How You Can Benefit From The Cold and Darkness of Winter
Anyone else bummed about it being dark at 4pm???
Is the darkness making you feel tired and pulling you to go to sleep earlier? By 9pm it’s been dark for 5 hours. My bed is calling me earlier, and it’s harder to get up in the morning. The cold makes me want to stay under the cozy covers and cuddle with my hubby and puppy.
It’s OK, and actually natural and in alignment with the season, to give yourself more time to rest. Fighting your natural tendency to sleep more is fighting nature, and it could contribute to you getting sick.
This time of the year, it is effective to yield, to allow your self to relax, and to spend some more time feeding your creativity and pondering what you want.
To help counteract the swift shift into greater cold and darkness, we celebrate the holidays, eat and drink heartily, socialize frequently, and try to avoid the aloneness that winter can bring without realizing that the cold, darkness and desire to retire inside, away from the world can give you an opportunity to recharge your body and to nourish your mind and your soul.
Winter is a time of stillness and quiet, and turning inward. In Chinese Medicine, they call it the most yin of the seasons. In winter outward signs of life have disappeared, and the landscape is covered with snow. Winter is cold and dark, qualities that preserve and store. It is the concentrated, energy preserving energies of winter enable seeds to grow in spring.
Allowing yourself to simply be still and quiet, containing your energy, is in alignment with the season. Living in a society of continual striving and exertion, you expect instant results and immediate answers. But nature has another idea: everything has its season. Within nature are already all the answers, you just have to be quiet enough to listen and be empty enough to be filled.
Tis the season to take the time to-
Listen-
- to your body and take time to replenish your reserves and to recharge and to stay warm.
- to what others have to say and to your heart. This is a time of receiving, not doing. As winter is a time to go within, your inner being comes closer to the surface in winter. Keep a journal and record your feelings, thoughts, and dreams: donʼt analyze them, just record them. Donʼt be afraid of your darker side; allow any and all images to unfold; look at them again later and see if the images convey an inner message to you.
And to-
Nourish-
- Your body with good healthy and hearty food
- Your mind with insightful books, conversations and movies
- Your heart by hanging with friends and family and deepening your relationships with them
- Your soul with inspiring theater, music or spiritually expanding workshops, which is why I am excited to share with you this invitation to this FREE Soul Expanding Retreat!
It’s the perfect time for a reTREAT. And, this one you can do in your home, while you connect with other like minded women and do Art + Journaling + Dance + Yoga and Soul Search in this Mini Workshop series designed to help you slow down and nourish yourself at the end of the year. Sessions are led by world renowned artists, teachers, speakers, authors and healers from all over the world (including me).
Join me for this really cool FREE reTREAT! You don’t need to pack a bag, travel halfway around the world, find a sitter for your kids (or pets), or even leave your home. You get a retreat that will fit around your schedule and best of all, it is my gift to you. It doesn’t cost you a dime.
If you are working too hard and know you need a rest, are feeling drained, or wanting to try something new and have some fun,
