Wintering: how to be aligned with nature and embrace true winter energy

This year, I’m trying to do winter properly. To remember that it’s winter and so I needn’t treat the new year as an invitation to start racing towards my goals. Nature is resting and so should I.

Sinking into Winter is something I have never fully embraced. What would it even look like for me? Let’s contemplate the antithesis of wintering (the embracing of winter and alignment with nature). Summer is high masculine energy, meaning productivity and doing. It’s days filled with tasks, people, rushing and ticking things off. It’s social occasions and new experiences and not stopping until midnight. It’s being away from home.

So my winter, then, is not going to be this. It’s highest priority and theme is slowness. Maybe I’ve still got the to-do list but I allow myself to take my time with it. If I get to it, I get to it. If not, that’s okay. This is a period of slumber; rest and relaxation being the most natural and productive thing I can do for myself. To come home to myself and reflect before I get going again.

Two months of letting the snow fall atop my skin, my barren limbs accepting of the death of self that I experienced in the fall of autumn. Because a fight against winter is a refusal to accept nature’s need to rest. We are, at least we once were, a part of nature. Our brick houses and mobile phones and Google calendars are not a reason to pretend nature isn’t our kin. That the bare trees and skinny brittle bushes are our brothers and sisters. The slumbering bears and frozen frogs our neighbours. The further we disconnect from nature, the further we disconnect from the source of our souls. Our light. The world can move in a rhythm if we just stop and listen to the music.

I aim to stop and listen…

The new year does come with some pressure, especially if you’re on social media and watch highly ambitious or successful people or self-improvement channels. But there’s no need to rush! Any success you have, or any goal you have, should come with the desire for it to feel good and last, right? Therefore, taking our time and letting things unfold in a rhythm and pace that suits the season we’re in means those successes will feel better.

I dare you to hibernate a little for two months!

So this year, my goal is to move in alignment with nature and the seasons more. To have higher expectations and goals and energetic activities for summer, but be slow and gentle and rest for winter. In autumn, I’ll allow myself to ease into things, close chapters, start taking things off the to do list slowly like the falling of leaves. And in spring, I’ll start adding to the list, waking up, planning and dreaming of what I want to make manifest in the rebirth period (my birthday falls in spring so this aligns nicely, too). Maybe this has been one of my problems over the years: expecting summer energy year-round and then beating myself up for not achieving it.

Let what comes come, and what goes go. Breathe and take steps (because we have jobs and aspirations and loved ones) but don’t put all the heaviness on top by expecting it to look like summer energy.

My winter intentions

I’m going to end by listing what I want my winter to look and feel like. What I intend to do, have and feel.

The most important and new and exciting thing, for me, is this sort of magpie energy! The magpie collects items for her best and I want to do the same. I want to spend the next two months collecting ideas, inspiration, thoughts, feelings, experiences, conversations, information, and whatever else ready to use as I see fit in spring and summer. To not expect my creativity to be a full story and actively working on a novel. Instead, just collect a sentence here, paragraph there. A scene, an idea, a character, something I heard, something I learned, what if questions, and so on. Creative little nuggets to piece something together with in spring. That’s it! How nice does that sound for winter?!

Here’s the rest of my list of won’t intentions:

Read a lot Take notes of any random creative ideas but not stress about “making into something”Watch films and tv shows unapologetically Play video games See loved ones for something cosy like games night or movie night Blankets and fluffy socks all daySleeping in Messy hair Expressing my love and gratitude for the people and things I have Dreamy, contemplative journal entries Yoga with the mini heater on and big jumpers Counselling and therapy Board games