With the oppressiveness of a New England winter fully upon us, for many this can be the saddest time of the year — quite literally.

The medical community has long-recognized that the shortened days of winter affect all of us to a certain extent and have given it a name — Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Scientists do not understand exactly how the lack of daylight works on our brains, but demonstrable symptoms of the syndrome include heightened anxiety, a decrease in energy, oversleeping, an increase in appetite (marked by a craving for carbs that leads to weight gain), social withdrawal, and negative thoughts in general.

There are some treatments for SAD that may work for some people (such as light therapy, antidepressants, and vitamin D) in consultation with a doctor. 

But there also are the simple solutions of spending more time outside during daylight hours and exercising regularly.

In our personal experience, we’ve found that the latter prescription — exercising and going outside, even on the coldest of days — has proven the best antidote to winter’s doldrums. All of us can recall the exhilaration we felt as children when we went sledding, skating on a pond, and shoveling snow. Although we’re a bit too old these days to do most of those things, we’ve found that taking on the wintry blasts that we’ve endured these past few weeks by jogging and walking (even when the wind chills are in the single digits) each and every day never fails to bring us that renewed sense of vitality that we experienced in our youth when we embraced nature’s harshest elements with barely even a thought about it.