A Lightboard or “Happy Lamp”

I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, which I never realized until I lived in Seattle for five years and never wanted to emerge from my cozy apartment, then moved to LA and realized I’m neither lazy nor a homebody… I just need regular sunlight to motivate me to do things.

Even in LA though, we have this phenomenon every May/June when every day starts out super cloudy (we’ve branded it with cutesy names like May Gray and June Gloom) before the sun usually emerges around lunchtime.

After my time in Seattle, I decided to take charge of my mood and spend 5-10 min in front of a lightboard / therapy lamp like this on gray mornings. It really keeps me from feeling overly lethargic! Even when I think it’s not going to work this time, but what’s the harm… inevitably after letting it glow into my face for a few minutes, I find myself thinking, “hey, I actually can and should go do some stuff today, not crawl back into bed.” The power of light!