This is a time for many of us to contemplate the ending of things. Even before the Christian faith that brought us Christmas existed, this coming week has been an important time for many cultures. In the Northern hemisphere, the pivotal moment comes when the season of darkness, hardship and austerity would peak, and we would be facing the downslope of winter and looking forward to the fertile valleys of spring. This turning point also came right before the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. Traditionally, this period has always been a time of quiet reflection, making peace with the past, celebrating the end and the peak of a cycle, and choosing to hold on to the hope of the bright warming of spring sure to follow the darkness of winter.
Never have we had darker winters than the winters of 2020 and 2021, and for our brethren in the Far East I would have to include 2019. Never have we had more to recover from and never have we more needed hope for change in our living history.
But there is so much tacky consumerism that has latched on to this sacred time. Christmas Sales and New Year New You specials with all their advertising and their gimmicks and their jingles and clamor can crowd out the empowerment this season was intended to have. The pressure to gift is followed by the pressure to change your life and it has killed the vibe for many of us around these holidays.
We have also killed our own joy with our personal histories of New Years Resolutions that lasted a month or two and fizzled under the spring heat of the habits we haven’t kicked. We resolve on top of a poor foundation and then dissolve as the foundation buckles under the weight of our expectations. Then we pack all our failures into the bag that we carry all our other failures in and try to walk forward, ass dragging under the weight of it all. Words like “goals”, “plans”, “routine” and “New Years Resolutions” hit different, like a baseball bat you can’t dodge.
Let’s take a page from the book of the creatures who do winter best.
I would love to offer a different path for this turning of the season. This is a gentle path, taken from examples in nature. Let’s take a page from the book of the creatures who do winter best. They have mated, eaten themselves fat in preparation for a long dark winter. They simply go into their caves and their holes and they shut themselves down. For a human this could be a glorious time of silence with quiet nights of tea cups and journaling and art and baking and crafting. This could be a wonderful time of nesting, Netflix, cuddling, meditation, long baths, good sex (if the number of bear cubs in spring is anything to go by!), good books, and reflecting. This was the purpose of winter. A rest from work demanded by the seasons. A quiet place to be with all that you’ve created and plan for all you will create.
What would you learn about yourself and create in your life if you slowed this time down on purpose? How much stronger would your foundation be and how much more powerful would your reemergence into a New Year be if this time was used for quietly making peace, reflection, healing, rest, forgiveness, making space for the new and emptying the sack of failures?
Get your rest, dear friend. And then on the first day of January I invite you to replace the very corporate and stiff idea of resolution with inspiration. How about you get inspired about new ideas, new things to create, new intentions of what you’d like to bring into the world. What light, what beauty, what inspiring energy would you like to see in the world? How can you BE THAT, my darling?
Doesn’t this feel a bit more human to you?
This season I invite you to consider the sweet little animal inside that wants cinnamon in your coffee and beautiful long naps. What does the nature within you call for? Treat yourself, little man cub. Be more you in 2022.
Looking for support for an empowered start to your New Year? Book yourself a half hour with a coach for a conversation about possibility. Even if you choose not to pursue coaching as an option, we are committed to you leaving your first call with more clarity and intention than you came in with. If you’re ready for something bigger, treat yourself to a full VIP Day.
