Winter’s Ebb

Whether we like it or not, humans are still governed by the natural ebb and flow of daylight, the moon cycles, and the roll of the seasons.

Our internal hormonal patterns still reflect a sensitivity to the deeply ingrained patterns that dominated our experience of time for eons :
Gearing us up in the morning, sustaining us through the day, only to lower us again into the coming evening and the complete rest of the night. And the bigger seasonal changes have the same four stages - accompanied by hormonal fluctuations that encourage and enforce those stages of the cycle.

We ignore them at our peril

Electric lights, TVs and now internet devices have interfered with our daily clock - moderating the delicate balance of hormones that determine a sense of tiredness and closure. Many sleep problems are the simple result of our systems not really knowing whether the sun has gone to bed yet - because of the unfailing intensity of light in our daily world - it’s like midday just keeps on going, so our systems keep churning out the midday chemistry to match. Then suddenly it is dark - no wind-down, no penumbra, no descent - and hormones just don’t work like that…

The working week has us pandering to stress-inducing deadlines, shock-tactic alarm clocks and the constant threat of mortgage defaults. No rest for the adrenalin junkie…

A very different world from the gentle season shifts and daily glides that came before.

Our physical body still has the same cyclical needs it always had.

As well as the active side of life’s doing, our needs also include rest, downtime, plentiful sleep in pure darkness, & appropriate, seasonally varied nutrition.

The Winter of Discontent

Culturally we hide from these darker, colder, wintery months. We struggle on through, longing for the awakenings of Spring, which we long for so much. Or we fly away to catch a glimpse of the sun (at huge planetary expense).

Depressions rise in the winter, and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD !) is now a fully recognised hormonal phenomenon... but it is not the fault of the sun, or the clouds, or the rain. It is a choice that we are making in our daily do.

Everything about our biology is gently suggesting that this season is different, and if we ignore the downtime it is encouraging, we create internal conflicts that need not be there.

We can try many things to mask these effects - trips to sun, light boxes, heavy exercise, vitamin injections, counselling, but they are only sticking plasters.

We can allow the modern culture to impose its schedule, and exhaust ourselves in pretending that we 'should' be able to perform at top speed all year round...

We can increase the temperature and the spiciness of our foods, adjust our heating, watch stimulating movies... All of which just further confuses the body and deepens the problematic effects…

But the only real solution is to go with the energies...

The Glory of Rest

Rather than attempting to muster ourselves over the natural lull in energy at this time of year, how about we listen to it... Instead of pushing on through to the other side, we might feel better if we follow its lead.

It is a season of rest, of darkness, of hibernation, of introspection, of taking stock, of consolidating, and of gathering our energy for what comes next.

Ancient cultures that have this seasonality, recognise the pattern that all life follows at this time. The trees are dormant, the big mammals are absent, and a great stillness falls across the land.

Dreamtime

Rest well. 
Gather yourselves my friends.
Take the time to vision how you want your year to be.
Dream in that which you want for yourself and your loved ones.

For the Spring-time of rapid action is coming… But we are still in the calm before the storm, the rest before the race, the lull before the lift.

As the spring approaches, we will have the time to detail our plans, to add flesh to the bones of our dreams, and create strategies for how to get what we long for.

But first we must be really clear on what it is that we want.

And that is at the heart of this season

Dreaming is not time wasted, it the best possible use of the seasonal downtime.

Wasteful would be battling against the bigger energies that affect us. 
Wasteful would be doing what it is difficult to do now, rather than resting for now, and doing it when it is easier. 
Wasteful would be ignoring the body's hormonal patterns, exhausting our adrenals and creating sickness in the future.
Wasteful would be adhering to mental idea of constantly being active, rather than listening to the feelings of the body, the wisdom of the natural world, and seasons of the planet.

Easier Said Than Done

But we live in this constantly busy world, and we have bills to pay and deadlines to meet. So we must do what we have to in order to survive here.

But the choices come in how we spend our downtime.

Projects that can be put off until the spring should be.
Endless stimulation - whether through the TV, Facebook, or our own internal worries - these things are a choice - to some extent. And if we recognise this, we can practice letting them go, in favour of more restful, nourishing, communal pursuits.
Then we will naturally have more energy for the big push that is going to be upon us before we know it.

There is coming a time when the dreaming will require action to birth it into being.
But it is not now.

There is a time coming when the seeds and the bulbs and buds will be bursting with vigour and expanding in all directions. But it is not yet.

But for now they are buried; concentrated in kernel, deep within their being, dreaming of their awakening. But now they are resting.

For me, as the new year approached there was much time taken to do this deeply needed lack of work. 

Time spent ritualistically visioning my coming year - full of abundance, love, family, peacefulness, creativity, friendship, and radiant health...

Rest well my friends.

Dream yourself a gorgeous year - and we'll see you in it...