Here in New York, winter drags on. It’s always cold. It’s usually dark (yes, even during the day– we’ve had very little sun, just a gray haze). The routine is always the same. This year, it hasn’t even been broken up by snow; we’ve had only one snow day.

In midwinter, everyone in school goes a little stir crazy. The students become harder to work with. They’re unfocused, unmotivated, and there’s little release for their pent-up energy. No one really wants to be there, including the staff. It’s the downward curve of the school year.

It’s been a great effort, frankly, to hold onto mental health. I learned my lesson (I seem to have to learn it every winter) and am being very strict with my habits. I use the app “Done” on my phone (the free version), and I track daily:

• Exercise
• Yoga (I do a sun salutation every morning)
• Journaling
• Writing
• Eating 7 servings of vegetables
• Eating 6 servings of protein
• Using my therapy light
• Reading
• Listening to music

But even those interventions aren’t always enough to keep me going throughout the monotony of the season. When I start to feel that mental itch, I step into my new mindset. It’s called Look How Far We’ve Come.

It’s a fun game, because it doesn’t keep you in the present moment; it brings you into the past, and gives you hope for the future. All you do is take a moment to notice the situation you’re in and think of how that situation has changed for the better.

A few examples:

Scenario: My son and daughter are wrestling in the living room.

I think: She used to need weekly physical therapy and now she’s so strong she can stand up to a ten-year-old. Look how far we’ve come.

Scenario: My students are raucously blasting their instruments after rehearsal when they should be packing up.

I think: Three years ago, I would’ve given anything to hear that sound instead of the heartbreaking silence of Google Meets. Look how far we’ve come.

Scenario: I’m putting towels in our linen closet after a long afternoon of chores.

I think: All our decluttering during the move paid off, because I finally have a neat, organized linen closet. Look how far we’ve come.

It’s not a simple gratitude practice, although of course gratitude is part of it. It’s a perspective on time that’s particularly helpful after a pandemic. We’ve forgotten, already, how awful things were then. I’ve forgotten, already, how hard it was when my kids were young. I need reminders of how far we’ve come. Things are still hard, and also, they’re not as hard as they were.