Teachings from the Natural World: Permission to Winter

“Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximizing scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible,”— Katherine May, Wintering, 2020 

Winter is a time that often brings fret and sadness to many, shifts in mood and energy that challenge function. Some may know this as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), or more generally coined “Seasonal Depression.” While SAD can render extremely troublesome symptoms of depression with real barriers to participation in daily activities, a shift in perspective might be opportune. Nature this time of year exemplifies the necessity of death, rest, and scarcity. These are natural factors of living that hustle culture often tries to oppose. Much judgement and resistance is placed on seasonal change in mood, socialization, mobility, and energy. Thinking about the many animals that enter a state of hibernation, their systems are reduced to a minimalist state of action to preserve energy and maintain body temperature. Their process isn’t questioned and the benefits are evident. Are humans much different in the need for hibernation? It’s just a home that we burrow in rather than a hole. 

Moreover, cycles of end and renewal are not only in sync with the turn of leaves and bare branches. Periods of depression, change, and recouperation are felt throughout all months of the year in very personal ways. This might be due to the loss of a loved one, a divorce, navigating a new town, burning out, or confronting a change in passion or identity. Slow down organically comes with change. Amidst these times, reality becomes foreign and resources are missing. There’s a need to recalibrate. That’s what stillness, quiet, acknowledgement of feelings, reflection, and slumber can offer. This is just like the natural world summer to fall and fall to winter, taking pause to restore for a bountiful spring. Thinking this through, what makes spring bountiful is the return of resources to the land, like elongated hours of sun. This awakening of warmth is how nature urges us to winter well and begin to resource to enter a fresh phase. For us this might be rereading journal entries to acknowledge and acquire emotional healing needs, fueling the body with hearty foods, light stretching, hot chocolate and a funny movie, or a mantra of self-belief. Overall, wintering is an organic experience, one that if given way can be just as nourishing as fallen apples to the soil.  So, take note of the shifts you are facing, the dawn of frigid temperatures and dark days, literally or figuratively, and seek to know what there is to know. There is something for you there in your hibernation that will be vital to your spring. A final note from the natural world: spring always comes. 

As winter is reveling to peak here in West Virginia, I urge you to reflect on these questions which you may find comfort in revisiting daily or weekly until spring. 

Prompts:

What is the winter you are experiencing? 

What do you notice about your body and how could you see this as a helpful message? 

What do you notice about your emotions and how could you see this as a helpful message?

What could come of giving yourself permission to winter? 

What is feeling hard right now?

What is something you have recently learned about yourself? 

What is one thing you can do today to winter well in preparation for spring.

References

May, K. (2020). Wintering: The power of rest and retreat in difficult times. Riverhead Books.