Winter Blues

Feeling glum on winter days? Managing midwinter blues

By Rowan J.

Photo by Joshua Fuller on Unsplash

This week marks Winter Solstice in Aotearoa New Zealand. Thursday 22^nd June at 2.57am is the Winter Solstice where the axis of Earth is at its greatest distance from the sun. This makes the night of the 21^st June the longest night of the year. Although we will still experience wintery weather, from this week our days in Aotearoa will start to gradually lengthen. The midwinter period can be challenging for people and some experience what is called the “winter blues” or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

SAD can negatively affect your moods, energy levels and sleep routines. If that sounds like you, some information about SAD and how to counter its impacts may be helpful.

Here are some links to help you understand how winter can affect your mood – and what you can do about it.

Do you have the winter blues? | NHS inform

Seasonal Affective Disorder | Mental Health Foundation

How Winter Affects your Mood | Strategic Psychology

Here’s a list of some positive local winter activities to boost your wellbeing:

Our Guide to Winter Activities in Christchurch and Canterbury – ChristchurchNZ.com

Winter Activities in Christchurch (neatplaces.co.nz)

Eight Epic Activities For $20 And Under In Christchurch – ChristchurchNZ.com

Remember, if you’re feeling the blues, regardless of the reason, it can help to talk to someone. Here are some options:

Free counselling is available from the Health Centre at City, Manawa, and Timaru campus.  Counselling sessions are available every day at the Health Centre including evening sessions.

Learners can also self-refer to two external providers OCP, or Puāwaitanga for counselling support.  This includes online or phone counselling. 

Health Centre

03 940 7566 healthcentre@ara.ac.nz

OCP:

0800 377 990

www.ocp.co.nz

1737 – Need to Talk?

1737 is a free service for New Zealanders feeling down, anxious, a bit overwhelmed or just need to chat to someone. You can call or text for free 24/7.

Worldwide Knit in Public Day

Contributed by Barb Clendon, Kaitoko Ako Learning Advisor

Knitting: the word used to conjure up visions of women sitting in the privacy of their home, their knitting needles clicking as they made clothing for their families.

The skill of knitting has been lost to many but is experiencing a comeback! People are rediscovering the benefits of knitting. Knitting can be calming, almost meditative, needing some concentration but often it is able to be done while enjoying other activities.

Tom Daley, Olympic champion diver, said that he believes knitting helped him gain his first gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. He is reported to have said that knitting helped lower his stress levels. He also said that learning to knit helped him realised that mistakes teach lessons – this enabled him to progress in his diving as well.

Clive Rose/Getty Images; Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images

The 2018 Finnish Winter Olympic Games team knitted as a fun way to bond. Knitting is taught in Finland’s public schools as part of Home Economics, so is a universal skill there. 

How acceptable is knitting in public? Examples in the media indicate that it can be unusual or noteworthy. A photo of one woman knitting during a “thrilling” tennis match in the 2022 US Open “amused, shocked and puzzled other spectators” according to sports journalists. Apparently, she looked calm – quite a different look to the emotion-filled faces of most spectators. 

Obviously, knitting gives off no harmful fumes, is not noisy, not visually offensive, doesn’t take up much space, is creative, calming and interesting. So, let’s celebrate the many benefits of knitting, in public or wherever we are!

A Room of One’s Own

Creating a stress free space in your home

Have you heard of Virginia Woolf’s essay called “A Room of One’s Own”? It was published in 1929 and I confess I’ve never read it, but I have always loved its title.

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Wolfe

Having a room—or even a wee space—of my own was always something I longed for as a child. My big family lived in a very small house: the three older girls shared a bedroom, the boys lived in a caravan out the back, and the little ones (including me) slept in bunks in a cupboard-sized “sunroom”.

Virginia Woolf wasn’t talking about shared rooms and caravans—she was arguing that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” (Woolf, 1929, p. 4). That is, women could write extraordinary literature if they had the same resources as men (access to education, independent incomes, men’s social advantages etc). I certainly don’t disagree with her argument, but as a child I knew nothing of Virginia Woolf or early feminist theory—I had somehow just heard the title “A Room of One’s Own” and desired the concept.

I loved reading as a kid (still do) and so finding a quiet undisturbed reading spot was a high priority. If you’ve ever tried sitting up in the bottom bunk in a shared room, you know it’s neither comfortable nor quiet! So eventually I found a high tree branch where I could sit hidden for a couple of hours with a library book and, if lucky, a snack stolen from the kitchen.

When I left home, it was to the glorious experience of a room of my own, even if these were in a series of old cold flats. Now I have my own home and have created a few little spaces of my own around the house, most recently a mini library. (See photos.) I use these spots mainly for reading—but sometimes I find myself just sitting gazing or thinking.

Maybe one day I will even read Virginia Woolf.

Lis Roche

Learning Advisor

Reference:

Woolf, V. (1929). A room of one’s own. Hogarth Press.

World Ocean Day: 8th June 2023

Did you know that World Ocean Day is on June 8, 2023?

Many of us enjoy our kai moana (seafood) like shellfish, smoked fish, fish and chips and sushi. We also love fish for its healthy protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Our kai moana is nature’s taonga (treasure) from the ocean. Therefore, it is important for everyone to protect the oceans. Let’s learn more about the oceans.

Why are the oceans important?

• Seafood is a significant part of the diet of three billion people around the world (World Benchmarking Alliance, n.d.).
• The oceans support life on our planet through photosynthesis. Plant plankton such as algae use carbon dioxide and produce oxygen (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, n.d.).
• Half the earth’s oxygen is from the oceans (National Ocean Service, n.d.).
• The oceans support 80% of our planet’s biodiversity (Jaksha, n.d.).   

A calm day on the Tasman Sea at Hokitika

What are the major threats to our oceans?

• Overfishing threatens the oceans’ biodiversity and the sustainability of seafood harvesting.
• Acidification caused by air pollution makes the oceans increasingly less able to support marine life.
• Pollutants such as plastics, abandoned fishing nets, rubbish, sewage and industrial waste harm the marine ecosystem and kill aquatic life.
• Brine discharged by desalination plants kills sea life (Omerspahic et al., 2022).

What are some actions to save the oceans?

• The Ocean Cleanup (n.d.) is a non-profit organisation that is removing (to recycle) the floating plastic waste in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This patch has about 100,000,000 kilograms of plastic.
• Floating waste in certain rivers in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and California is regularly removed by The Ocean Cleanup’s autonomous solar-powered barges.
• There are public education campaigns in many countries to reduce water pollution.
• Organisations like Greenpeace and the United Nations have campaigned for legislative protections for vulnerable marine areas.

Totaranui Beach from Skinner Point, Abel Tasman NP

Takeaway

Given how important the ocean is, every one of us needs to do all we can to help safeguard it.

Leonard Yeo

Learning advisor

References

Jaksha, A. P. (n.d.). Biodiversity in the ocean. https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/one-ocean-chapter-3.pdf

National Ocean Service. (n.d.). How much oxygen comes from the ocean? https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ocean-oxygen.html#:~:text=About%20half%20of%20Earth’s%20oxygen,oxygen%20than%20the%20largest%20redwoods.

Omerspahic, M., Al-Jabri H., Siddiqui, S. A., & Saadaoui, I. (2022) Characteristics of desalination brine and its impacts on marine chemistry and health, with emphasis on the Persian/Arabian Gulf: A review. Front. Mar. Sci. 9:845113.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.845113

The Ocean Cleanup. (n.d.). The largest cleanup in history. https://theoceancleanup.com/

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. (n.d.). Phytoplankton. https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/ocean-life/ocean-plants/phytoplankton/   

World Benchmarking Alliance. (n.d.). Seafood stewardship index. https://www.worldbenchmarkingalliance.org/seafood-stewardship-index/

King’s Birthday celebration 2023

Monday the 5th June is the first official King’s Birthday celebration.

King Charles III, head of state of New Zealand

This is the first King’s Birthday Weekend since the ascension of King Charles III to the throne. It was decided in 2022 to keep the first Monday in June as a day of celebration of the sovereign. Previously this day was Queens Birthday Weekend so it is going to take some time to get used to the new name.

King Charles III’s birthday is actually on 14th November…he was born in 1948 so he is currently 74 years old.

All branches of the Ara Library will be closed for the day and our normal hours of operation will recommence on Tuesday 6th June at 7 am. From all of us here at Ara Library we wish you a peaceful and productive long weekend and we look forward to seeing you when we reopen.

Jonathan Moake

Library Assistant