In this vlog, the host, a Canadian creator who runs multiple YouTube channels, addresses viewers in their 50s and 60s about surviving the long, cold, and isolating Canadian winter. She opens by asking the audience what motivates them to get out of bed during bleak weather, inviting comments on daily routines, meals, and emotional coping. She then shares a series of practical, experience‑based strategies she has adopted over the years to combat winter loneliness and physical discomfort. The advice includes: dressing up and creating video content to stay busy; setting a purposeful daily task the night before; making at least one phone call each day to maintain social contact; performing a monthly act of kindness; treating oneself with small purchases, candles, and pleasant scents; baking and inviting friends over; keeping the home tidy as if expecting guests; establishing consistent daily routines (making the bed, coffee, reading); exercising through yoga, stretching, and cardio; and dedicating half an hour to guided meditation. Throughout, she emphasizes self‑validation, the importance of personal care, and the idea that one’s own mind is the ultimate source of validation. The tone is informal, conversational, and encouraging, aimed at helping middle‑aged and older adults find purpose, connection, and well‑being during the harsh winter months.
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Hey guys, thank you for tuning into Musings from Afar. This is my channel, my podcast, my vlog channel, which I make from very far, from Canada, land of snow, land, beautiful land where I live. So, uh, it's almost been— Canada has been under the, literally under the weather for the past few months, past month or so. It has been -21, and today it's a little sunny. But most of the days is cloudy and really under the weather. So how do we survive in this kind of weather? Particularly for us, like we have our children have we have been suffering facing the emptiness syndrome for a long time. Our children have gone away and they are living their own lives. So how do how do you face this kind of weather? How do you spend your day? Let me know how you spend your day because I'm very curious to know how you spend your day. Those who are in their 50s, in the mid ages, and in their 60s, old people— oh, like 60s is— I'm going to be 60, I'm not going to be old. So no, no, it's not old. Senior people who are going to be— how do you face the day? When do you wake up? What makes you wake up? Those are the questions I want to ask you. So write down the questions which I want to ask you. What makes, makes you wake up in the day? What, what is the factor that drives you? Do you feel hungry? Because in this weather you barely can go out for a walk unless you drive and go to a mall for a walk. You cannot go out for a walk in the snow unless you're young and, you know, you experience the snow. We also have physical ailments. Lots of us have physical ailments. So what do you do? When do you wake up? There's no sun, like till 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock in the morning there's no sun, and sometimes the entire day there's no sun. So what makes you wake up? Number 2 is, what do you eat during the day? Do you have only one meal? Do you have 2 meals? And what kind of food do you like? Please write down in the comments, okay? Because lots of people will feel very connected with you then. And then you can have any conversation, you know, you can share your emotions and ideas. So here in this video, I'm going to give you a few tips which I think I have learned over the years to how to combat the cold winter in Canada, the lonely desertation, the desolate weather winter in Canada. Number one is talking to you guys. That has really kept me busy. I dress up and I put on makeup and jewelry. I never get to wear this jewellery all over the— all during winter. When am I going to wear the jewellery? My hands are covered in gloves. So how am I going to show off the jewellery? What's the point in wearing the jewellery? And the makeup and the hair and the dresses, you barely get to wear them during the winter, which is almost 3, 4 months, 4 to 5 months during the winter period. So I do that, I dress up and I come in front of you and I'm— You're a very beautiful woman. Talking to you as if I'm talking to friends. Okay, so that is my idea of book. Of course, not everybody is a blogger, so vlogger. So that's beside the point. This I run five channels actually, so I'm pretty busy running my channels. You know, if I could make. So for me, it is exciting because I'm making podcasts. So if I make one, I have five channels to run. Okay. So they're all in the links below. I also have a yoga channel, so in case you're interested in how I got rid of my arthritis and my other serious problems, physical problems, you can subscribe to the channel and check it out. It's below in the link below. Okay, so what I was saying was that I do make these videos. If I make one video per day for each channel, I'll be busy the entire day. So that makes me busy, you know, making the videos. Creating them, uploading them. I feel also very connected to the world that way. But you cannot— or not everybody is a vlogger, so I cannot ask you to do that. But what I can do, ask you to do, is wake up with some purpose in mind. Like when you lie down, when you go to sleep bed the previous day, try to make something in your mind that you want to do. Create a work So you can wake up every day with some kind of a, um, purpose in mind, you know. Like you would want to, uh, maybe you, you want to, um, let me just fix this one second. Yeah, so maybe, uh, you would want to create a work particular, like tomorrow I'm going to do this. So make one work which involves you going out, or maybe, you know, if you don't want to go out, you can cook something or create something, whatever your Is your interest doing some set a deadline for yourself that I'm going to finish this by this weekend, so I have to do this part tomorrow. So make your work. You have to create your work. Okay, that is one thing. You have to create your work, whatever you're doing, and and do that over the period of the during the day. Second thing, ask tell yourself that I'm going to make one phone call every day. Do not wait for others to call you. Nobody gives a damn. Nobody wants to remember you unless you. We are like Facebook wall, you know. Facebook wall, you will see if you do not, if you are not active enough, you won't get notifications. It's like a mirror. So if you smile at it, it smiles back. If you do not look at the mirror, the mirror will not look at you. You will, if you turn your face against the mirror like this way, you will only see the backside of yourself. So you have to face the mirror and you have to smile, and you have to call people, message them, text them, or, you know, like call, um, go on Facebook and like their pages. You know, try to communicate with people. You only— when you communicate will you get the communication back. Call them. Call this— in this age of social media, people have forgotten how to talk. Call Call somebody and talk for hours, pouring their hearts out. You never know that same person must be wait might be waiting for somebody to call them. So do that for yourself. You are doing it for yourself, and in the process you're helping the other person also. That's a very big thing to do. That's the second thing. Third thing: every month think of doing something good for somebody, helping somebody. Helping somebody is helping yourself. So if you do not make yourself visible, you will become invisible. You'll become totally grumpy that nobody cares for me, nobody looks at me. Do you care for them? Go out and care for them. Do something good for somebody out of the way. Do something good. This I've learned from my mother-in-law. She does— she's 88— she does good for other people, you know, irrespective, not even expecting anything in return. And this is the basis of Hinduism. I also, I don't want to promote Hinduism, but anyway, so do something good for people, you know, and then that will give come back to you in some other way, some other form. Number five is buy something for yourself, something new for the house. Buy a small candle or something interesting for the house for yourself, buy a small trinket, jewelry, and wear it just to please yourself. That does wonders to your self-esteem. Number 6 is light candles. Whenever there's a weather— the weather is down, light candles and small fairy lights all over the house. You know, you can put on some perfume, scents some kind of a scent perfumed, what's it called, humidifier. So you can just switch it on and the house smells good. Number 7 is do some baking. Baking will always keep you interested, happy. Most importantly, you want to go out to buy particular things that are needed in the baking. And baking, if you bake a large portion, you can eat it yourself over a period of time. Now, long period, and then if your baking is good, then you can show it to people and you can make people eat them, you know, like that's— you can invite people over. So that's again number 7, that invite people over. Do not wait to be invited. On a weekend, always invite people over. Tomorrow you're invited to my house to taste my baking. It's not always that you have to make food for them, or, you know, it can be a gathering where everybody brings in some food or something other. So maybe people are just waiting to be invited by you. Keep your house clean. That's number 10, number 9 point. Always clean up your house as if you're expecting somebody, as if there's going to be a guest who comes in. That is keep going to keep your mind clean, and you are only making yourself happy if you clean up your house, do your bed right after you wake up. You know, put yourself in through some routine. Like I'm going to do my bed, go to the washroom, make myself a cup of coffee, sit at the porch and have my coffee, and then I'm going to read this book, and then I'm going to do this. You will see the time just flies by, and then you're going to have your lunch, and then you're going to have your like have your breakfast, then have your lunch, and then the time just flies by. If you make some routines for yourself, you don't you won't feel lonely. You won't feel need for somebody else to be in your life. And then you, then you make some room for other people to come in, you know, like in the evening probably you're gonna like call somebody or, you know, make room for that person, other people to come into your life so that you don't get closed up so much in your routine that other people, they come, you feel disturbed, or if they call you, then you feel disturbed. You have to keep a particular time for yourself, for other people to call you. And then keep a time for yourself to be yourself. Just be with your needs here. And last but not the least, number 10 is meditate. Take half an hour out for yourself to meditate. Meditation is immensely helpful for mental health. Every day, just start one— any YouTube podcast on meditation, any kind of meditation— and then you start. You don't have to go you know, become a huge saint or become to be a meditator, like to meditate. You can just switch off the phone, put it on do not disturb, put on your earplugs, I mean headphones, and sit in a quiet, quiet state of your room and just switch on the music. And the guided meditation will guide you throughout the whole thing, journey, and just listen to the guided talk. And initially you will not like it. Initially, you know, your body will revolt. You will want to just break free. But then it becomes an intoxication. Then you cannot live without meditation. And then you will find that all the lives, all your life's problems, the childhood problems, the throughout your life's whatever issues you had are getting sorted in your head. In your head, you're not ashamed of your past. In your head, you are a successful person. In your head, you are a wealthy person. In your head, you are a very, very important person. In your head, you've lived a very good life. It's all in your head, and that is what matters eventually. What is in your head is finally what you go from the planet with, right? It doesn't have to be somebody else's validation. It is your own validation. Your perfect soulmate is you. It's you, your perfect soulmate. It is you. Nobody else can be your soulmate. No, you cannot. Don't have to live with anybody else. Nobody, nobody is indispensable except for yourself. You are indispensable for yourself. Your body is indispensable for yourself. Take care of your body. Take care of your health. Take care of your beauty. Yes, take care of your beauty. Do exercises. That— those are the things I can add, you know, the frills. Do exercises definitely every day, you know, like some freehand, some yoga, some stretching, some cardio, treadmill. Just, just do some.
