Winter Arc Challenge: Genuinely Helpful Or Just Another TikTok Trend?

New Year's resolutions are our generation's favourite delulus. To just keep scrouching on your sofa, and daydream about your best version strutting about in the streets. Aah! Absolute heaven. 

But the new TikTok trend - Winter Arc - is different than this in two significant ways. First, it demands us to take action before the new year and not after, and secondly, it demands us to get up from our couch and work our ass off to become our best version - physically and emotionally. 

So, what is the Winter Arc Challenge?

Winter Arc Challenge is a TikTok trend which is to be followed for 90 days, in the last three months of the year. It requires us to focus on the big three - personal development, health and fitness goals, the Bermuda triangle ever so lost from any working adult's life these days. 

The challenge is specifically named so because, in winter, we all have a tendency to fall into comfortable patterns. These habits include indulging in sugary sweets, not exercising, sleeping in late, staying indoors and lazying around. While these are some of the tamasik sweet pleasures of our life, the winter arc exposes you to some bigger and better goals. 

The influencer and 'winter arc' inventor

Carly Berges is a 27-year-old lifestyle and self-development influencer on TikTok who coined the term 'winter arc.' She explained her intent before launching the challenge,

"These are the months where a lot of people tend to slow down...this is the time where people tend to let their foot off the gas."

The video with this mantra has already garnered more than 4.6m views. 

For her, winter arc means being "laser-focused" on your goals. Committing to this, her set of goals for the season are waking up at 5:30 AM, having a workout and meal plan, reading books and posting more content on TikTok. 

Genuinely helpful or just a trendy facade?

According to some professionals in favour of this challenge, the winter arc may be the purpose you need all along in those gloomy winter months. Psychotherapist Shakira Espada Campos told USA Today that the challenge does encourage a positive mindset change during this season. It makes the individual go from "survival mode" in the cold to "growth and development mode."

Other professionals have also shared their views that more than physical benefits, the winter arc has mental and psychological fruitfulness to it. It unleashes a sense of agency and control. An individual has a rigid schedule to stick to, which makes him/her feel more in control of his feelings. 

A more realistic approach to the winter challenge would be not to blindly follow instructions off the internet, but to talk directly to a professional regarding it. This will help you cater your schedule, dietary plan, and exercise schedule according to your body requirements. A generalized schedule simply scraped off the internet might do more harm than good.