Nourishing your Inner Light to Guide you through Winter
Winter is often the hardest time of year for me, especially because there is so much societal pressure to push harder and achieve higher.
Winter's invitation however, is not to push ourselves beyond our limits, but rather to tune inward, rest, reflect, and find our inner light to guide us forward. If you feel the looming loneliness, exhaustion, sadness, and worry of Winter, fear not. I have something below just for you ✨
Growing up my family spent Winters up at our ranch in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado, where the winters are brutal and unforgiving. Temperatures frequently drop to below forty degrees, and every single morning we had to spend hours breaking ice to make sure the livestock had water to drink. On top of this, we would stay in our humble bunkhouse, which at the time, did not have running water or electricity. We used kerosene lamps, brushed our teeth with bottles of water, and yes, had to use an outhouse.
Before going to bed for the night, it was always an internal battle deciding whether or not to brave the cold to use the restroom or just try to wait until morning and hope and pray that we didn’t have to go in the middle of the night.
One night, my sister and I decided to brave it. We grabbed our flashlight, bundled up and headed out the door. On this particular evening, we were also made aware that there was a skunk living under the bunkhouse so not only did we have to brave our way through the dark and cold, but we also had to risk getting sprayed. Our parent Sofia told us to make as much noise as possible to scare it away. In classic sister fashion, we decided to sing. As we traversed the dry, cold turf singing the Lion King Soundtrack, flashlight in hand, our worst fear came true. We spotted a massive black and white animal and stopped dead in our tracks and screamed! As the animal got closer and we awaited our ill fate, we realized it wasn’t the dreaded skunk, but our old dog Joe! A sweet border collie with a limp front leg. We yelled out “Joe!” with such relief and delight we burst into laughter! We hugged and pet Joe and went on our merry way, somehow not so cold or scared anymore. We each took our turns in the frost ridden outhouse and returned happily to the comfort of our bunkhouse loft, kept warm by the fire crackling in the wood stove for the rest of the night.
Aside from this being a hilarious story, I really believe this experience is a perfect example of finding one’s inner light in order to endure Winter. My sister and I found our inner lights by braving the cold together. We used our voices to sing and illuminate the way. When met with the unexpected, our laughter warmed our bellies and gave us momentum to finish our journey. What seemed so daunting in the beginning, turned into a ridiculous and delightful experience that we still look back on to this day.
Winter, for many people, including me, is not a comfortable season. It challenges us to endure through cold, loneliness, exhaustion, sadness and worry. Yet, it also provides us with the opportunity to build our resilience, to tend to our inner selves, to make the most of the situation, and to find our inner light to illuminate the way through the darkness.
Finding that path forward is not always easy. At least, it hasn't been for me. Although it has taken many years for me to learn how to work with this season from a place of self-love, it has truly brought me some of my greatest gifts, and encouraged me to develop some of my strongest tools. That's why I created a very special self-love workbook to support you through Winter, that draws upon my own experience and self-love toolkit. Everything that's in here, is what I practice this time of year to experience more nourishment, ease and self-compassion.
Welcome to Winter!
As the darkest and coldest season, Winter can make us feel lonely, exhausted, sad and worried. Yet, it’s at this time of year, when we often feel the most pressure to perform with Winter Holidays, and the start of New Year. Well, this year, I encourage you to try something new. What if you leaned into Winter? What if you allowed yourself to welcome in the challenges? What if instead of pushing yourself harder, you allowed yourself a moment to breath, reflect, and tune inward to what your mind, body and soul are truly longing for? Celebration, connection, rest, creativity, and self-nurturing.
That’s exactly what “Illuminate” will help you do.
In this workbook & toolkit you will find:
Welcome note from moi (Anna!)
4 Winter Energy Allies to support you through the season
17 Unique Journal Prompts to help you work through loneliness, exhaustion, sadness and worry so that you can better nourish, celebrate and love yourself and your loved ones.
5 Activity Sheets to help you identify the people who light up your life, how you like to rest, what brings you joy, what worries you want to let go of, and how you enjoy expressing yourself!
2 Mindfulness Tools to help you ease worry and anxiety so you can come back to a place of peace, love and presence.
Encouraging love note
This is an editable PDF download, so you can work through it on your computer or print it out!
However this Winter finds you dear one, I hope that you experience comfort, joy and heartfelt connection! Sending you so much love!