Ep. 208 — How To Brighten Your Mood This Fall Using Light Exposure, To Reduce Midlife Stress & Anxiety

Feeling more tired, anxious and  stressed as the days get shorter?
You’re not alone—your body and mind are simply responding to less daylight and seasonal change.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
1.    Why fall is the most psychologically powerful season to reset habits that decrease anxiety and stress.
2.    How light therapy and full-spectrum lighting help restore your energy, mood, and calm.
3.    Simple daily coping skills to work with your biology—not against it—for more focus and peace.
Take 12 minutes to reset your light, energy, and calm—you’re worth it.

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About the Host:
MJ Murray Vachon LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 48,000 hours of therapy sessions and 31 years of experience teaching her Mental Wellness curriculum, Inner Challenge. Four years ago she overcame her fear of technology to create a podcast that integrated her vast clinical experience and practical wisdom of cultivating mental wellness using the latest information from neuroscience. MJ was Social Worker of the Year in 2011 for Region 2/IN.

Creating Midlife Calm is a podcast designed to guide you through the challenges of midlife, tackling issues like anxiety, low self-esteem, feeling unworthy, procrastination, and isolation, while offering strategies for improving relationships, family support, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness, and parenting, with a focus on mindfulness, stress management, coping skills, and personal growth to stop rumination, overthinking, and increase confidence through self-care, emotional healing, and mental health support.

Transcript

M.J. Murray Vachon LCSW: 0:00

In this episode, you'll discover how to work with your body's natural rhythm this fall turning shorter days into a season of energy, light, and calm.

MJ Murray Vachon LCSW: 0:10

Welcome to Creating Midlife Calm, the podcast where you and I tackle stress and anxiety in midlife so you can stop feeling like crap, feel more present at home, and thrive at work. I'm MJ Murray Vachon a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 50,000 hours of therapy sessions and 32 years of teaching practical science-backed mental wellness.

M.J. Murray Vachon LCSW: 0:34

Welcome to the podcast. It's November and you find yourself in the middle of fall. Less daylight, more coziness, and some days you just wanna curl up and pause. I say, go for it. Yet. You also might be noticing that you feel a little more tired, a little less motivated, maybe even a little blue without knowing why. But what if this season wasn't a slow slide into fatigue and stress, but actually became the best time of year to reset, Not by fighting the darkness, but by learning to cooperate with your biology. In this episode, you'll discover why fall is the most psychologically powerful season to begin new habits. How light therapy and full spectrum lighting help reset your mood and energy. And a few simple ways to use light and seasonal cues to calm your anxiety, increase your energy without adding one more thing to your to-do list. Let's begin with why fall is so uniquely powerful for change. Psychologists call it a temporal landmark, a natural reset point that signals a fresh start. Kind of like New Year's without all the hype. Think of that back to school. Feeling crisp notebooks, new routines, a clean slate. Very well mind a psychology site that summarizes peer reviewed research notes that seasonal markers like Autumn help your brain separate the old me from the new me. What does that mean? You are invited in this season to bring about a bit of change. Yes. Fall invites you to shed what's no longer working and plant new seeds of routine before winter sets in. Reading this research was an aha moment for me. In fact, yesterday I ran into a friend at the gym. She said, I'm back. Took the summer off. Yep. Fall is the time for a reset. When the outside world changes, it gives you permission to change inside too. As a young therapist, I was trained to believe self-awareness brought change. Yet with experience I learned that self-awareness brings self-awareness. Not necessarily transformation, though it certainly is the initial step towards change. Years ago, back in the late 1980s, I worked with a midlife executive who originally came to therapy for parenting struggles. Over time, his mood dipped and his sleep became disrupted. I referred him to a physician who suggested we both read a new book called. Winter blues. That's when I first learned about seasonal affective disorder. Sad. SAD was first identified by Dr. Norman Rosenthal at the National Institute of Mental Health in 1984. Within a decade, it was part of the cultural conversation because so many people realized they weren't lazy or unmotivated. They were light deprived. There's a biological reason behind this. The decrease in daylight shifts, your circadian rhythm, your internal clock, and increases melatonin production. Earlier in the day, you feel sleepier, less motivated, maybe a little more blue. For many, it's the start of the winter. Blues, a milder form of seasonal affective disorder. But here's the good news now, actually the great news. Because this change is predictable, you can work with your body instead of against it. Fall is the perfect moment to reset your light exposure, sleep, and self-care habits before the darker months fully arrive. That same physician recommended my client try a full spectrum light for 20 minutes a day. Honestly, it sounded pretty silly at first, but within two weeks, much to his surprise and mine, his mood began to lift. This was my first experience seeing light therapy in action. So what exactly is light therapy? Light therapy uses a 10,000 luxe lamp, a special light box that filters UV rays and mimics natural sunlight. According to the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Health morning exposure to this kind of light helps reset your brain's clock, reduces melatonin too early in the day, and increases serotonin. The neurotransmitter tied to calm and focus. Think of it as charging your brain's solar battery research shows that 20 minutes of morning exposure can reduce fatigue and improve mood within one to two weeks. And it works best when it's done consistently. A small daily ritual integrated into what you are already doing that makes a big difference. Let me give you two examples of how to easily integrate light therapy into your life. Example number one, set your light box on the kitchen table while you drink coffee or read the news. You don't have to stare at it, you just keep it angled toward you at arm's length for about 20 minutes. Your eyes, retinal cells. Pick up the light and send signal to your brain circadian center, helping you resynchronize your sleep and wake cycle and boost daytime alertness. This is especially effective for those of you who changed clocks in November. Example number two, full spectrum lighting for everyday use. If you don't want to buy a light box, swap one lamp bulb in your home for a full spectrum LED. All you have to do is get on Amazon and look for light around 5,000 to 6,500 kelvin and 1500 lumens or lighter. I'll put these numbers in the show notes. These light bulbs mimic daylight and help maintain circadian cues throughout the day. Research at Harvard shows that exposure to daylight light in the morning and midday improves alertness and reduces daytime sleepiness. All without adding one more task to your day. I actually use an OT light bulb, a full spectrum option and the chair where I have coffee, read and meditate each morning. When I first started this practice, I realized how effective it was because I used that same light at night and I couldn't fall asleep. If you want more on the science behind light and sleep, check out episode 93 on Sleep Hacks. One of my clients once said, I didn't realize I was running on dim all winter until I turned the light back on. Exactly. That's really what light therapy does. It turns your dimmer switch up again. There is one caution to light therapy. If you have bipolar disorder or eye conditions, talk to your doctor before starting light therapy. But for most people, it's simple, low cost, low risk, way to lift, mood, and restore energy. Once you've got your light sorted, it's time to layer in a few tiny habits that anchor your calm and amplify the healing power of light Psychologist Wendy Woods. Research shows that habits are context dependent. What that means is when your environment changes, it's easier to insert new routines. So here's three you can consider integrating into your life today let's work on mindset. While your light box is on, jot down one thing you're grateful for. This pairs physiological light activation with emotional and mindset regulation, a double dose of calm. I have a client who keeps a light box on the kitchen island where his family eats breakfast before grabbing their bagels. Each person shares one thing they're grateful for, It's the act of noticing that matters. Small rituals that can brighten your morning in every sense. I also encourage clients to take a short outdoor walk. Most mornings, even five minutes of sunlight or 10 minutes on a cloudy day can measurably improve your mood. Studies show outdoor light gives your brain 10 to 20 times more brightness than indoor light. That burst of light signals your body to boost serotonin and reset your internal clock, which is why even a quick walk can lift your mood and focus. I can't always fit this in daily, but two or three times a week, I step outside between clients. I literally walk for five minutes. It doesn't bring world peace, but it's always a small spark of energy and a change of perspective. As your days shorten, give your brain a break from bright blue light after 8:00 PM switch lamps to warmer bulbs, or turn on night shift mode on all your devices. That one small change helps your body release melatonin and prepare for deeper sleep. The most underrated coping skill. Whenever I teach, I ask everyone to check whether their phone is set to night shift. It's one of the simplest changes you can make to help your mind wind down. And if you're not sure how to do it, Google how to put my phone on night shift and it will walk you through how to do it in less than 10 seconds. But here's the key, and I know you know this and I'm gonna say it again. Even with night shift on phones are still stimulating, try putting them away at least 60 minutes, but ideally 90 minutes before bed. The secret is to make each habit so small, you can't fail. You don't need to reinvent your life. You just need to shift with the season instead of resisting it or letting it take you to a place you don't wanna go. Your Inner Challenge this week is to create your own fall light. Reset for seven days, pick one of these two options. Option one, spend 20 minutes each morning with a light box or in bright daylight. Option two, order a full spectrum LED bulb and swap it into your workspace. Place it in a lamp near where you spend your mornings and notice how your energy shifts over the week. Don't overthink it. This isn't about perfection. Just notice what happens when you bring a little more light into your mornings. Think of it as a seven day experiment in brightness in this episode, we explored how fall naturally supports change psychologically and biologically. Go ahead, lean into it. You learned how light therapy can balance mood while morning exposure is so powerful and how pairing that light with tiny, intentional habits can ease your stress and anxiety. These light habits aren't just for the darker months. They set the foundation for the kind of self-care. We'll talk about on Thursday where we're gonna explore why self-care isn't a luxury. It's actually a biological strategy, and how you can turn seasonal habits into lasting, calm as the holidays approach. As the days get shorter, remember, you can choose to bring the light closer, not just through lamps and bulbs, but by small habits that brighten your Inner life by lifting your spirits. Thanks for listening, and I'll be back on Thursday with more creating midlife calm.