Why Honor the Winter Solstice

The Winter Solstice is the longest, darkest night of the year where the Sun retires early in the day and the feminine energy of the Moon covers the sky.

What’s amazing about the potency of the energy of the Winter Solstice is that it’s here around us whether we are aware of it or not. Whether we understand it or not.

Nature’s energy, the shifts in the Sun and Moon cycles, the placement of each planet and star at each point of the year, the changes in the animals and plants, are affecting us. We are a part of the whole system no matter how disconnected we may be.

When I consistently went to Women’s Circles, we learned about the Wheel of the Year. We celebrated each high holy day like Solstices and Equinoxes. I started to understand the changes in the Moon and Sun each month. And little by little, all of the challenges in my life started to make sense.

It was like a roadmap was given to me.

I remember people saying “there’s no rulebook to life”. And while that is very true in some way, we actually do have some strong guidance. It exists above us, below us and all around us.

How have you been feeling? Has the darkness started to consume you? Have you been running from it?

One of the common threads of the “darker” months of the year, the ones with less sunlight, is that it brings up all of your shadow self. The parts of you that you want to ignore, the messy stuff, maybe the things that you weren’t even aware were living inside of you or in your life.

Don’t worry, that’s part of the process, I promise. Nature has a way of building in periods of time for us to look at the parts of ourselves that we’re maybe too busy to look at in the lighter months.

That’s the wisdom of the seasons. The wisdom of the Sun and the Moon. And their exchange in the sky.

What this means for you and your body is that you deeply need more rest at this time of the year. Especially if you’re going through a darker time.

Our nervous systems need to repair and are asking for a bit of a hibernation.

Some of my favorite ways to do this are:

Breathwork

Journaling/ Brain dumping

Slower workouts

Spending time in nature

Guided Meditations

Getting a massage or any bodywork