INDIANAPOLIS — Have you felt cooped up recently with all the cold weather?
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Wednesday, February 4, is the fourteenth straight day in Indianapolis with high temperatures below normal.
Some Hoosiers, like Karla Frownfelter, don't mind this.
"Winter's my favorite season," Frownfelter said while taking a brief break from her job around the Canal in downtown Indy, "As long as it's not many degrees below zero, I still get out every day."
Not everyone has her gumption to get out with the cold and snow.
"I felt like I was going crazy," Xavier Clawson recalled, thinking of the last snowy stretch. "I couldn't really go anywhere. I had like three days where I was just at home, didn't leave."
Michelle Adams is a health coach for IU Health's Healthy Results Program. She spoke about some of the challenges she sees while advising program participants.
"With winter, it kind of feels like hibernation, isolation," Adams shared.
Adams encouraged people to get out when they can in winter.
"Even if you don't want to go outside, open your windows," suggested Adams. "That's an easy way to get some fresh air, and kind of bring the staleness from your home."
If you're feeling up for more, Adams recommended getting outdoors into the light for five to 10 minutes.
If you're not quite ready to handle the cold temperatures, you can still get out of your house but remain indoors.
Some people choose to go to the gym or a coffee shop to feel less isolated.
Clawson chose to visit the Garfield Park Conservatory to escape the cold.
"It's warm. It's a nice place, so I'm not in a coat or jacket," Clawson said. "I mean, 35 degrees is nice at this point."
"This is the cheapest tropical vacation that you can take," said Leah McMichael, naturalist at the conservatory.
The Indianapolis conservatory, filled with tropical plants, keeps temperatures in the 70 to 80 degree range.
"There's a lot of 'Oh, I just needed to get out of the house,'" McMichael explained of winter visitors. "A lot of involuntary exclamations of delight at seeing so much green as they go through those double doors."
No matter where you pick, a change of scenery can give you a boost to fight the winter blues.
"Being around people, that usually helps with energy levels and just not feeling like you're the only person going through this winter, like dreading it completely," explained Adams.
"Sometimes it just means having boots and trudging a trail," said Frownfelter. "Getting out every day is a big part of my life. One of the things I look forward to."
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