gets depleted when we are sick or the immune system is working in overdrive. Turmeric and Ginger combine perfectly with vitamin C to reduce the inflammation associated with sickness, and luckily PRESS have an Immunity Shot packed with all of these!
• Vitamin D: This is always a good shout to take during the winter months from November until about April (or when the sun returns). Alternatively a good multivitamin with high levels of Vitamin D (around 400-1000IU) is a great idea. In addition Vitamin D could also help as a mood boosting nutrient to mitigate any SAD symptoms (seasonal Affective Disorder) - this could go well alongside magnesium or St John’s Wort. Please speak to a healthcare professional before starting new supplements and dont take alongside any prescription medications, especially antidepressants .
• Start eating more mushrooms: Mushrooms are some of nature’s best immune boosting superfoods. They’re also incredibly versatile to cook with, cheap and come in a wide variety. Try to eat as many different types as possible, as each offers slightly different benefits. Try your local green grocer or farmers market. I love shitakes for soups, lion’s mane with roasted veg or oyster mushrooms for a stir fry.
• Germ fighting foods: Always have garlic, ginger and lemons in the house. These three are amazing and warding off bacterial and viral infections. Did you know recent research has shown that antioxidant properties in garlic will find and destroy cancer or viral cells whilst leaving healthy cells intact? Amazing stuff! I always cook with garlic, and ginger and lemon can be brewed to make a tea or keep Press Immunity and Ginger shots stocked in your fridge and have one every morning.

Mental & Wellbeing Care:

• Stay social: It can be so easy to cancel plans when the weather is cold, but human contact is so important for our mental health. If you don’t want to go out, be the host and invite friends round to yours. You can cook them all a warming, nutritious winter stew ;)
• Get outside: Now this can be hard when the sun rises and sets when you’re already in the office, but we still need at least 20 mins of daylight on our skin a day as well as some fresh air in our lungs. Too much time inside will make us more prone to bugs, sluggish and lethargic, so leaving your desk at lunchtime becomes a no brainer. Make sure you keep your sunnies off too, as your eyes need to register the sun to start making Vitamin D.
• Relaxation: Take the winter months to form some new cosy habits. Perhaps journaling with a cup of herbal tea, or start taking baths with epsom salt relaxation and detoxification.

Remember that winter is not merely a time of hibernation but a chance for reflection, renewal, and connection. Whether you take up a new hobby, prepare comforting meals, or spend time in nature, each small step contributes to a greater sense of wellness.

Written by Nutritional Therapist Kelly Mulhall of The Natural Balance