About the Author

Hilary P. https://adeptenglish.com/authors/hilary/ is a professional psychotherapist and has

practised in the United Kingdom for over 20 years. Hilary has a keen interest in language learning,
with a classical language educational background. Hilary's particular interests & experience is in
psychology, education & learning, especially online learning and language acquisition.

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Transcript For Learn English Article 372

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 How to Stay Happy In A Winter Lockdown English
Lesson
A Winter Lockdown English Lesson
In today’s English lesson, we talk about things that can help keep you happy. Winter in the UK can
be cold and wet, with a lot of your time spent indoors. So we British are quite used to keeping
ourselves amused and entertained indoors. However, this winter we will miss an important part of
the recipe that keeps us happy, we won’t be going to other people’s houses or having people round
to socialise with.

We’ve talked about how short the days are in the UK over winter and how we can end up leaving
home in the dark and coming home in the dark, not really seeing the outside, in several previous
podcasts https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/ .

But this winter is going to be a little different in the UK, with lots of talk about lockdowns and
stopping social gatherings. So spending some time planning what you are going to do about this is
probably a good idea.

We are all different and what makes us happy is going to be a personal thing, so today I’m going to
list several things I’m going to to to keep me happy over the UK winter, you might like some ideas or
none of the ideas, all I ask is that you think about it before winter sets in, take care of yourself and
have a plan to stay happy.

Transcript: How to Stay Happy In A Winter Lockdown English

Lesson
Hi and welcome to this podcast from Adept English
https://open.spotify.com/show/7ixeOS7ezPTZSaISIx2TTw . This is one of your two weekly podcasts
– your English lesson for today. Why not try the imitation technique for language learning, as we go?
If you find certain phrases or sentences in this podcast that you like, you could practice repeating
them to yourself – try to repeat the words exactly as I say them. Here goes.

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Looking at the British Winter
One of the things I’ve talked about before about living in the UK, is the changing light levels
throughout the year. And I’ve discussed previously how people who come to live in the UK from
places in the world where it’s much sunnier – well, they can struggle with the British winter, the
darkness and the shortness of the days. If you’re born here, especially in the north where the winters
are worse and there’s less sun, then arguably, you’re used to it, it doesn’t bother you. You don’t look
upon the idea of winter as something negative.

Light affects mood

The problem is that winter and low light levels can affect people’s mood – their mood, M-O-O-D
means their level of happiness or sadness. Low light levels, because it goes darker earlier, but also
because if it’s a rainy day, it may not get properly light here - it can mean low levels of Vitamin D –
which you get from sunshine.

I’ve mentioned this recently – in the context of the virus and the pandemic – because Vitamin D
appears to help your immunity and it can be hard to get enough of it in the winter. But also low
winter light levels can cause the condition known as SAD https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/seasonal-
affective-disorder-sad/ – Seasonal Affective Disorder, where your mood becomes lower in the
winter months. So it’s good to look after yourself in the winter. And if you’re further north than the
British Isles – perhaps you live in Norway or Sweden or Finland, then your winter difference is even
more dramatic – and you’ll be familiar with the problem.

Now this winter, when it’s quite likely that we’ll be facing further lockdown, further restrictions, it’s
difficult to think ahead and not imagine that this winter is going to be hard. It’s one thing when
we’ve all been in lockdown over the summer, when there were perhaps lots of opportunities to go
outside and enjoy the garden, be in the sun. It’s different to think of being locked inside during the
dark days and the bad weather. Now I’m not really affected by the winter – it doesn’t bother me. But
even I’m thinking ‘Mmm, maybe I’ll be looking forward to spring this year’.

How to be OK in a lockdown British Winter

So what sorts of things can we do, to make sure that the winter, especially a winter potentially in
lockdown is still enjoyable?

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Vitamin D helps
Well first of all, on the subject of Vitamin D and sunshine – in the UK we are all low in Vitamin D in
the winter. We just don’t have enough of it, particularly if you have dark skin. So it’s a good idea to
take Vitamin D in a pill or tablet form – they don’t cost much. And it’s even more sensible in the
current situation to help your immune system, help your body fight off any viruses.

Your body also makes Vitamin D – when you sit in the sunshine, so get out whenever you can and
have some skin showing, so that your body has a chance to make Vitamin D. Just drinking a cup of
coffee, sitting out in the morning sun will help. And if you’re affected by low light levels, then you
could buy a sun lamp https://geni.us/sadlamp . They’re a specialist thing to buy – but may be a
good thing to buy for some people.

Enjoy the usual celebrations – if you can

But what else? Well, if you’re in the UK, people find it’s often fine this side of Christmas. There are
celebrations to look forward to, like Halloween https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-
of-halloween and Bonfire Night https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/bonfire-night-
fireworks-displays-in-london or Guy Fawkes Night. And of course, Christmas is a really big thing and
a big celebration.

People can find the autumn side of winter OK, but struggle with January and February, when the
weather is bad, but there isn’t much going on or seemingly much to look forward to – and if you’re
like me, January is the time when you do your tax return! So that doesn’t really cheer you up either!

A cosy house
Probably what many British people do is make their homes really nice and cosy for the winter. If you
think of the heating being on and possibly a log fire – that means an open fire – or a wood-burner. It
means having nice comfortable places to sit and relax, with cushions and blankets, so that you can
relax in warmth – that’s what ‘cosy’, C-O-S-Y means. If the weather outside is horrible and it’s dark, if
the inside of your home is nice and warm, it can be really comforting.

And when the focus is on indoors, you might want to do home-improvement, like putting a new
coat of paint on your walls, buying new cushions, rugs or pictures to make it nicer. Personally, I like
lamps – I don’t like a main light in the middle of the room. I like to have a number of different types
of lamp in a room, then I can vary the lighting. I even have a strip of coloured Christmas lights, all

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year round in my lounge – just because it makes me happy. And of course, as you would expect, I
have houseplants so that I can still do some indoor gardening in the winter!

Get back to cooking

Getting back into cooking is another activity which is good for the winter. Making soup or bread,
baking cakes – or using up those apples and plums and the...from the autumn harvest in puddings
that’s good. I find that when it gets cold in the autumn, I really enjoy casseroles and things which
have been baked in the oven and which have been cooked a long time. Making food and home
cooking - it’s very comforting – and it can be healthy as well as unhealthy food.

Short but effective exercise

For me, I’ve just started running again. So I’m doing HIIT training https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-
intensity_training – H-I-I-T or High Intensity Interval Training. That’s worth researching. If you
haven’t come across this idea for exercise before, it’s very quick, you don’t need to spend very long
doing it. And it delivers maximum return for your effort. So even though I’m inside, working from
home and not going out as much as normal, just taking this bit of exercise makes me feel a lot
better.

Activities to pass the time

Making sure that you’ve got things to do inside, when the weather’s bad, is also important. At the
moment, we can’t go out and socialise and we can’t have people to stay or visit as much. So having
indoor activities that we enjoy is really important. Of course, we all enjoy being on our phones - and
the internet is important as a way of staying in touch with people in this current situation – and
staying in touch with what’s happening. But it can also waste a lot of time, if say you’re on social
media all the time.

Of course, there’s Netflix and Amazon Prime – or whatever service you might subscribe to – so that
you can watch a series. In the UK at the moment, we’re finding that we’re watching old series
because there’s not much new coming out. But that’s OK, it gives everyone a chance to catch up
with a series they’ve always intended to watch, but never got around to it. Currently we’re watching
Fargo from 2017, which we’ve never watched before. And of course, reading and books are a great
way to pass the time too.

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But hobbies are best
But aside from books, films, series and the internet, other forms of hobbies and interests, things that
you can do indoors are really important. I like landscape painting. The rest of the year, gardening
takes over as my main interest, but when it’s too cold to go outside
https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/english-lesson-4/ , I get back to my landscape painting. So ‘to
paint’, P-A-I-N-T, can mean painting your walls, decorating – but also means when you make art.

I like using Acrylic paint – think of David Hockney. But generally ‘making things’, doing crafts or
making models or art is rewarding. This could include all kinds of crafts and making things –
knitting, woodwork, metalwork, collage. But if there’s an activity which gives you pleasure, which
you can get on with indoors, without the need for anyone else and which helps you pass many
happy hours – then that’s got to be a positive. Such activities, are called ‘hobbies’ in English – things
you do for interest. That’s H-O-B-B-Y in the singular and H-O-B-B-I-E-S in the plural. Hobbies are
important - they can be like really good, old friends. They wait for you to return to them, sometimes
for years – and then it’s like you’ve never been away and they can give you so much enjoyment.

Other activities? People sometimes are rewarded by making music. I have a piano and I can play,
though I haven’t practised for a while. But you could have on hand a guitar, or a ukelele. It’s
something that you might pick up and play in odd moments through the winter. People may just
like to play music and you can buy all kinds of sheet music online. Or sometimes people’s hobby is
to make their own music.

Or how about learning to write programs on your computer? Or what about creative writing? They
say everyone ‘has at least one book in them’. So if you find you’re indoors and you haven’t much to
entertain you this winter, why not start writing? You might be surprised where it takes you. Ignore the
part of that quotation which says ‘But in most cases that’s where it should stay’. That’s Christopher
Hitchens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens , if you want to look that quotation up!

And of course, last but not least, work on your languages. What better way to use the time than
improving your English? And you can do that, in the comfort of your own home. There’s no better
time than this winter to buy our Course One, Activate Your Listening
https://adeptenglish.com/language-courses/course-one-activate-your-listening/ and use this
course to really improve your English. And if you combine that learning with an online language
partner – sign up with Conversation Exchange https://www.conversationexchange.com/ to find

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somebody to practise your English with on Skype or Zoom. You’ll be unstoppable! Make the
lockdown work for you and use the time!

Anyway, I hope that I’ve given you some ideas, some inspiration for how you might spend your spare
time this winter, especially if you’re stuck indoors more because of the pandemic. Adept English
giving you English lessons, free English lessons online. And for these English lessons, YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/c/adeptenglish is also a good place to go, so you can see the written
words as you listen.

Goodbye
Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.

Links
* Lessons https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/

* Conversation Exchange https://www.conversationexchange.com/

* Christopher Hitchens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens

* SAD Lamp https://geni.us/sadlamp

* HIIT Training https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_training

* Halloween https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

* Bonfire night https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/bonfire-night-fireworks-displays-in-

london

* SAD https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder-sad/

* Freedom to go outside https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/english-lesson-4/

* Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7ixeOS7ezPTZSaISIx2TTw

* YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/adeptenglish

* Activate Your Listening Course https://adeptenglish.com/language-courses/course-one-activate-

your-listening/

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Copyright © 2020 Adept Languages Ltd. UK

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First published: October 2020

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