Cozy Guide to Surviving Winter ❄️ 6 simple _ practical habits anyone can do.

Soft mornings, warm layers, quiet evenings at home, pottering about in your slippers. Winter invites us to move differently, to slow down, to create warmth and to find beauty in the stillness. Winter can feel heavy, the cold mornings, the dark afternoons, the way everything seems to slow down all at once. Some days it feels like we're just trying to get through it, counting down until spring, but winter doesn't have to be something we endure. It can be a season of warmth, comfort and quiet joy if we let it be. In this video, I'm sharing a handful of simple, gentle ways to survive winter while staying cosy and grounded. Small rituals, soft moments and comforting habits that make the cold days feel a little brighter and a lot more livable. So make yourself a warm drink, get comfortable and let's step into winter with a bit more ease, together. It is currently quarter to six, I've just got home from work and I've got straight into my running gear because we're gonna go for a run. Friends, it's been way too long. I haven't been for a run since the beginning of December so I'm ready to get back on track but I have never been running in the evening before and I have a friend who always goes for runs in the evening so we're gonna go on a little post-work run together, which I'm kind of excited about. So I've just had a quick snack, had a little banana, having some water and yeah, it's gonna feel really good to move my body I think. I'm in a job where I'm on my feet all day but because of that I do really like to get a run in every now and then. I find it really helps kind of just support my everyday health and especially being on my feet all day at work. So we're gonna do that and then probably come home and make a nice quick dinner and yeah, that's what we're gonna do. It's so important to try and move during the winter and I'm interested to see how I like running when it's dark outside because if I do that could be a game changer, especially because I'm going with a friend. It's gonna feel a lot safer so I'll let you know how I get on. It is much later in the evening now. I really enjoyed my evening run. It was really, really good and I actually got a personal best. I have not been tracking timing, speed, anything of the sort but what I have been kind of mentally tracking is how long I can run before I then have to walk. Up until tonight I have never done an entire run non-stop if that makes sense but tonight me and my friend ran three and a half kilometres non-stop and that feels incredible. I know to some people who run regularly that's nothing but to me who has never run at all that's such a big achievement and it feels really invigorating as well to have done that in January and to have pushed past the uncomfortable nature of going for a run outside in the winter time. It always feels really good when you do something that feels difficult and you do it anyway and it works out for the best. So I'm here with a cup of tea, I've had a really hearty dinner, I've had a lovely little shower and I'm gonna wind down for the rest of the evening with a cup of tea and some leftover Christmas chocolate because I feel like I deserve it. I have hated exercise basically my entire life. I've liked little parts of exercise. I was into dance for a little bit. I wasn't very good at it but I enjoyed the concept of dance. I never was a kid that was good at PE. I hated PE lessons at school and doing sports and I'm not a very competitive person when it comes to sports so that never appealed to me and I just had this complex that I was bad at exercise and it's taken until now, I'm 28 years old, where I just think maybe I'm not, maybe I'm just out of practice and it's also just been really beneficial not only for my physical health and the reason I started running specifically was for my physical health and a very particular issue I was having but also my mental health. Like I feel so strong right now. I feel really capable and I also know that I've got loads of endorphins that have been running through my body so this is my little encouragement for my fellow exercise despisers. It's actually not that bad, you just need to find the right one and truly as annoying as it is, it does make a huge difference. I used to hate when people, doctors, friends, family, whatever, would rattle on about the benefits of exercise but it turns out that it is completely true and it really really does help. I've had a great evening, I'm rumbling now because I'm getting pretty sleepy so I'm gonna enjoy my tea and my chocolate and chill out and I will probably chat to you tomorrow. I am feeling pretty run down today so I've taken it really easy. I think I might be coming down with something, I'm not 100% sure. So I've had a really relaxed day, I've got a little bit of work done from bed and I'm gonna make myself a really nice big nourishing dinner. My plan is to make a really big soup so that if I am coming down with something then I at least have a very hearty nutritious meal to carry with me for the next few days and I've also started the process of making some bread as well. So that should be ready to go into the oven in just a little bit and for the rest of this evening I'm gonna take it super easy and hopefully feel a bit better but I think it's really important to make sure that you nourish your body when you can in the best ways and for me that means lots of vegetables and lots of nice warm soothing meals like a delicious heartwarming soup. I never follow a recipe for soups, it's completely just intuitive and it's the perfect meal to use up things in your fridge as well so we're gonna make a big hearty soup in a little bit. It is the next day and as you can probably tell from my voice, I am sick. Luckily it is just a cold but I'm feeling pretty rotten so I've been spending most of today in bed. I just finished making the soup, I thought about really cracking on with it last night but I really went downhill very quickly so I ended up making that today. I've just had a little bowl and it was really really good and I think I might try and go for a very little walk. The sun is shining and I think I'm gonna feel better kind of just mentally if I make sure that I get out and about in this amazing sunshine so I'm just getting ready to clean up a little bit and then head out nice and wrapped up might I add for a very quick little walk. Happy Sunday friends, it is obviously a couple of days later. I've just taken the last few days to, well last two days I guess, to really just rest and recuperate and honestly watch an unholy amount of TV but I was really really struggling to focus on reading and books which is unfortunate but true and so I have watched a lot of TV and I've also done a little bit of knitting, not too much but I have been slowly working away on a fun little project and that's what I'm gonna plan to do this afternoon. I am feeling much better, you can probably still hear in my voice though, I'm not 100% there and my energy levels are still very low but I've got dressed today, I've had a shower today and I'm feeling very much on the mend. Lots of soup and hot tea has got me through and lots of re-watching Bridgerton as well. So let me show you what I'm gonna continue with this afternoon. So I have been making these panels of like colour-worked quilt block inspired pieces and this is inspired by the Allume quilt cardigan. I'll put the name of the maker on the screen who wrote the pattern. I haven't followed the pattern for that exactly, I've just created these pattern blocks because the schematic or the diagram that she features is, this is my toxic trait coming through of just thinking I can figure anything out, I was like I reckon I can figure that out so my plan is to make a bunch of these panels rather than individual squares because I really don't want to seam all of them together and I've made three so far. I've got this one, they're all curling up because obviously it's stuck in a stitch, I've got this one and this is the one that I just finished over the last couple of days. So I'm really happy with how it's coming together, you can see there's a few areas where I've made some mistakes but that's okay, it's going to be handmade, a handmade garment and if I kind of lose the will to live and don't really want to make it into a cardigan, I have plans to turn these into a cushion cover which I think will also be really beautiful. So I'm not too fussed about it being absolutely perfect because again it's kind of like a an experiment, a self-draft, a self-drafted experiment. So I have got three of these panels done and I think I probably need to do another, another five at least. So I've got my needles at ready, I've got my big bag of yarn that I'm using for this project and I'm gonna watch more Bridgerton and drink my tea and nick the afternoon away. Having good hobbies in winter is integral to staying sane, truly. It is hibernation season and I think leaning into that is the only way to really get the most out of it. I have lots of indoor hobbies or hobbies that can be done easily indoors I should say. I love reading, I love journaling, I love knitting, I love just making art, making things, all of which can be done at a coffee table, a kitchen table, even in bed as I have done over the last couple of days or on the sofa, sewing, embroidery etc. All of these things can be done and enjoyed inside and I really do feel for people who get a lot of their enjoyment from outdoor hobbies but even things like gardening, which because I live in a place where I don't have my own outdoor space, I look after my house plants and I'm planning to repot a bunch of plants actually probably next week. Even think there are ways to connect with your hobbies all year round but it's looking forward to the indoor elements and really leaning into just hunkering down and trying to make the most of that and it's not necessarily being super excited about that prospect but it's understanding that that's where you are in this particular point in the year or in life or whatever it might be and trying to see the best in that. Not necessarily thinking that it's the best of the best but just knowing that it's an integral part of the journey I think is important to remember. So anyway I'm gonna knit, gonna enjoy my little hobbies and have a lovely little time. Got the goods. I am just getting all bundled up to head out this evening because George and I are gonna go and see Hamlet. I'm really excited to see the film. I absolutely loved the book when I read it a couple of years ago. Absolutely heartbreaking, devastating, incredible but I'm really really intrigued to see how the film interprets the text and the book. All of the reviews have been amazing and my friends who also have read the book say that it's a really beautiful adaptation as well so I have high hopes. I've also packed plenty of tissues and I'm gonna grab some water before I leave as well because I have a feeling I am going to cry a lot but I am really looking forward to it so I'm just getting ready to go meet George. I think I'm gonna grab some food and have a little evening at the cinema and I think it's so important to plan fun little things like this in especially with friends and loved ones. I guess that's like two things I would recommend that you do really. One, plan in fun things, have things to look forward to like going to the cinema or hanging out with friends or anything but also make the effort to spend time with your loved ones because it makes such a huge difference being around people especially people that you really love so I'm all ready for a fun little evening out and I'm gonna take you along with me. Obviously I can't take you into the cinema, that's illegal but yeah you're gonna come with me. Hamnet was so so good. We went and got some delicious pasta first. I think the restaurant was called Vapiano's. Never been before, not like the best of the best but very well priced and the pasta alla vodka was actually quite delicious. We had a lovely little meal and then as I say we went to see Hamnet. So gorgeous, true to the feeling of the book I would say. Obviously the book itself very much follows Agnes, the main character and the film does that as well but it also follows her husband a lot more in the film which makes sense because it's everything is visual so in the book of course everything is pretty much through her perspective and because of the nature of the film or a film as a format that changes slightly but I really did think that the themes of the book remained the same. The poignancy of it felt very very similar as well, the pacing was very similar and just this absolutely devastating tale of humanity and love and loss like deep deep grief and loss was not lost at all in the film so highly recommend. Bring tissues, it was very emotional, didn't cry quite as much as I thought I might but honestly such a beautiful film would highly recommend. Anyway I think that brings us to the end of the video. I really hope that this video has given you just a few small little tips and tricks to use this winter. They're nothing groundbreaking, they're very very simple but I think that's what makes them so useful and so easy to do is because they just integrate into your day-to-day life so I hope they've been a good little reminder and I hope you've enjoyed coming along with me over the past week or so. I know it's been a slightly different format than I ordinarily do and that's mainly down to me being sick like halfway through the week but I actually really enjoyed the way that I made this video of like just taking little snippets here and there and just carrying the video throughout my day-to-day and I think I'm gonna try and do more content like this, just kind of bringing that sense of ease and bringing you along with the everyday because it's winter and winter is the time to like rest and recharge and hibernate and I think it would be incredibly inauthentic of me to try and make these incredibly thematic or advanced I guess video concepts come to life when literally all I want to do is knit and hunker down and eat soup and hang out with my friends and read lots of books and watch movies and just like generally have a very cozy little time, like that's all I want to do this winter so expect to see more of that in the coming months and in the meantime I hope you're all doing really really well, take care friends and I will see you very soon in another video. Goodbye!