Essential Practices For Supporting Our Inner Winter
“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximising scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.”
This time of year tends to fill me with poetry and praises for all that is offered by the slow and steady descent into the primordial womb of winter. As someone who was born and raised in Southern California, true winters and the devotion they bestow were not known to me as a child. Now—living among the evergreens at an elevation of 8200 feet—the snow finds me long before the winter solstice does. With each passing year, I have become more enthralled with the opportunity that wintering provides. To me, the promise of winter is one of deep communion in stillness. As I have become intimate with winter’s gifts, I have realized that no matter where we find ourselves geographically, supporting an inner winter is vital to our wellbeing. An inner winter provides us with a place to pause and cultivate our creative gifts in service to all of life.
We all require the restoration and renewal of an inner winter.
However winter manifests in our immediate environment, this time of year invites us to begin to journey within and to meet ourselves in the stillness of quiet contemplation. When we give our body, mind, and spirit space to rest and devote ourselves to the creative cultivation necessary for sustaining our offerings in this world, we empower ourselves to show up to life with more resiliency, clarity, strength, and purpose. Honoring our internal seasons is a gesture towards the abundant nourishment that is our birthright to claim and embody. When we ourselves are nourished, so too can we nourish the world around us.
Here are some essential practices that I have been exploring as I step into my inner winter . . .
Making more space for dream journaling and working with writing as a method of emotional liberation and transmutation.
This practice encourages the dreamlike quality of winter stillness to come forth and creates more space for unforeseen possibilities and creative ideas to emerge within our psyche. One of the reasons I include journaling practices in all of my 1:1 sessions with clients is because I truly believe in the power of the written word and in the transformation that can unfold by the simple act of bringing pen to paper. Journaling helps to enliven our spirit, as we open to messages from deep within our soul and nourish our capacity for emotional, physical, spiritual, and collective resolution. Similarly, cultivating a relationship with our dreams is a benevolent practice that can help us become more intimate with ourselves and with the world around us. Our dreams are messengers from our innermost self, and they are worthy of our attention.
Incorporating mindful movement to encourage fluidity and flexibility of body, mind, and spirit.
In the Classical Chinese 5 Element Theory, which I was blessed to study in depth during my time at Naropa University, the season of winter is associated with the element of Water. It is an essential part of my practice during the winter to attend to the fluidity and flexibility of my inner waters through conscious and intentional movement practices. This can look like spontaneous freeform dance, structured cardiovascular exercise, yoga asana, gentle walks in the forest when the weather allows for it, and a range of other intuitive movements. Choosing to dance and flow throughout our inner winter is one way of cultivating resiliency, resisting stagnation, and creating greater capacity to gracefully bloom once the spring season arrives.
Staying hydrated and connecting intentionally with Water through prayer and gratitude.
Connecting with the Water we drink helps us connect to the Water we are. It may seem strange at first, but if you are willing to let your imagination, your Heart, and your ancient cellular wisdom lead the way, you may find that becoming more intentional with the Water you drink leads to greater physical, mental, and emotional wellness. In my Vital Being: Wholeness & Renewal sessions, something I often address early on with my clients is the quality of Water they are drinking, bathing in, and utilizing to cook. Shifting my drinking and cooking Water to a local spring was one of the most powerful shifts I have ever made for my health. Whether or not you have a local spring, staying hydrated during this season and exploring Water Consciousness is something I highly recommend. In particular, I find that praying over and giving thanks to the Water I am drinking helps me experience more presence and gratitude in my day-to-day life. For more information on Water Consciousness, I recommend the work of Veda Austin and Isabel Friend.
Cultivating conscious connection with plants and their medicine.
For me, this looks like making herbal formulations for my clients, for Artemisia Atara Apothecary, and for myself. It also means walking in the forest on the days when the weather is more favorable, burning homemade incense, making offerings to the land, and connecting with plants from a place of integrity, ceremony, and reverent intention. Other ideas for how this could show up during this time include: arts and crafts projects that involve natural materials, making earth altars and mandalas, visiting a favorite tree regularly, learning about a new plant in your local ecology during this time, making botanical dyes, engaging in ethical wild harvesting, working with an herbal body oil, or making a mindful practice of watching how the landscape changes with the season.
However you choose to integrate these practices is uniquely your own. Start where you are, and begin to make space for the blessings that an inner winter can offer you. If you would like to go deeper with the process of harmonizing with the seasons and nourishing your inner winter, you can schedule a 30-minute call to begin the process of working with me. May this season bless you, wherever you are in the world, however you choose to honor this time, and through all stages of your journey home to the fullness of who you truly are ♡
