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I'll be the first to admit that the colder months used to be HARD for me. I'd stop leaving the house, cancel on plans I said I'd go to and feel my muscles getting tighter due to lack of stimulation. It was a slow slide downhill and I'd never notice it happening until I was at the bottom of it.

With a few winters now under the belt, I've started to curate a small list of activities that have helped me get through them. Some I've worked out myself, some were recommended by friends and I'll be implementing this year. All of them are better than nothing!

Pick a place and go every week, same time, same days, until the people who work there know your face and the people who go there start nodding hello. Ask the barista's name, learn the librarian's favourite book and become enough of a fixture that someone notices when you don't show up one day. The point is to build a small piece of evidence that you exist somewhere outside of your own home and that someone, somewhere would notice if you stopped turning up.

Examples: cafe, farmers market, yoga class, a park bench, bookstore, trivia night, nail salon, bakery.

The cost of community is inconvenience and slowly we've been engineering most of it out of our lives. If you want to live in a village you need to act like a villager, that means asking for the favour and saying yes to the one that costs you an afternoon. Let yourself be both the person who needs help and the person who gives it.

Examples: pick someone up from the airport, drop off the emergency flu care kit, go when you would rather stay home, deliver soup to a friend, help with a final bond clean.

Pick a topic and spend a few weeks learning everything you can about it. Then invite your friends over and present it to them over cheese and wine (ideally your friends do the same...). Avoid using AI to research, save all your references and maybe even add a little pop quiz at the end for a prize?

Examples: the history of the hot water bottle, how general anaesthesia was discovered, the Aboriginal seasons of the Country you live on.

Pick one person and start writing to each other, bonus points if you can send the first letter by surprise so they have no idea it's coming. Check your letter box weekly, save every letter you receive and keep them in a time capsule. Add a pressed flower, photo or a spritz of perfume if you're feeling a wee bit sentimental.

Examples: a friend overseas/interstate, a grandparent, someone you haven't spoken to in years.

Pick a dish and make it every Sunday night until you can do it without following a recipe. Pick something complicated enough that it takes proper learning. When summer comes around you can bring this dish to a dinner party and act very nonchalant about your cooking skills. This could also double as the meal you cook and deliver to a friend (from part two).

Examples: pork roast with crackling, sticky date pudding, osso buco, handmade gnocchi/pasta.

If the colder months are feeling extra difficult for you or anyone you know this year, reach out or call the helplines below:

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636