‘Appreciate winter for what it is, without wishing it were something different’: psychologist Kari Leibowitz on beating the seasonal blues

The researcher spent 10 years studying how attitude affects mood and behaviour, and her new book shares ways in which we can learn to value the colder months

Kari Leibowitz holds a PhD in social psychology from Stanford University, where she studied the role of our mindsets on our health and wellbeing. For the past 10 years, Leibowitz has been investigating people's attitudes to winter and the ways they can powerfully affect our mood and behaviour - research that has culminated in her debut book, How to Winter: Harnessing Your Mindset to Thrive in Cold, Dark Or Difficult Times.

As a Fulbright scholar, you moved from Atlanta to the University of Tromso in Norway. The polar night there lasts for almost two months. How did that experience inform your views of winter?
I was looking for a research project, and I began writing to Joar Vitterso, who is one of the world's leading experts on human happiness and wellbeing. He told me that he was at the world's northernmost university, and I thought: how does the world expert on human happiness live in this place where the sun doesn't rise for two months each winter?