As soon as it gets to gloves-and-hats weather, I get the urge to hibernate! Sadly, life will not allow me to go to sleep for the next 4 months. And as much as I like to honour my energy, and the energy of the season, I also want to keep myself energised, active and happy.
Because I’m not a natural winter-lover, I have to work harder to practice joy and joyful practices in winter. It’s one of the ways I’m working on not being such a grouch in the cold months. It’s going to be winter whether I like it or not, so I may as well a) embrace the warm clothes and long nights and b) bring joy into winter.
Whenever I speak to clients who are not in an ideal situation (a job they don’t love, for example), I ask them to do what they can to bring joy into that situation – to make it better. There’s often a temptation to just ‘let it be bad’ or to think ‘if it gets bad enough, I’ll leave’ but actually what tends to happen is that you get mired in the situation.
Things get worse and worse, you lose confidence and joy…and you don’t leave because you haven’t got the mojo to make the jump. Plus, if you have to be there for more than 1 day (and winter, unfortunately for me, is more than 1 day), why not make each day as good as it can be? This is your life we’re talking about here – what is the value in suffering through a situation without at least trying to improve it?
This might mean you leave the situation (flight to Australia anybody?? I wish!), or it might mean that you do what you can to make the situation better.
In winter, I layer up, light candles, put fairy lights up, have my salt lamp going, have extra blankets at the ready to keep me warm. This year, I’ll be dancing every day in November, practicing great self-care in December and deliberately practicing Joy in January.
What will you be doing to take joy into winter (or any other situation which you’re not happy about)?
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