seasons
Winter Blues or Digging Into Stillness
I am being barraged lately in my inbox by helpful articles and suggestions about beating the “winter blues”. It seems that after the rush and stress of the holidays that we have come upon a phenomena called the winter blues. There seems to be all sorts of ideas about how we can overcome them. There is an endless supply of helpful and natural solutions to this time when everything seems to slow down. The talk is about our moods dropping with the temperature – shorter days – feeling cooped up by due to the weather. We get helpful hints how to uplift our emotions and chase away negative feelings.
But, what if the cold longer nights are rather nature’s way of telling us to slow down, be still and rest easy. Now is the time to turn your energy around and inward. Time for reflection as the old year has drawn closed and the new one is bright and shining with all sorts of possibilities. I am not talking about making a to do list or list of resolutions but just seeing it as a new beginning and taking pause and a moment.
Nature has her seeds buried deep in the earth. They have settled in and are patiently waiting for Spring. The trees are cold and bare. They create a skeleton landscape that looks desolate and beautiful at the same time. It looks like the earth has stopped and is waiting for the snows to melt as the temperature warms. Animals have dug down into burrows to keep warm and sleep through the cold winter.
We have so many distractions pulling us here and there that it feels wrong to just sit and be with ourselves for a while. It may feel selfish or just quite not right and this is when we get into the winter blues. Maybe, rather this is a time for us to dig into ourselves and just be for a while. We need to be in that stillness and practice patience with ourselves. We need to just breathe in and out and be present in the moment. Take out a pen and paper or our computer and touch base with ourselves. Brain dump all the ideas and feelings and to do lists and get it out of your head and onto paper or screen . Clear out the clutter so you can look at things in a new way. Start looking at who you want to be and what you hope for the new year when the warm sun and longer days return.
What new beginnings are your tender green shoots aiming for as you burst forth in the Spring? Take pause and dream.
2 Comments
cindy jones
I love winter and as a farmer I indeed use it to slow down somewhat (as well as watch TV!). I try to get projects done that I don’t have time for in the summer months.
mschendel
Me too! This time is for breathing in the calm and burrowing in with a hot cup of tea! 🙂