2019 Winter Blessings

I hope you are all finding yourself well in the New Year and taking good care.  With the post-craze of the holidays coupled with grand resolutions/goals, this is a time when many start to find themselves getting sick.  I encourage you to slow down, listen to your body-mind-spirit, and ask yourself if your resolutions are balanced, practical, and nurturing.  Be gentle with yourself. This is not the season to be going to the gym every day or participating in a raw food or juice cleanse. Make peace with slowing down, and prioritize knowing that not everything on your to-do list has to get done. Wintertime is a perfect opportunity to bundle up, read a book, and connect with yourself and those you love.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), winter is considered yin within yin.  The blessings of yin energy allow us to go inward, find stillness, and become friends with darkness. With this pause, reflection, and inward nurturing we are storing our energy and preparing for the natural expansion which will come with spring. As I was walking through my garden the other day I noticed one beautiful pink rose that had just bloomed. It was a nice reminder that spring is just around the corner.

The Yellow Emperor, considered to be the founder of Traditional Chinese Medicine, states in his ancient text The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine,  that “In winter all is hidden. Winter is the season of retirement into depth, because of the cold outside. At this time you must not disturb or disperse the yang (Fire, active) energy so that you can allow the yin reserves to be re-established within you.”

In TCM, the kidneys and bladder correspond with winter, which includes the water element and the emotion of fear. My practice this month has been sitting with my shadow and fears without judgment, and instead offering compassion to myself. This awareness and presence illuminates my darkness.

I encourage you to live according to the seasons.  Eat and drink warm, seasonal foods (my split pea soup and spicy dahl recipes are perfect for winter). It’s important to move our body, therefore our qi, but be sure to not over-exert yourself and to dress appropriately (even in southern California!).  In TCM, we believe that the shoulder and neck areas contain the “wind” points where external pathogens can enter. Keep these areas protected by wearing a scarf and keeping covered. It’s natural to want to sleep longer in the Fall and Winter. Give yourself permission to tune-in.

I’ll leave you with a powerful poem by the inspiring poet Mary Oliver, who just transitioned this past week.

Starlings in Winter
by Mary Oliver

Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly
they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.
And now, in the theater of air,
they swing over buildings,
dipping and rising;
they float like one stippled star
that opens,
becomes for a moment fragmented,
then closes again;
and you watch
and you try
but you simply can’t imagine
how they do it
with no articulated instruction, no pause,
only the silent confirmation
that they are this notable thing,
this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
over and over again,
full of gorgeous life.
Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;
I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard. I want
to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.