Posted on February 17, 2020 by dragonspitapothecary
There are a lot of people, me not, who love winter. They love the cold temps, snow and all things wintry. By February though most, even the die hard lovers, have had their fill of shoveling snow, bundling up and living in gray days. The driving sleet and slush has over stayed it’s welcome and we are ready to step into weather that doesn’t require so much effort to move around. More than anything I think we realize just how gray winter can be and we start to crave more sunlight, some fresh colors in our landscape and the fading away of snow that has long since turned brown and slushy.
Even though I’m not a fan of winter there are some aspects of this season that resonate with me deeply. I appreciate for instance that this season has a purpose calling us to use it as a time of rest, rejuvenation that supports our growth emotionally and physically. Winter is a season full of planning, preparation, and strategy setting that we can begin to layout and form in a theoretical quieter time of the year. For instance it is this time of year I am ordering garden seeds with many needing to be started indoors over the coming weeks. Often I think this is where we in modern society miss out on the beauty of each season because we are typically not resting at all in winter. Instead our lives are driven by non-stop errands, responsibilities, deadlines and challenges. We never have that elongated period of time where we take on a slower pace in life to plan, prepare and just rest buried in deep warmth of our homes like the garden seeds I will place in little pods soon. Instead we “fit” it all in on top of running our normal lives ignoring our soul’s need to rest. Perhaps this is why so many of us often reach the burnout level of energy, focus, endurance that leads to depression, anxiety and sleeplessness.
Winter is our reminder that we all need that time to rest, reflect and rebuild ourselves. We are not made to run non-stop all the time and never have that down time where we cannot form what is next for us. Yet how do we get off the roller coaster of the burnout lifestyle? Can we even successfully achieve that and still enjoy the modern conveniences of every day life? I admit I have not always succeeded at this myself and will find myself overwhelmed, exhausted and highly frustrated that life just isn’t more easy. When you are working full time, caring for a family and trying to just do all the things required to make life go it seems impossible to consider. A week long vacation is nice but I am talking that longer period of time where we seriously reflect on what is happening in our life and form plans for what’s next. Without that time to rest and prepare we find we can’t keep our commitments to lose weight, focus on healthy improvements or even de-stress in a few minutes of meditation. It all adds up to a never-ending cycle of running on empty emotional tanks and negative influences to our overall health.
Drawing on the energy of this season to help us prepare for the seasons coming, is where I believe the true opportunity exists for living more natural -even if our daily life is hectic. When we are living more natural there is flow and our energy is focused on things that are serving us instead of draining. This is a monumental shift in our thinking that influences our actions and behaviors. In a way it is a lot like keeping things in perspective, our priorities aligned to what is really important to us while balancing all the other things in life that make noise and cause us stress. Just because we choose to live more naturally doesn’t mean things always flow smoothly but we have more control on it and can greatly influence it to our favor.
For me personally this has made a huge change in how I deal with the stress in my life. Being a single family income household with my husband disabled from PTSD this added a lot of stress on my shoulders. I felt overwhelmed with not only working to support us but also keeping up with household things that also fell to me. It still sometimes come up and feels crazy and overwhelming but most days I can move in grace with it and find that balance that still honors how I feel and what I need. In the season of winter when I need rest and time to think about how to move and grow I can more easily honor that by carving out time for myself. It isn’t always ideal but I do it for my own sanity and ability to make sure I can continue to do all that I need for my family.
There are a lot of times I am just tired from all that I do. The pressure doesn’t let up and there are constant challenges that stress me out. I have accepted that I can only do so much and I have to honor my needs as much as anything else that is demanding, pulling, calling and needing me. As I have gone through the winter season I have used as much time as I can to serve my own needs and give myself that time to rest, reflect and plan. My plan going into this year was to start with a renewed focus on my health and well-being. I actually started to learn to meditate and appreciate that time I get for this even though most of the time it feels like a punishment to sit still. I have also found I love salt floats! When I go on work trips there is a place I found that offers a wonderful experience and it truly is rejuvenating to me. These small things I’m doing are reshaping my rest season so I can emerge into spring renewed and ready to prosper on the goals I have set for myself and my family.
My meditation practice is not at all a fine science but is something that is working for me. I have even seen our young son join me and he actually gets into it as well. What I find helpful is actually just sitting on my bed in a comfortable position and everything off. I setup the diffuser with some doTERRA Balance and Serenity and just let that aroma sink into my cells. I stay that way as long as feels comfortable or until I feel like I’m ready to open my eyes. Admittedly it hasn’t been very long at all but these precious few minutes have made a difference to me. I feel okay and that I can go about the rest of my day in control. My mind is calmer and I can sort through the chaos facing me with a little more grace and lot less temper.
As you build your natural health journey this year, I invite you to see winter as your season to rest, reflect and rejuvenate. Even if you are not a winter fan like me, you can find a beauty in this season to feed our souls. If you’d like to try what I use simply click here: dragonspitapothecary.com/love-winter
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