How To Winter: Harness Your Mindset To Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days

Much like Katherine May’s beautiful book Wintering, this is a volume to curl up with by a fire with a warm cup of tea and cozy socks—or to carry along en route to an outdoor adventure in the snow. Self-proclaimed “reformed winter-hater” Leibowitz shares her academic research (she’s a Stanford-trained scientist) and personal anecdotes in a book that leans into the idea that people lose out when they lean into the idea that winter is a time of death or a season to stay indoors. This isn’t a book about weather, though. Leibowitz builds on psychologist Carol Dweck’s concept of the growth mindset by describing the wintering mindset as one that allows people to grow during whatever temporal, geographical, or metaphorical phase of life they’re in. She advises readers to learn from successful winterers who appreciate the season, make it special, and get outside, but she also leaves a little warm space for hibernators who engage in a hygge lifestyle differently.