Depending on time

You always know which year it is, sometimes you know the exact date, and, in some cases, you know exactly what time it is. It helps us know which moment we are living in this universe. Of course, this has a lot of benefits. Your train that leaves at 8 am will not wait a few minutes for you. That is why you leave your house at a certain time, you must catch your train. The thing that does not sleep well with me, is that we think we are very much dependent on time. Of course, you need to catch your train, but does that mean you cannot do anything other than lunch in the morning? You tend to think you can only prepare yourself to catch that train. Even when you have much time left, you still think you cannot do anything productive, because what if you miss your train?

The same goes for vacations. For most people, the summer vacation is the best period of your time. Sure, it is a nice period without any restrictions on school/work, but you can be as happy and relaxing in a month as in February. Of course, you have restrictions from work/school, but you can still feel that happiness that you have in the summer vacation. This is all about your mind saying that most of your happiness is dependent on the time you are living in.

Personal experience

To be completely honest with you; I have had these struggles as well. In my case it was even worse, I will explain. Having a relaxed and positive mindset was something I always struggled with. The whole schoolyear I felt that big desire for the summer. That was also the reason why I did not enjoy school as much as I could, my mind was all about the time after school, not enjoying the moments in school that much. The thing is, you spend a lot of years in high school, why would you throw that away with those negative thoughts? My mindset was way too negative because it was not a vacation.

The worst part of this is that I also did not enjoy my summers that much. Sure, I had a lot of freedom and did go on the most beautiful vacations, but I did not feel relaxed that much. This was all about my negative mindset. When we had summer vacation, all I could think of was ‘I must do the greatest things to show to my friends’ or ‘I must hang around with friends a lot because that’s what I like’ or ‘I must picture the most beautiful places on my vacation to share on social media'. Notice how every sentence contains ‘must’? I had summer vacation, all the time I could think of, and the only thing I was busy with were things I ‘needed’ to accomplish that summer. When I did nothing productive on a day, I would feel worthless, because I kept thinking “I must do great things”, but I did not.

The darker days

I will admit, it is harder for you as a human to be happy and productive in the shorter days. Serotonin, the neurotransmitter in your brain that regulates your day and night rhythm, will give you automatically less energy when it gets dark. It changes to the sleep hormone Melatonin, which is why it takes you so much effort to be productive when it is dark. Your brain will relax more and more, which also takes its part in your happiness.

Advice There is one thing that is the most responsible for your happiness, and that is your own mindset. Sure, you can feel more tired, but does that immediately take the chances away from you having a fun/productive morning? In the end, you are the one that has that moody mood, the dark sky only is a cause of it when you let that fully control you. Since I started to control my moods with a positive mindset, I am living a much happier life. Sure, it is not the easiest thing to do, but keep trying, and live a happy life :)