Thailand ENNUI in Cold Season Months: How BEST to Combat?

[GammaGlobulin]

My fellow Cold-Season Ennui Sufferers:

 

It happens every year to me, to a lesser or greater extent.

Most likely it happens to YOU, too.

 

I wonder what causes this ennui, since I am living in a beautiful environment.

Maybe it is seeing the grass turn from bright green to a brownish-green color?

Or, maybe it is the changing inclination of the rays from the sun?

Maybe it is the darker blue of the sky, due to the angle of incidence as the light from the sun hits the upper atmosphere, causing colors to change on the ground around me.

 

When I lived in a colder climate, such as New England, there might have been a valid reason for ennui. But here in Thailand, even in Chiang Mai, why does the light of winter months still affect us to some extent?

 

Every year, like clockwork, this listlessness arrives with the months of January and February.

 

What do YOU do to combat this slight comparative loss of affect?

How do you stay motivated, for example?

 

Even the excitement of continuing to learn passa Thai becomes slightly diminished for me, and I yearn for a more motivated perspective on "things".

 

I realize that if I could JUST GET moving, and if I could engage in useful and helpful activities, then this feeling of slight despair would surely vanish, almost entirely.

 

I know that, come the middle of February, in preparation for the HOT Season, all such feelings I am here describing will surely vanish into the smoke.

 

This is why I like the Smoking Season and the HOT Season here in Thailand.

Like a snake or other cold-blooded animal, I seem to crave the heat of Thailand to keep me moving, and moving forward.

 

This is not a JOKE post, of course.

 

What do you do?

 

AND, more importantly for me, what SHOULD I DO?

 

Any useful thoughts on this matter?

 

Thank you.

 

Gamma

 

NOTE:  I should have made this post longer and more detailed; but I am feeling the effects of the Winter Solstice Sun Angle, about now, me thinks.

 

NOTE2: In past years, I have always relied on Thai language learning as my go-to anodyne for wiping away the ennui. This year, however, I am feeling more resistance to taking up the flashcard app.  I think I may still have not recovered from the PanDumic, almost three years of relative isolation, during which time I was not as engaged with Thai people speaking Thai.  If we are unable to speak Thai to Thai people while here in Thailand, then why are we here, anyway?  So, speaking Thai to Thai people helps me, greatly, with my Thai-language acquisition efforts, and my feelings of happiness, as well.  I really need to talk to the locals, instead of talking to myself, maybe.  I have stopped, even, talking to myself in Thai, or answering myself in Thai, these days....It has gotten that bad.  More Thai study for me is the ONLY way to get out of my rut, maybe...

 

 

Edited January 8 by GammaGlobulin

[Crossy]

I had to Google "ennui"

 

[Denim]

1 hour ago, GammaGlobulin said:

  If we are unable to speak Thai to Thai people while here in Thailand, then why are we here, anyway? 

 

I thought we were in Japan chasing intellectual women ?

Hard to keep up with your peregrinations and foibles , never mind your ennuies.

[GammaGlobulin]

24 minutes ago, Denim said:

 

I thought we were in Japan chasing intellectual women ?

Hard to keep up with your peregrinations and foibles , never mind your ennuies.

 

At this time of year, I should be skiing in either Nagano, Japan, or at Aspen, Colorado.

Cannot make up my mind...

But...

Still time, obviously, before the slopes have turned to slush.

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

59 minutes ago, Crossy said:

I had to Google "ennui"

 

 

I don't even have the motivation to google on Google anymore.

So...

You are doing quite well, comparatively.

 

[GammaGlobulin]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

I had to Google "ennui"

 

 

Ennui is sort of a Somerset Maugham kind of word.

 

Think of ennui on some humid tropical island with nothing but gin and sand fleas, and the constant blowing of the trade winds, or something.

 

Somerset wrote a lot about ennui, I think.

 

Nothing good comes of it, and even murders can happen.

Just read more Maugham.

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

I had to Google "ennui"

 

Somehow, the last half of my previous comment became truncated, inexplicably.  Maybe I was too lazy to post it quickly enough, or something…

 

Anyway, Speaking of Maugham…

 

Kind of an interesting character who probably knew more than most about ennui and bondage…although…whether or not he actually practiced bondage is anyone's guess.

 

He was not married for most of his life, of course. And this fact argues AGAINST boredom, in my opinion.

 

Also, his writing style was obviously influenced by his crackerjack education at some rather good schools, such as…

 

The King’s School,

Canterbury Heidelberg University, and

King’s College London

 

Maugham wrote with great sensitivity and is one of my favorite authors.  Maybe, in my ennui, I should begin re-reading all of the writings of good old Somerset.  (Why did he choose the name Somerset instead of Summerset, or Sunset, though, is my question.  During the Cold Season here in Thailand, I have plenty of time to ask such questions, naturally enough.)

 

Sunset was an ENNUI specialist writing about things like life on rubber plantations or growing copra.

 

Edited January 8 by GammaGlobulin