This time of year -- when they days are cold and short and summer seems like decades away -- everyone is prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a sort of 'winter blues' condition (symptoms listed here.) SAD isn't too serious -- it goes away from spring, after all -- but it can have some lasting effects, like weight gain. Because, not only are you exercising less, when you're feeling blue you reach for your comfort foods.

This year, nip the SAD in the bud with light therapy. According to experts over at The Daily Mail, a lightbox will run you around $200 and will help brighten up your home and your mood. Another sure cure? Exercise does a body -- and a mind -- a world of good.

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Feeling down? Wish your life were different? I've got good news for you. Research shows that nearly half of the reason we feel happy or sad has to do with our thoughts and actions. This is good news because we can control those things. Our emotions are also controlled by our genetic makeup and life circumstances, things we can't control. But the rest of it, well...it's up to you how you feel.

So what can you do to improve your mood?

• Get outside your comfort zone and try new things.
• Notice things you are grateful for and write it down at least three times a week.
• Write down negative thoughts and analyze them. Restate them in a positive way.
• Quit rehashing what is in the past. When you find yourself doing this, get up and get active.
  
• Participating in social gatherings, even if you don't feel like it.
• Speak up. Interacting with other people can lighten your mood.
• Do something nice for someone else.
• Avoid negative people.
• Eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Add healthy fats to your diet, especially omega-3s.
• Make your world beautiful, with flowers, music, and scented oils.

What kinds of things brighten your mood when you're feeling blue?

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Stressed? Burnt out? Ready for that luxury vacation? You probably aren't alone. These dark days of late winter seem to magnify negative emotions, and the dark evenings and cold weather don't make it easy to burn off some of that stress with exercise. You can get a handle on that stress, it just might take some work. Consider some of these tips from eDiets and see if you can't make your life a little more serene:

• Ask for help when you need it.
• If you can control it, do so. If you can't, let it go.
• Make time for yourself.
• Write it down in a journal.
• Take a break, close your eyes, imagine yourself somewhere peaceful, and take a few big, deep breaths of air.
• Research relaxation techniques and find one that works for you.
• Set free your expectations and see what happens.
• Act, don't react. Take time to think about your next step.
• Be kind to yourself.

My two favorite stress relievers are chewing gum and taking a nice, warm bath right before bedtime (which also usually knocks me out for a good night's sleep). What are your favorite ways to keep stress to a minimum?

Beat stress with these 7 tips

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If you're experiencing mild depression, lack of energy, sleep trouble, and carb cravings, you might just be suffering from SAD or seasonal affective disorder. You're also likely not alone. Short days with little sunlight make SAD a somewhat common condition this time of year in some parts of the country, but there are a few steps you can take to treat and ward off this condition naturally:

• Consider getting a light box. Thirty minutes exposure every day may be all your body needs to bounce back.
• Eat healthy proteins at every meal and limit your carbs to the complex kind: whole grains, fruits, and veggies.
• If exercising outdoors gives you the shivers, find an indoor alternative.
  
• Add additional food sources of vitamin D to your diet to offset the loss of sunlight. Think fish -- cod, herring, sardines -- or milk and fortified cereal.
• If it's in your budget, get out of town and go someplace sunny.
  

How do you keep the blues away in the wintertime?

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After the most fun-filled, relaxing holiday that I've had in a long, long time, today I find myself in a funk. Part let down, part my-house-is-trashed-and-I-don't-feel-like-cleaning-it, December 26th is always a transition day for me. It's time to put the holiday mindset behind me and get back to real life, and once I do, I feel better. But for some, that transition can be difficult, especially when moving forward means heading into some of the darkest, coldest months of the year.

Post-holiday depression isn't uncommon, and it can be avoided by focusing on your healthy lifestyle habits. Eating a balanced diet, avoiding alcohol, exercising, and talking about your feelings are all things that can help you stay on track, according to Healthday.

If you do find yourself feeling blue, not taking an interest in your usual activities, sleeping too much or too little, gaining or losing weight, feeling "foggy" or not being able to concentrate and symptoms persist, then you may want to address these common signs of depression.

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As the mercury in the thermometer drops and the last few leaves fall off the trees, many of us will be feeling a bit blue. But are we suffering from a standard case of the blues, or is it a sign of something bigger like Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)? According to AOL Body, here are the signs that it might be SAD:

• You crave comfort foods, especially carbs, and may even gain weight as a result
• You mood is distinctly worse during the winter -- but you perk up as soon as summer shows up again
• You're depressed throughout the day -- no just as certain times like mid-afternoon.
  
• You're depressed despite the absence of any sort of traumatic recent event that would cause it.
  
• You feel drowsy all day long, and can't seem to get enough sleep.

If you think you might have SAD, talk to your doctor. There are natural ways to treat the condition.

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With the holiday season now upon us, you can already feel that strange mix of joy and stress starting to percolate, can't you? Spending time with loved ones brings (most of us) a great deal of pleasure, while at the same time following through on holiday-related commitments, making travel arrangements, and being everything to everyone can sometimes be a bit too much to take. Be this as it may, for some people, this time of year ushers in a far more serious problem, one that truly has little to do with holiday stress and even less to do with holiday joy.

Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as SAD, triggers feelings of lethargy, sadness and depression during the colder months in those who suffer from it. Last month, our own Bethany Sanders talked about this disorder, referencing its onset and some potential treatment methods. Now, a whole month later -- and with the days growing shorter and colder -- people with SAD may be finding themselves in an extended period of doldrums.

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As my kids and I took a bedtime bike ride around the block the other night, I lamented how it was already getting starting to get dark. Soon, our evening trips outdoors will start to be shorter and shorter, and by January, it'll be dark by 5 P.M. I don't know about you, but when it's cold and dark outside, I feel like curling up with something warm to drink and watching Grey's Anatomy.

It's natural to want to slow down in the wintertime, and we often have to work harder at staying true to our health and fitness goals. But if the shorter days of autumn and winter find you feeling unmotivated, uninterested in your regular activities, fatigued, or depressed, you may be suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD). The shortage of sunlight on those cold winter days is thought to cause a chemical imbalance in some people, and up to 20% of people may suffer from the disorder.

The solution is to get outside while it's light out as much as you can -- even if it's cold and cloudy -- and try to expose your eyes to at least an hour of light a day. If SAD gets serious, it can also be treated with antidepressants, psychotherapy, and light therapy.

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Every winter around this time, I start to look at March 1st as the winter-time finish line. Come the first of March, I know that spring is officially on it's way, even if we have weeks of snow ahead of us. Do you start to feel the crunch in February? Does the lack of sunlight start to wear you down?

Imagine not getting one single ray of sunshine for three months every winter. That's how citizens of Bondo -- a tiny mountain village in Switzerland -- feel every year. The steep mountains that surround them block the sun December through February, leaving them in the "dark" until just about now. In fact, local officials are looking into having a gigantic mirror installed next winter. A computer would rotate the mirror to follow the sun, reflecting the light back into the village.

I can't say I blame them, who doesn't want at least a few days of sunshine a month? With all the recent news about the sun and vitamin D, it may improve their health as well!

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It's kind of a downer to think that there might be a "most depressing" day of the year, but then on the up side if today is it then it's already almost over. Back in 2005 a psychologist named Cliff Arnall announced that he had figured out how to calculate which day of the year was the most depressing, and in 2005 it was Monday, January 24th. Using the same formula would make this year's winner (if you can win at being depressing) today -- Monday, January 22nd.

Apparently there has been a lot of controversy over Arnall's formula -- with some saying it's just a marketing gimmick and others saying it's based on some very sound principles. Personally, I think some of the concepts do sound realistic, like weather and light levels as well as the general "let-down" feeling from the holiday season this time of year. But I think it's probably more realistic to predict a "most depressing month" or "most depressing season" as opposed to a specific day, and even then it would need to be calculated for individual people separately. There are just too many variables to try to pin something so personal as "mood" down to one day of the year.

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Nearly 20% of the population suffers from some form of depression, from the mild to the severe. Light therapy is not a new idea, most often being used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). But lately researchers are compiling data that supports light therapy -- specifically full-spectrum light in the early morning hours -- combined with the whole "morning person" routine as an effective treatment for all forms of depression.

Apparently, the amount of light and exact timing are very important in getting the most benefit from this therapy. Some experimentation is necessary to figure out your body's rhythm and find the optimal "dose," but a good starting place is 30 minutes of exposure to outdoor-level light about a half an hour after sunrise.

"Morning person" stereotypically means someone is overly energetic and cheerful. This new therapy approach sounds like the idea that if you force a smile it will actually help you feel happier. Smiling does work for me, to a degree, so I wonder if there's some truth to this "sunrise signal" idea?

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Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise known as "SAD," is a legitimate and diagnosable form of depression that affects as much as 10 to 20 percent of the population every year. Shorter days and less exposure to natural light seem to be the culprits, especially as some cases have even been seen in patients who work long hours in windowless offices.

Unlike a diagnosis of major depression, SAD is not usually treated with medication. The FDA did recently approve the use of Wellbutrin XL for SAD, but phototherapy continues to be the most popular treatment -- with other methods like exercising, taking vacations to sunny locations, and meditating also being very effective.

Symptoms of SAD can be many things, but some of the most common include moodiness, decreased interest in social activities, irritability, and increased fatigue/sleep. The interesting thing? The seasons can affect people the opposite way too. Spring-summer hypomania (spring fever) is also a real condition characterized by increased energy, decreased appetite, and decreased sleep. But, obviously, nobody minds coming down with that one!

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