it’s a time to hibernate and sleep and breathe and recoup, but sometimes, you don’t really get that option, so you dig your heels in and put your energy toward everything else that needs attention and forget about the rest.
and you know what?
that’s okay.
we have this maddening societal need to always hustle, always move, and i really truly think that’s the cause of a lot of our problems.
granted, society is also set up in a way that also necessitates the need to always be grinding, but that isn’t the best case scenario in the long run.
no wonder we’re sick and burnt out all the time.
this winter, try to take some time to breathe and be and rest.
not that you need my permission to do so, but i promise you it’s okay.
the world will be there when you get back to it, whenever that might be.
winter is a good time for taking it easy and rejuvenating yourself and your life and it’s one of the needed cycles that we must go through to maintain balance and happiness in life, but i am sick and tired of the cloudy, snowy, cold weather.
give me birds singing and sun shining and plants growing.
i want to lay out on a big, warm rock and soak up the sun’s rays like a giant lizard without a care in the world.
i want to go on adventures and long drives without having to pack half an antarctic expedition’s worth of cold weather gear with me.
mostly, i just want to not be trapped indoors anymore.
i have faith that we’ll get there, most likely only in a few weeks’ time, but it’s the waiting that’s the hard part.
there wasn’t anything particularly bad about it, per se, but there were just a bunch of small inconveniences that kept piling on and on until it was just too much.
it happens, right?
right.
anyway, shitty day aside, i decided that to fix my mood, i was going to make popovers.
i haven’t made popovers in years.
that said, they’re super simple, provided you don’t open the oven.
i neither confirm or deny making that mistake.
part of the fun, though, was just randomly deciding to make a treat that i’d not had in years and let me tell you.
there’s just something about the muted, mellow light and how it seems to cleanse everything it touches.
the full moon is a great time to take a look back on all the happenings of the past cycle; to celebrate your triumphs and successes and to cleanse and ride yourself of any negativity and failures (while still holding on to any lessons you have learned).
i also like to take this time and meditate on all the situations the world has gone through in the last month, as a way to process these circumstances and move past any unpleasantness that may have been felt.
i thought it would be fun to share my process with you today.
perhaps you’ll find that it’s a fitting way to welcome in each new cycle and that it’s a great way to allow good things into your life to fill up the spaces where negativity and muckiness used to sit.
i know i have.
so, try it out and, if you’ve never meditated before, don’t be scared to start small.
one minute. two minutes. five minutes.
it doesn’t matter.
what matters is that you make a point to sit with yourself (something that almost everyone i know is entirely uncomfortable with) and your thoughts in order to process, to learn, to grow.
let’s begin.
breathe.
hold 7 seconds.
release.
hold 10 seconds.
repeat.
as you feel yourself relax, as you allow your worries and fears come to the forefront of your mind, toss them into the aether and dissipate.
don’t dwell. don’t stop to over-analyze.
learn how to be okay with sitting and resting and being.
i do this practice every full moon.
i release my problems and doubts and anything troubling and i trust that Mother Moon will guide me through.
if you have a deity or guide, you can also reach out to them. do whatever you feel works best for you. there’s no rules or certain way to do this.
once you feel you’ve released all you need to, quietly come back to yourself and reengage in the world around you, ready to start this new cycle with a clear head and heart.
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