Wild Winter
What does that mean, to you? What is ‘Wild’ in the season of winter?
To me in the summer, the idea of wild brings up epic wilderness adventures, the ones that demand long daylight hours and have the feeling that you are burning the candle at both ends for, that you would sleep more on the trip but the sun was up at 4 and so were you, just because.
There is a season for that, but it isn’t all the time. Wild, so far this winter, for me has meant holding space for depth work, for big questions and seeking support to uncover old patterns that are not serving me any more. The darkness leads to early to bed and pre-dawn magical wake ups, a feeling of abundance in the early morning hours and that my thoughts are creative and I am tired by mid day. The routines revolve more around home life, neighbors, and trips to the ski hill rather than miles and miles of long drives and exploring different places all the time.
It took me some time, and some intentionality around developing the openness to seasonal living. It’s one thing to say ‘there is a time for everything’ and ‘unto everything there is a season’ and it is another thing to experiment with showing up differently in different spaces. At first I thought that different seasons just meant driving hard at different activities, like sports in high school! More and more now I see the beauty of less. When I literally have nothing I have to do in a day, that is when the meditation comes easily, the books I’ve been meaning to read get opened, stretches happen, writing happens, and the tasks that I have been avoiding have the space because they are not taking away from something more important. This is a space that I had to create, slowly over the course of time. Here are a couple habits that have helped:
Leaving my phone on the other side of the room. Stop taking it everywhere with you, when a message comes in or I need to check something, I remind myself what I am doing on my phone. If I end up scrolling instagram and am not finding joy, just brain filler, I simply say the phrase ‘this is not what you want to be doing with your time’, and it helps me shut it down.
Marie Kondo my stuff. (you can find more about her here). It is about having things that you really care about and love in your space, and nothing else. If something doesn’t spark joy, it goes. I have to give myself little pep talks about how things deserve to be loved and someone out there will love this thing more than I do at this time. It means I have less stuff, and the stuff I have inspires the life I want.
Sit in Silence. Once in a while, not as a specific meditation practice or any type of structure, I just sit in silence. When the show is finished or I don’t know what to do next, etc, I just sit in silence for a bit and let there be space. Sometimes something important comes up, sometimes not, sometimes I fall asleep.
What do the different seasons mean to you? What is winter, this year, about for you? What do you wish it was about? What would you like to start cultivating now that you will reap the benefits of later, perhaps a year from now in the winter?
Permission to get wild, to get counter cultural and have a season of rest, to go wild with depth work in yourself and give the space to process what comes up. To ask yourself what you really want and just sit and listen, know that it will come in the future and misaligned action doesn’t necessarily move you forward.
