Slowing Down – Natural stress reduction during winter happens when we tune into the season. We tcan then detach from hustle culture and over business, and return to a more natural balance between being and doing. How does your nervous system react to this? Too Much? Not Possible? Intriguing but hard to imagine or to do?
Winter invites us to pause, to come inside, to spend time in the warmth, and to rest. It’s an invitation to remember we are human beings not just human doings and to balance the “doing” with “resting” and the “hurrying” with “slowing down.” Taking even a little time to do this each day or each week will help us to naturally reduce our stress.
You will find no better antidote to the stress, overwhelm and burnout that often sneaks up on us especially if our days are over busy, our energy focussed on supporting or leading others.
But for us often over busy 21st century human beings it can be really challenging to pause our normal routines and to step out of the busyness of our everyday. We know that when we slow down and get quiet, we are likely to see what we have been avoiding and that can makes us really uncomfortable – our worries, fears, tiredness, disappointment, longings, and anger.
But we also know don’t we that there is a gentle, skilful way to press the pause button. Winter is a perfect time for such a pause. Winter calls us inside – inside our homes and inside our own self.
Let this winter be an opportunity to pause and turn inward to deeply nourish yourself and connect with your own heart. This season offers an invitation to listen to your body, mind and spirit, and honour what it needs – like rest, laughter, and healthy food, human connection and meaning and purpose. Let yourself gently ease into this natural stress reduction.
Today I invite you to make a little winter space for you. Light a candle and give your heart the space to speak to you. The invitation to sense what needs healing, tending to, and nourishment.
It’s countercultural to pause.
It takes real courage.
The truth is, you have only one precious life . And there comes a time when you will not live it exhausted, holding up the world, stuffing down what needs to be healed within you, and ignoring the wisdom of your heart and body. The truth is each of us has an inner blossoming that may has been dulled by the pace at which we live our lives.
My gentle nudge then is for you to say “yes” to the invitation of winter to rest, “go within,” and explore the sacred landscape of the blossoming inner you. In the quiet of winter you will learn how to bring presence and compassion to the “visitors” within you of grief, loneliness, longing, and joy…and welcome them all as beloveds. Say “yes” to living with a deeper sense of equanimity, clarity, and ease.
The Guest House by Rumi
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honourably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
If you want to learn more about natural stress reduction you might like this https://mindfulfacilitation.com/manage-stress-by-being-among-trees/
If you are a professional woman wondering how to better manage your stress and perhaps to prevent or recover from burnout you might like to join me on a free masterclass on Tuesday Dec 12th @2pm Irish Time. Read more and book your place https://mindfulwithdee.kartra.com/webinar/burnoutbreakthrough
