Winter is deepening and darkening, and the holiday season is so frenetic! Do you, like me, feel the temptation to fall into a downward spiral? What I have learned is that, at this time, I can mirror the natural world around me and turn inward.
Especially amidst the holiday “noise” of activity, I need to make space to go within. And, even though I teach stillness and reflection and have been practicing that for decades, I still have to be mindful, and choose consciously to do it. It doesn’t just happen for me, even after all this time, and I still feel resistance to doing it!
I don’t want to go within to find darkness and open the door for my loud, fearful, small self to start filling me with dreadful thoughts and emotions. I am scared that I will spiral downwards into the tar pit of depression. But here’s the thing: those dreadful thoughts and emotions I don’t want to acknowledge? They are lurking under the surface anyway, and, whether I admit it or not, I am spending precious energy on keeping them there, out of awareness.
So I may as well acknowledge them! I use one of my favorite tools, Tapping or EFT, to achieve that, and to give myself permission to feel safe to go inwards anyway. Then, I create a sacred space that makes me feel even safer, and I choose a container for the repressed thoughts and emotions. That container can be anything, painting, dancing— for me, it is stream-of-consciousness writing: a mind dump to just get it all out.
I feel clean and light afterwards, and able to sit in deep quiet, or free to choose what I want to reflect on (whether it comes from the mind dump or not). Now I can receive the awareness, the guidance that the noise of daily life impedes me from accessing. Now I can observe, I can learn, have a new experience of my Self. At this stage, going within is a rich, delicious gift that nourishes my Soul.
My invitation for you is to use the sacred, safe space that we create with these shared words, and check in with your Self, turn to your heart, and, listening deeply, ask: “What would nourish my Soul this season?”
I am eager to learn what answers you get, if you care to share them. Either way, I am hoping your will gift yourself with this nourishment!
