The Winter Slump Women Keep Blaming on Themselves

Hey,

By January, most women know something feels… off. Not sick. Not dramatic. Harder to wake up, harder to stay motivated, harder to feel like yourself in a body that suddenly wants more rest than usual.

Winter has a way of shrinking our lives - Shorter days. Less sunlight. More time indoors. More mental load. And #Edition23 is about that. While we often chalk that fog up to stress or burnout, there’s a factor at play for most this time of year: Vitamin D depletion. Not in a headline way. In a background, cumulative way.

Inside this edition:
☀️ Winter Deficiency Women Don’t Talk About Enough
📚 What she’s reading, journaling, trying this week
📰 5 headlines worth her time
✨ Her Spotlight
🤍 Note to Her

Take what aids. Let the rest unsaid.

Vitamin D isn’t just “the bone vitamin.” It behaves more like a hormone — influencing mood, immune function, muscle strength, blood sugar regulation, and inflammation. Its deficiency peaks during winters, especially among adults in their 20s and 30s. A life stage already stacked with work pressure, caregiving, emotional labor, and decision fatigue. Add shorter days and less sun exposure, and many of us run on reserves without realizing it:

And because these symptoms overlap with stress, anxiety, and burnout, they’re easy to dismiss.

The Sun Isn’t Enough (And That’s Not Your Fault): We call vitamin D the “sunshine vitamin,” but winter sunlight is unreliable at best, especially if you live farther from the equator, have darker skin, work indoors, or wear sunscreen (as you should). And that’s not a personal failure. It’s biology.

Food Helps, But Only If You’re Intentional: Vitamin D doesn’t naturally appear in many foods. Fatty fish, egg yolks, fortified dairy or plant milks, and UV-treated mushrooms help, but hitting recommended levels consistently through diet alone can be surprisingly hard, especially if you’re plant-based or don’t eat fish regularly.

Which is why, supplementation becomes part of winter care — not as a fix-all, but as support. Key is moderation and guidance, not megadoses or wellness panic. A simple blood test can tell you where you stand.

Supplements Aren’t the Point. Awareness Is: Don’t chase another health trend or add something new to your already long list. But notice what winter quietly takes and respond earlier instead of powering through.

Vitamin D won’t solve everything, but sufficient levels are associated with better bone health, immune resilience, and muscle function. Plus, improved mood and energy during the darkest months. And that’s enough to shift from survival to steadiness.

So if there’s anywhere to begin, it’s this weekend.

Friday night, when you’re deciding what to cook or order, add something back instead of cutting something out. Fortified milk in your coffee. Eggs. Salmon. Mushrooms. On Sunday, when the day feels slow and open, step outside when the sun shows up, even briefly. Not for steps or anything. Just to let light hit your face and remind your body that the season is turning, even if it’s subtle.

These aren’t transformations. They’re continuities. Small ways of meeting winter without bracing against it. Because winter isn’t a test of discipline. It’s a season that asks for different care. And this weekend, before spring arrives and before everything speeds up again — is a perfectly good place to start listening.

💬 Ideas to tune into when the world’s too loud.

📘 Read: How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
A quiet rebellion against constant productivity. About reclaiming attention, rest, and presence in a world that profits from your depletion → Feels especially right when your body is asking for being slow and your mind keeps calling it “laziness.”

✍🏽 Journal: What feels harder in winter and what have I been blaming myself for instead of the season? → Write without fixing. Just notice what your body has been carrying quietly these past weeks.

✨ Try: Acadia Learning
When mental load is high and energy is low, support matters. Acadia Learning connects families with tutors who step in to reduce stress without adding more to your plate.

They don't understand it. You try to explain it. They get frustrated. You get frustrated.

Someone ends up in tears. And you both go to bed feeling terrible about it.

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✨ Small supports count. Especially in winter.

🌍 5 stories shaping the week for women everywhere.

🎵 Taylor Swift becomes youngest woman inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame: Taylor Swift joins Alanis Morissette in the 2026 class, marking a major moment and being formally credited for it.
🧕 Syrian women lose vital safe spaces as global aid is cut: Women across Syria are losing access to protection centers, reproductive healthcare, and GBV support as U.S. and European aid cuts force closures at a critical moment post-war.
🎾 Naomi Osaka apologizes after tense Australian Open exchange: Osaka issued a public apology following an on-court dispute, reopening conversations around emotion, sportsmanship, and how women athletes are judged under pressure.
🪖 Fired Navy admiral Nancy Lacore enters politics: Former Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore announced a run for Congress after being removed from military leadership, signaling a shift from service to civilian accountability.
🚶‍♀️ March for Life returns amid ongoing abortion debate: Thousands gathered in Washington for the annual March for Life, underscoring how reproductive rights — and women’s autonomy — remain central to U.S. political life.

Found her. Loved her. Needed you to see her.

Zitkála-Sá was an Indigenous woman educated inside institutions meant to erase her culture. She wrote essays that exposed them. Composed music they didn’t expect. Helped pass laws they never imagined her shaping. She once described herself as “neither wild nor tame.” That tension between survival and selfhood ran through everything she made.

Her name isn’t taught enough. Which is usually how you know a woman was dangerous to power.

→ If this stirred something, start with Old Indian Legends
→ Or search her essays. They don’t read like history. They read like warning signs.

✨ Some women don’t leave legacies. They leave questions you can’t stop thinking about.

This is what real care looks like. From here on, Her Weekly Download arrives Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays — with stories that help you listen earlier, and stop mistaking depletion for failure.

✨ P.S. Know a woman who’s been blaming herself these winters? Send it her way – Because the best kind of wisdom is the one we pass woman to woman💚