I'm so excited about this sweet offering.
Winter can be a really challenging time for a lot of people, for many reasons. Especially when it has felt like a really tough year for so many.
The holidays can be a lot, families and friends can feel like too much. There may be a pull to just shut everything out and sleep for 3 months, but maybe you've got a full time job and kids and all the responsibilities that never go away.
How can we honor the pull go do less, rest more and follow the natural rhythms when most of our society doesn't support that?
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My hope is to be able to provide that support! In a fun and creative way, little moments at a time with deep intention.
One of the things I've been working on the last couple months is Same Action, Different Intention. Yes, it is akin to mindfulness, but to me it has been something more.
The phrase I've been working with is Exquisite Care. If I'm washing my hair, can I do it with exquisite care? Applying lotion, making the bed, washing the dishes, literally anything on my to do list. What is the energy I'm bringing to any particular action?
When there is a huge to do list and nature is turning off the lights, how can we slow down and embody some energy of winter that feels magical and restorative?
One of my inspirations of this 3 month series was a winter in which I chose to dive in to the darkness and create the Winter Night Sky series. I'm not sure how many pieces I created, but so many variations of the beauty of the dark, the night, the magic that can only be seen at night that is highlighted in the winter time. With the focus of that winter being all about seeing the beauty in the darkness, it shifted my way of being from one of bracing for the hardships of winter, to opening up to all that is special during the season. Looking for beauty when all seems dark (literally and metaphorically), helps to keep me going and I want to be able to share that with others.
Most animals that hibernate, don't hibernate alone. They get cozy and snuggle and sleep for long extended periods of time. For some, it would be dangerous and maybe mean death to try to hibernate alone.
I'm thinking of everyone inhabiting a favorite animal and we all just get to be together energetically, in softness and quiet. Allowing our being to rest and restore.
While I personally feel an affinity for bears, your animal may be a skunk or snake, turtle or frog, a marmot or squirrel. And also, you don't have to pick an animal, you may just feel in to the very human soft animal body you inhabit. I just personally love the visual of a whole group of different animals all snuggled up, sleeping in a cave.
And maybe this energy is only embodied in brief moments when reading the email or falling asleep at night. Or you may find you can also embody that energy as you're making dinner or taking the kids to school or watching a movie with your partner. Maybe it is a brief pause for a few breaths with the eyes closed, imagining your sweet animal self curled up in a cozy cave hibernating with other sweet souls.
