It doesn’t matter if it’s spring, summer, winter or fall, weather is always on the forefront of producers’ minds. While the slower seasons can offer relief from the usual on-farm stressors, winter can drain emotional batteries.
Ted Matthews of farmcounseling.org joined AgriTalk’s Chip Flory this week to breakdown why producers aren’t immune to the wintertime blues, and how to flip your outlook on life.
1. Control What You Can
Bad days on the farm can feel like a bad life. The uncontrollables can switch anyone’s mindset from positive to negative, but that long-term outlook can lead to depression, according to Matthews.
“If I’m a farmer who has to trudge through 10” of snow to get my job done, that’s going to impact my mindset more than if there wasn’t snow,” he says. “It takes effort to see the bright side.”
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When uncontrollable events like weather strike, Matthews finds producers who can easily manage these situations are people who have skills to know what they have control over and have learned let go of what they can’t. For producers that don’t have these skills, he offers advice:
“Find what trips your trigger and keeps you excited about getting after it every day, and think about that each morning you wake up. That’s the first step to a happier outlook,” he says.
2. Be Selective on Social Media
Aside from operating in the elements, Matthews says social media can put a wedge in producers’ outlooks.
“To me, social media or the news can create more mental difficulty because you don’t know who or what to believe, and people end up angry over things that don’t exist. It only creates more stress,” he says.
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Eliminating social media isn’t necessarily feasible, nor the answer, according to Matthews. He finds the key to better mental health is in being selective about what content people are consuming.
The Solution
“It’s okay to feel sorry for ourselves that we have to work in the elements, or work to find things to do in the winter,” he says. “After you feel those things, ask yourself what you can do to make the situation better by coming up with a gameplan.”
Matthews suggests:
1. Find something to look forward to in the short-or long-term.
2. Plan a vacation
3. Socialize—go to a movie or get a bite to eat.
“Find something to break up the monotony of winter that is helpful. It might not be a complete fix to the underlying issue, but a little better is a little better.”
To hear more from Matthews, reach out to him at farmcouseling.org.
