Winter blues: battling low morale

s_uk_ucl_264_web_ready_800x500.jpg VPEE Student Journalist Neeharika Nene explores the feelings that can often be associated with January and beyond. She shares her tips for combatting feelings of low morale, homesickness and stress. Coming back to London after the holidays, home seemed even further away. I learnt only a few days into the new term that this was a shared experience. Most people around me were going through the 'January or winter blues' - a curious condition characterised by a mix of homesickness after Christmas, a lack of motivation, bouts of sadness and a distaste for the dropping temperatures and gloomy evenings. Anoushka Kaur Ichpanani, a law student at UCL, remarked, "London can be so overawing, it's easy to get zoned out. I isolated myself a lot during winter break, which took a toll on my mental health, and the lack of sun didn't help."  This was one of the first things I learned about the UK - one tends to constantly bring up the weather.