Listen to the blues: they might be telling you something important

It's spring in Vancouver: the sun's come out, and with it, the cherry blossoms. Funnily enough, spring's also brought me the blues, and I've been coping by sticking my nose between the covers of a book most days after work, and pulling my nice, warm duvet around me to keep out the cold. Naturally, coping has also meant larger meals and a sudden uptick in dark chocolate consumption...

A confession: I'm thirty-four years young and I'm experiencing a mini mid-life crisis. Rather interestingly for a lesbian who shies away from dating, I've recently decided I ought to be married with children. At times like this, I'd give so much to be a different version of me: a straight housewife with a nice husband and three lovely children -- say ages 8, 6 and 4. Of course, I'm not. Nor am I my outgoing, high-achieving alter ego, the one who speaks five languages, has lived in Beijing and rural Japan, and throws frequent dinner parties for friends and family. I'm me: pretty, quiet, charming, quick to anger and to forgive, preferring a low-key night at home or with a couple of friends to an evening ski trip or an improv comedy show.

Reality checks and unfulfilled dreams like these can be painful. The emotions they stir up can gnaw at our bellies in a way that's impossible to ignore. As with any number of unpleasant sentiments, it's easy to treat regrets like these as if they were hunger pangs, and eat to make them go away -- with the predictable result that we feel worse when the temporary high dissipates and we realize that we've medicated ourselves with food.

Let's say that you, too, have a case of the spring blues and are tempted to eat your way to temporary relief. Hold on a moment. First, the upside: the blues themselves are not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps they're pointing you to something you need to pay attention to, as other kinds of pain do when your body is in danger. In my case, I've realized it's time to start dating and move ahead with my plans for a  new career. What about you? What might the blues, spring or otherwise, be telling you? And how can you overcome them without resorting to snacks? Read my next post to find out!