Every year in January, it’s the same story: gyms are packed, planners are purchased, and we tell ourselves this will be the year we get it all together. Yet by February, many of us feel like we’ve already failed. As the New Year rolls in, the pressure to reinvent ourselves is everywhere. Between the freezing weather and the pressure to be constantly achieving, winter can feel like a tough season to get through. If you’re feeling drained instead of motivated, you’re not alone. So what if we did winter differently? What if, instead of hustling through the winter blues, we gave ourselves permission to rest and reset? In this blog post, we’ll explore why winter is a time for rest and reflection, why traditional resolutions often fail, and how we can align our actions with nature’s rhythms for a more pleasant and sustainable way of being.
Rest Is Not Laziness: Unlearning Productivity Culture
One of the many challenging aspects of living in a capitalistic society is that oftentimes your “worth” and livelihood are dependent on your productivity. We are constantly in a state of “Go, Go, Go!” There’s always so much to do and rarely, if ever, enough time to get it all done. We pride ourselves on grinding, side hustles, multiple streams of income and working ourselves into exhaustion. We boast about how few hours of sleep we got last night and feel shame for resting. Rest is essential and an inherent right. We are entitled to rest just because we are alive. We do not have to do anything or perform productivity to “earn” rest.
Rest Is Essential for the Body, Mind, and Spirit
Rest is when our minds and bodies recharge. It’s when our cells heal and our brains form connections. It’s also when we are most receptive to spiritual messages. When we are so caught up in surviving that we make time for little else, there is no space for us to receive divine insights. Rest is important. Every day. Every season. But I’d argue that it is especially important in Winter.
Winter Still Speaks (If We’re Willing to Listen)
Living in Los Angeles, I often hear comments about how there’s no winter here. People say there are no noticeable signs that the seasons have shifted. I disagree. The signs are there! We must be tapped in and vigilant enough to notice them. I notice the tree in my front yard shed her leaves. I notice a decrease in how often I hear the birds chirping. I see plants go dormant. It gets colder. More than this, I feel an internal shift.
When Winter Triggered My Inner Critic
For years, I would get upset with myself about feeling “lazy” and not wanting to get out of the bed in the morning. I’d be frustrated with myself about desiring to escape from work as all the daylight hours passed me by as I watched from inside a building. I would get so frustrated with myself for not wanting to be productive and perform capitalism because I just wanted to rest! My self-talk would get more negative as I opted to stretch instead of lift weights or read a book in bed early instead of work on a new project. Oftentimes, I would end up with the winter blues. I would feel more depressed and down on myself. For many years, this pattern continued. I’d come to expect the winter sadness. I knew it was coming. But I felt helpless to stop it. Have you ever felt this way about yourself in winter? I’d love to hear your experience in the comments.
Reclaiming Rest in a Season That Taught Me Shame
As I came into a deeper relationship with myself, I began to question this. Why am I thinking of myself as lazy? Why do I feel pressure to perform New Year’s Resolutions? Why am I being mean to myself for wanting to read in bed?? These are societal pressures. Their weight was weighing on me and I was internalizing societal norms as truth and internalizing that I was the problem when it was simply not the case!
Everything else in nature rests in the winter. I doubt the bears feel guilty for hibernating. I doubt the plants punish themselves for going dormant. Why was I doing this to myself? Shame is taught. I made the conscious decision to unlearn the shame I associated with rest and, instead, see rest as a radical act of self-love and self-trust. And it’s an ongoing battle!
How I Honor Winter Instead of Fighting It
First of all, I stopped making New Year’s Resolutions in January (Or December to jump start the new year as the internet gurus suggest). The truth is, I rarely felt revitalized or inspired to begin a new journey in January! I wanted to recharge and cuddle with my cats or loved ones. When I expressed this sentiment to others, I was often affirmed. How about you? How are those New Year Resolutions coming along? If it’s not going well, don’t be hard on yourself! If you didn’t feel inspired to set new goals, that makes sense!
New Year’s resolutions frequently fail because they ignore the body’s need for rest and demand expansion during a season of contraction. It’s like trying to plant seeds in frozen ground — the timing simply isn’t right. We have to honor the season we’re in. There is wisdom in slowing down, reflecting and taking stock before taking accelerated action.
Secondly, in winter, my goals change. I honor rest and reflection. I sleep more than usual and go to bed early if I feel like it. I journal and write more. I read more books. The way I honor movement shifts from high intensity workouts to taking walks and flowing into yoga poses. I do a lot of imagining and planning and do less actions and implementing. I say affirmations to increase my positive self-talk and counter the creeping societal narratives that I should be aiming to be as productive as possible at all times. I breathe deeply and practice more mindfulness. And, most importantly of all, I thoroughly enjoy honoring this shift. I push back on people who would tell me otherwise.
Changing my goals to lean into this change I feel instead of working against it, helps me feel more harmonious alignment. I feel like I am working WITH my spirit, instead of against it. When spiritual messages become more clear and come with a higher frequency, I affirm that my stillness IS productive. Stillness is necessary and it helps me achieve my goals, not just in this season, but also in the ones to come. There is wisdom in resting.
Lastly, I create space for others who desire to settle into the stillness of the season to join me in this radical shift! This can be as simple as playing the sound bowls for my partner, inviting my kids to take a few moments to sit by the fire with me, inviting a friend to come over and do yoga or having my students take 3 deep breaths at the beginning and end of class. Community makes the shift easier and it makes the shift collective. For the past two years, I’ve also offered a donation based Winter Wellness Retreat as part of the Magickal Play Date Series to invite even more people into the collective fold. If you are in Los Angeles this winter, I want you to know that you are welcome to join us!
Rest Is Easier When We Do It Together: An Invitation to Rest This Winter
This season, I am challenging you to create a rest ritual of your own as a way to honor the energy of winter stillness. I am calling you in to dedicate regular and consistent time to give your body the time to rest, heal and recover from the previous year. How will you meet this challenge? What rituals will you set for yourself? How will you acknowledge your need to rest? What does active rest look like to you? What activities make you feel reenergized and joyful?
Then, check in with yourself as you engage in rest. How do you feel? Does it feel uneasy? Do you feel guilty? Sort through these feelings with gentle, compassionate, loving kindness. Invite others to engage in this work with you! If you feel called, share one way you’re honoring rest this winter — or one belief about rest you’re ready to unlearn.
Next, see how you feel at the start of spring! Do you feel more energized and ready to take on this New Year? Because, to be clear, I’m not anti new year’s resolutions. But don’t expect any new year’s resolutions from me in January. There simply is no “new year, new me” without proper rest and reflection. When you check in with yourself in spring, see if you feel the same? And should you want a space to process and channel all this fresh spring energy into setting new goals and intentions for the new year, be sure to attend our annual New Intentions Party! Each year, we gather under the first new moon of the astrological new year to pause, reflect, and intentionally plant seeds for what’s ahead. Through vision boarding, intention setting, affirmations, and conscious release, this gathering creates space to get clear on what you’re calling in—and what you’re ready to leave behind. You are welcome and we’d be happy to have you. If this resonated, I’d love to hear how you’re honoring winter this year.
