Preparing to go into a New Year brings about this time where we start thinking big picture. Resolutions, dreams, goals, and creative ideas start popping up like spring wildflowers. Even though it is the dead of winter some of our best thinking comes at this time of year because it is now that our intuition and dreams are the loudest.
You thought Santa was the only one that brought gifts right?
The truth is winter is the season of inspiration through our thoughts, dreams and intuitive alignment. It is what happens when we are aligned in living with nature, using the very seasons to support our health and well-being. The results can be exceptional life changing big impacts to our life in not
only the new year coming but for years to come!
Using Winter to Your Advantage
I do not enjoy winter for it’s blustery gray cold days. I specifically do not like or enjoy snow and ice. Being cold is the least favorite thing I can think to do in my day. Yet even though I don’t like winter’s temperature, grayness and snow I can still deeply appreciate and love the health support winter brings to my being. It is in this very season we can be most alive in our life.
Most of us feel our best around the holidays. Everything is bright, warm, cheerful and we feel pulled into the holiday spirit. We are anticipating, feeling excited and even nostalgic in all the good ways. These very feelings are more than just holiday glow from the twinkle of tree lights. It is nature speaking to us in her loudest voice that we need her at this very moment from our head to toes and everywhere in between. Holiday time is the perfect way to explain how living naturally in mind-body-spirit actually feels when we are aligned with nature. Our true self and being. The state we were intended to live every day of our lives and not just when it’s almost the holidays.
This alignment actually starts at the time the days get shorter and we are drawn indoors against the dark, colder evenings. It is nature’s way of saying we need rest, connection to each other and warmth physically and emotionally. That is very intentional for why we are often drawn to warm foods that give us comfort, make us feel secure and cozy deeply in quilts.
Understanding this connection and maximizing the time for supporting your health is where it all begins in shifting not only our emotional health but that delicate balance in mind-body-spirit overall.
Tapping into Your Winter Health
Now that you know what to recognize in the change of seasons, how do you actually tap into the health benefits of it all?
That is easy and you’re probably already doing it!
First though, we have to get real about stress. This is the one thing that will seriously block your qi and mess up every aspect of your health. Stress is often downplayed as just something we must all tolerate in the name of adulting but it is the one thing that can seriously derail not only our health but our hopes and dreams. We have to work through the stress in our lives and get it to the point we are not being managed by it every second of every day. That could mean a lot of different things to different people but being honest and real about stress is where health begins in the modern age.
Please understand that fixing stress in your life is not a 5 minute band-aid either. I’m talking big things like boundaries, changes in lifestyle and letting go of the persona our life is a perfect IG reel 24/7. That work takes time but is necessary to release it so we can feel like our true self again while finding the balance that allows us to move forward. Setting a goal or starting a new diet in the middle of chaos is a recipe for disaster every single time.
Winter can be a great time to work on addressing stress too! Using the downtime and cold weather to sort through your life is ideal so you can emerge in the spring stronger, lighter and happier.
The next step in the process is to let yourself dream. This may seem odd but letting yourself open up to dreams, wishes and inner thoughts allows you to glimpse at your soul. Capturing these things on paper starts to breathe life into them as well. This step lets us get creative and dream up the wildest, craziest things we’ve always wanted to have in our life but never did or chased or built.
Now it is possible to let those thoughts emerge to the surface and linger.
Without judgement write down everything that comes to mind. This doesn’t have to be a one time session either. Take a few weeks and let your thoughts wander. Where is your heart pulling you? What really interests you? What did you want to be when you grew up?
The tricky part in this step is stopping negativity and limitations that tell you something is impractical, silly or impossible. In this step we don’t care about any of that only for what is there inside us so we can analyze it.
With our list we start to look for themes, common threads and connectors between our thoughts. If something is recurring then it is an area we need to look closer. Prioritize these items in order of interest, true love, desires, and truest dreams of how we see our life in the future. Be honest about the list and deeply feel each thing as if you were trying on a new dress.
This is where winter rewards us with rest, reflection and the ability to experiment safely in what is possible in our lives. We use the final list as the start of a map. We may not build the map just yet but we being to see there is a path we want to explore and start to think about what it will take to do that.
Winter Health
Winter is intentionally about rest. Leveraging this restful period to build our vision of the future through dreams connects us not only to ourselves but the power of nature. I like to call this a marination period where we find those key themes and we marinate on them for how to use them in our lives.
Sometimes it can be hard to hold back on getting started when we think we have found the path forward. Especially as it relates to health goals this can seem frustrating to slow down. I believe however when that kind of energy strikes us we should use it to make sure we have the right structure in place to support the work we are eager to begin. Maybe that is a new pair of sneakers to go to in the gym or working with a natural health professional to outline a meal plan or even a financial investment to start a new business. Ensuring you take the time to think through what you need to be successful often makes the difference on how much progress we achieve.
Giving life to a new path in your life, whether major or small, is much akin to actual birth. We need a plan, knowledge of what to expect, training and exercise to be ready for it to happen. As silly as this sounds but perhaps if we took this approach to our health matters more of us might be successful on our diets. I get the anxiousness and excitement to start but having a plan gives us the directed guidance we need so we can start on the right foot.
Winter is ideal for these types of plans to be formed, ideas to be made more solid and investments for success researched. You may even research and build a budget for the ideas that require an investment. Having a good map is the best resource for starting a new adventure.
All of this can seem crazy to do if your goal is to lose weight or improve your health but consider this for a moment. How many diets did you start this year or even in your life? How many of them were successful and long lasting? Being intentional about a goal or dream requires an investment of all of our being in mind, body and spirit for ultimate success. Losing a few pounds, having more energy to last all day, and even improving our health all fall into this same category.
Putting a Winter Plan in Motion
Many people will start a new diet January 1. The gyms will be full and sneakers will be flying off the store shelves. In just a few weeks though things will return to “normal.”
January 1 seems like the perfect time to start with a clean slate, but too often it doesn’t work for goal progress. We struggle to keep up the routine, build it into our day or make any kind of progress moving the needle. That is because it is still very much the peak of winter. Our energy is still in rest mode. Sure we can power through it and force it but that often leaves us exhausted and overwhelmed. See the stress point above in this blog because that’s where most of this leave us.
If you want to start something in January to improve your health, take your shiny new plan and look for the intentional small ways to start building the path. This is not the time to go full blast but rather test your plan, solidify your structure and take a baby step. Maybe it’s finding a community group to take Saturday walks while the kids play. Maybe it’s exploring recipes to create healthy hearty soups.
What we often miss in the quest of a new goal is the enjoyment of the journey. The scenery and process of improving our lives is often the best part because it enriches our experience, builds our knowledge and wisdom and expands our view. Seeing the whole picture and process integrates it more firmly into our lives. That creates momentum that makes things easier to keep up and use in our daily living. Treating a new goal like a beginner who is learning something for the first time opens our heart for curiosity and perspective that we often miss in our hurry to the finish line.
If you really feel compelled to jump on a faster track make sure you have solid footing beneath you. Take it at your own pace and let go of the idea it is a competitive race. This is fully about your journey and what feels great to you. Too often we get sucked into this one-sized-fits-all approaches because we feel if we don’t have what the other person has or if we’re still fat and they lose weight then we are not successful. That following mentality prevents us from personalizing our own experiences and journey to the one that is perfect for ourselves. That is one thing the medical and diet industries miss is the need for individualization in the process.
I highly recommend working with a natural health professional throughout this process to help you find your way, keep it personal and support your successes. This not only helps us achieve greater results that last but keeps us from falling into the one-sized-fits-all roller coaster again.
To work with me
To have that natural health support in your natural health journey, I invite you to schedule a consultation with me. Let’s help you define, develop and start the journey of your goals naturally and in good health.
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