(Of course, holiday depression and seasonal affective disorder are serious matters that affect many people this time of year. If you think your “doldrums” might be something more serious, the City of Milwaukee has a number of free and low-cost resources available)
1) Book a session at Float Milwaukee
We all float in here!
If you need to clear your head and recharge, give one of Float Milwaukee’s flotation tanks a try. The concept is pretty simple: you climb inside a sterilized pod filled with warm water, loaded up with Epsom salts to make flotation effortless.
The benefits of flotation, according to the Float website, include relaxation and stress relief, an increase in creative outflow and the “deepening of meditative state by increasing theta waves.” Even if you judge this kind of thing as mumbo-jumbo (although Float declares “no mumbo or jumbo here”), it would certainly be more calming than an hour on the sofa scrolling through political memes on Facebook.
2) Have the winter blues massaged away
Get rubbed!
The winter months can leave you feeling like the walls are closing in, resulting in mental stress that can manifest itself with physical symptoms. A good massage can help with these issues and promote anxiety reduction, help with trouble sleeping and work to lingering injuries.
According to Best Health Magazine, massage therapy can also do things that you might not have thought, like helping to counteract the long bouts of sitting many of us do each day at work and helping to boost your natural immunity.
3) Visit the perpetual summertime of the Mitchell Park Domes
Get in touch with nature!
Open every day of the year, the Mitchell Park Domes can take help you break the wintertime monotony with the arid climes of the desert and the dewy warmth of a tropical jungle. You can tour over 1,200 different plant species, everything from cacti and desert palms to Japanese Lanterns and Banana plants.
4) Join the Urban Ecology Center
Embrace the cold!
With three locations around the city, the Urban Ecology Center offers a variety of outdoor winter adventures for both adults and kids.
You can enjoy an early-evening candle-light walk, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding and ice skating. Plus, a yearly membership will cover you through next summer, so you can warm yourself with the thoughts of kayaking, canoeing and urban fishing.
5) Take a Skywalkee tour
Explore the city with an indoor walking tour!
Walking tours are great in the summer but can be a bit challenging once the temperatures drop.
The chill, however, will not be an issue with Skywaukee, a historic downtown walking tour that hops from building to building via the city’s skywalk system. The tour starts at the Plankinton Arcade at the Shops at Grand Avenue and crisscrosses the river. These weekly tours run through late April.
