Winter Solstice and Living Seasonally

Happy winter solstice. It’s only days away, and it’s such a meaningful, spiritual, and powerful time.

I hope that you all have a moment to pause and take in the deep, dark, silent night energy and really soak it up.

I’m really inspired by this time of year. It is one of my favorites, and so I wanted share it with you and to talk about living seasonally to help those who might not be tuned in yet to the significance of this time to understand why this time is so important and how you can use this knowledge to make, really, all aspects of your life better. 

Before I get into that, let me side bar and give gratitude to everyone who tunes in, shares the show, reviews, and comments.

Support is crucial for any business, so every time you give me a thumbs up on Twitter, a like, a comment, or a share, it helps me to continue to be here for you. 

Your comments and questions are really valuable too. I have had some really amazing conversations with listeners and sometimes our ideas turn into podcasts or blog posts, so please keep reaching out with your questions and comments.

They are valuable to me and my listeners. Thanks.

Alright, so let’s start with gender to give Winter some context.

First, I want to be clear that I am not talking about sex. This is not a podcast about genitalia, who is having sex with whom, or who loves whom.

It’s about gender. I wanted to find a definition to start with so that we’re all on the same page, and everything I could find has politically correct language and ideas incorporated into it, so that’s not going to be particularly useful.

The closest thing I could find was from the Cambridge dictionary, and that is “the condition of being male or female.”

I think it’s easier to follow me if we aren’t talking about genitalia or people because my first point is that everything has gender. 

You can see it in many languages. Modern English is a gender free language, meaning that when we say chair, it’s just the chair or a chair.

The “the” or “a” doesn’t indicate whether the chair is masculine or feminine. In lots of other languages, it does.

However, modern English does use pronouns that indicate whether the noun is masculine or feminine.

For example, when we speak of ships, they are always females. Ships are “she’s.” Whales are also female.

It’s always “there she blows” - never “there he blows” - even if we are taking about a male whale like Moby Dick. 

So, everything has gender, and even though we classify things as being of one gender or another, it’s always actually both.

Confused? Hang on. I hope that it becomes clearer as I go along.

Let’s look at the Moon. The moon is feminine.

She’s a she, but she has a masculine and feminine face. When she’s new, she’s at her most feminine. When she’s full, she’s at her most masculine. And she’s always female.

One way to grasp this is to think of the Yin/Yang symbol. It’s the Taiji. It’s the symbol of completeness. It’s only one thing, but it’s made up of two things - the masculine and feminine, or Yin and Yang.

Together, it creates wholeness or completeness.

And even though one side is mostly masculine and one side is mostly feminine, if you split it anywhere in equal parts, there is no place where it’s ever all masculine or all feminine.

And that is where we are in the wheel of the year now - the winter solstice. “Solstice” means “sun stands still.”

So, on the night of the solstice, the sun is at the lowest point it will be all year and the north pole is tilted the furthest away from the sun than it will be all year.

All that gives us the longest night of the year, or the most feminine time of the year. After this, the days start getting longer, the masculine energy gets stronger, and balance is restored.

This is the whole big, bang take away for me. You see, lots of people live in fear. They have no trust because they don’t understand the big picture.

Now, I am not saying I know everything. Not by a long shot, but I do pay attention to nature and trust nature. Even within all her unpredictability and Chaos - so things like tornadoes and hurricanes and tsunamis, there is a ton of order.

It’s all about balance. If you get that and live within that, and use that are your guide, there is nothing to be afraid of. You’re prepared.

You can now dance with life and life becomes an adventure rather than something you have to guard against.

Let me bring it down to earth.

So, I am new to Twitter. I’ve been on there since Halloween. My page is LauraGiles804. Come by and say hello if you are on Twitter. And Twitter, like all media outlets, thrives on controversy and bad news.

It’s doom and gloom and bad news all day long. People who consume lots of news tend to be pessimistic, depressed and fearful. 

But guess what? Let’s say the worst comes to pass and there is economic collapse, war, murder, shootings, famine, global devastation, and whatever disaster you can think of.

The laws of nature say that balance will be restored. Extreme yang leads to yin. Extreme yin leads to yang.

Or to say it another way, the pendulum can only go so far without swinging back.

If you know what, what is there to be afraid of? Yep! Things could get ugly. They could even collapse, but it always balances itself. The sun always rises.

The flood waters subside, and spring follows even the harshest winter.

So, if you are one of those people who fears everything, there is nothing to fear. Something greater is at work that always keeps life in balance.

It’s happened for as long as the earth has been here and will continue to happen long after we are gone.

And if you want to marvel at the miracle that is life, the winter solstice is a great way to honor that and show some gratitude.

So, what’s it all about - this feminine energy? Well, you know that’s super important too because here in the west, we are super preoccupied with masculine energy or the Yang.

And if the Yang is out of balance, the Yin is too. When we bring them both into harmony, we are healthier, more productive, and whole.

So, Yin energy, or feminine energy, is things like: acceptance, sacredness, value and protection, upholding tradition and honoring what is most important while nurturing what is most important in life.

It is darkness, the unknown, passive, circular, intuitive, being, expressive, emotional, cool, slow, contracting, negative, collaborative, and receiving.

If you think of it as a physical thing, feminine things tend to be hollow or vessels like a window, socks, shoes, or house.

Or sometimes the noun will have the feminine qualities that I just talked about. That’s not always true, but it’s often true.

Masculine qualities are things like penetration, conviction, progress, conquest and exploration that drives progress.

It’s analytical, competitive, singular, rational, determined, linear, logical, intellectual, giving, decisive, objective, assertive, light, hot, quick, expansive, and goal directed.

Masculine things will always have a feminine compliment.

So, if the moon is feminine, the sun is masculine. Women are feminine. Men are masculine. The earth is feminine. The sky is masculine. So again, we have the universe seeking balance and wholeness.

So, what does this suggest about us? To me, it suggests that if there is a template, a playbook, or a manual for how to live as a natural human being, this is certainly one of the strategies to follow.

Seek balance. Live in balance.

So, if we work hard, we should play hard to create balance, but it should also follow the seasons.

We’re in the slow, cold, sleepy season of the year. You know, “As within, so without.” it’s the time of the year when animals are hibernating.

Food is scarce. They are conserving energy, and yet some of us are driving hard, working long hours, burning the midnight oil, and acting as if the seasons haven’t changed at all. 

Human bodies cycle with the sun just like animals do.

We tend to pack on the weight during the winter, not just because we’re enjoying holiday sweets, alcohol, and partying a little too much.

Our metabolism is slower, so our bodies can’t keep up. We’re not listening to the cycles of the seasons. 

That’s what Chinese medicine and ayurveda are all about. It’s about being holistic, paying attention to your particular constitution, the seasons of the year, and balancing the yin and the yang.

It’s the way all our ancestors lived before technology, back when they had to be in tune with the seasons or die. 

Now we want the best of everything and only want to be comfortable, and that’s not balanced. It’s not a sign of success or happiness to always feel good and comfortable.

Everything has two sides. If things are good, it’s got to get bad to balance things out. If they are comfortable, it has to get uncomfortable. And if we don’t know how to live with both, we’re setting ourselves up for misery and disappointment.

Now, I’m not wishing hard times on you.

I’m saying that rough times come. It’s more adaptive to learn how to roll with it than to expect to keep going up, up, up and never come down. It’s easier if you don’t judge. 

There is no good guy or bad guy here. We need all aspects of life to have a full life.

We need the healthiest expression of Yin and Yang in the right quantities at the right time. So, what can we do to live seasonally and honor the Yin and the Yang so that it’s in balance?

It would be helpful to know that Winter is a Yin season.

Remember, Yin is feminine, passive, nurturing, intuitive, emotional, and those kinds of things.

If fall is the season of decline and death, winter is the season of resting and rejuvenating. Think about the soil right now. It’s lying cold and fallow. It’s recovering and rejuvenating itself in preparation for spring.

Or you could think of a womb as it prepares itself for fertilization or just after birth. It’s rejuvenating itself in preparation for life.

So this is a time for resting and being vs. doing. It’s time to finish things up, sleeping, going slow, releasing and those types of things.

It’s a great time to meditate and journal. Now, the winter solstice is a celebration of the sun’s return.

It symbolizes the end of dark times, but it’s just the beginning of that. The light and masculine energy won’t peak for another 6 months, so right now we’re still taking it easy. 

A lot of people who are hard charging go, go, go despite the season and don’t pay attention to their bodies and this leads to burn out.

Taking vacations and periods of rest actually makes you more productive because your mind gets a chance to empty out. It’s not so cluttered with ideas or to do lists.

You have space to breathe.

Think of it this way. If you are in a cluttered room or a busy room with activity all around you, how productive are you? It might be stimulating for a while, but then it becomes a distraction.

Now shut that same room down and quiet it down for a bit. How productive are you now? I’d say a lot more, right?

You can hear yourself think, right? So taking a step back will give you more juice later.

This is true for your body, too. Adopting more slow, winter activities can keep your body in good form.

So things that help move you into a state of flow, creative, dreamy, or even spiritual place, are great for winter.

I am talking about things like playing music, dancing, sculpting, artistic, musical, creative things.

It could even be something creative like cooking or writing or even knitting. Anything that slows life down, focuses more on connecting rather than creating something of tangible value.

So, this is more of soul nurturing time than a productive time where we’re creating output with a dollar value. 

Humans are both physical and spiritual creatures and we need to nurture our whole selves. 

Some foods that are good for winter are the ones that are in season. So stock up on root vegetables, healthy fats, and proteins.

Carrots, sweet potatoes, kale, mushrooms, turnips, brussel sprouts, onions, and hearty foods are more beneficial now. 

If you can get bones from the butcher, bone broth would be a great thing to have right now.

In Chinese medicine, winter is kidney/gall bladder time.

Foods that are good for the kidneys are  celery, asparagus, rye, oats, salt, barley, warm, hearty soups, whole grains, roasted nuts, dried foods, small dark beans, steamed winter greens, and black foods like black beans and black berries, and foods that are salty or bitter. 

If you don’t use digestive bitters, it’s a great season to start.

Cooking on low temperatures for longer periods of time with less water is also great for warming the body during the cold times of the year.

Obviously, clean foods - so things that are naturally grown with no processing, no chemical preservatives, no artificial colors, pesticides, or added sugars are going to be best and have the highest quality of nutrients. 

Things to be wary of during the winter is eating too much salt, not getting enough water, fear, anxiety, and stress.

The kidneys store the type of energy called jing. Jing is ancestor energy, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

It can’t be renewed like qi. This is why it’s important to generate qi daily. Qi is like your gas tank.

If your gas tank is full, you don’t go into your reserves, which is your jing. Worry, fear and anxiety deplete jing and lead to premature aging.

In fact, I recently read that people with a trauma history who live in chronic anxiety have a lifespan that’s 20 years less than average.

That’s pretty dramatic, so it’s important to get a grip on stress now and discharge it daily. Or better yet, cultivate a lifestyle that is more balanced so that it doesn’t have to be discharged.

You can do that now, in the chill time of year by starting a practice of meditation. Slow moving meditations like tai chi, qigong, or yoga - but not hot yoga - are beneficial at this time of year.

Anything that encourages self-reflection, inward energy, and feeds the soul are good for this time. If extroversion is a Summer energy, Introversion is a Winter energy so think like an introvert. It’s all about self-care. 

So instead of big, splashy Christmas parties, think of more intimate gatherings with your closest besties.

You could sit and talk with a glass of wine or tea by the fire, or play a guitar or piano and sing, or maybe do some storytelling.

You know, turn down the technology and connect. Instead of a late night movie, make a date with your bed and go to sleep earlier.

It’s really more about Me time and nurturing your relationship with yourself than doing that social butterfly extrovert thing. 

One way to tell that things are out of balance is if you get depressed during the winter.

If this is you, there are some ways that you can combat this naturally and hopefully avoid it this year. The first one is to get outside. It nourishes kidney yang.

Yup, although kidneys are feminine kidney yang is the masculine expression of it. Getting outside in the sunshine helps us to get natural Vitamin D.

The kidneys are already feminine. Winter is feminine, so kidneys need some masculine energy to balance it out.

Without the sun, the kidney energy can start to stagnate and lead to dampness, cold, and depression. The morning sun helps with this.

The winter foods I mentioned before are all good for the kidneys. Bitter yang foods are good for seasonal depression.

These are salmon, fatty dish, mushrooms, and bitter foods that are a natural source of vitamin D. You could also add chamomile tea to help balance the body.

Exercise helps with seasonal depression. It stimulates serotonin, which tends to be on the low side during winter because of the changes in sunlight.

It keeps your qi moving. So just because it’s time to slow down doesn’t mean it is time to stop and be a couch potato or a hibernating bear.

The key is balance. You don’t want your qi to completely stagnate, but you do want to keep things on the chill side. Light to moderate exercise stimulates qi and keeps you mentally and physically fit without overdoing it.

Another thing you can do for seasonal depression is to stick to a routine.

If you have a healthy routine, you won’t have to break your back after new years to get back in shape.

Moderation and healthy habits all year round will create a stable foundation. If you have a good, strong foundation, it’s always easier to get back on track than to try to create the track.

And all the things I have talked about already can help to create that stable foundation.

Our modern way of living is quite new. Our ancestors didn’t have electric lights, computers, microwaves, or cars, so they had to pay more attention to the moon and stars.

They had to pay attention to nature and look to nature to help guide them through their lives.

There were lots of old wives tales like “if the oaks drop lots of acorns, it’s going to be a rough winter” or if you see a lot of wooly caterpillars, it’s going to be a cold winter.

They paid attention to those things and made correlations. It helped them to survive.

Humans are part of nature, and the more we return to our natural selves and live as part of nature, the more natural and whole we become.

I’ve been on many tours where the guides can look at the sky and know how long it will be before the rain arrives.

They know the clouds well enough to say how long the rain will last. To us, that seems like witchcraft, but it’s just paying attention to nature.

So while we have a lot of conveniences that our ancestors didn’t have, like warmth all year long and artificial light that extends the day, those conveniences can interfere with our ability to connect to nature and ourselves.

How many of us go to bed when we are tired? Not many. 

I hear lots of people say they only need 5 or 6 hours of sleep or that they are night owls and can’t sleep until 2 or 3 a.m. Those are signs of imbalance.

Other creatures don’t function that way because they are natural. They are in tune with nature.

They aren’t motivated to keep playing video games all night long to get that dopamine hit or to avoid sleeping because they can’t be on guard to imaginary dangers. 

So, I guess what I am suggesting is that maybe you set aside some conveniences to be more like your ancestors.

For example, maybe you can get strawberries all year round, but you elect to only have them while they are in season.

Maybe you can have lights on all night long, but you elect to turn them off at a certain time so that you can be in darkness and go to sleep.

And embrace the darkness. Make your room a cave. Shut out all ambient light with room darkening blinds.

They also will save on your heating bill. See if you don’t have the most amazing sleep of your life. 

Try it out and see. See what it’s like when you tune into the season and live in a more balanced way.

Think about the yin and the yang, the seasons, and listen to your body. 

Humans are liminal creatures. Our bodies are the animal part of us that is instinctive and natural.

Our prefrontal cortex is what makes us different from other animals. It's the thinking part that stimulates thoughts of tomorrow, and makes us want to plan, achieve, and stay safe later, not just now. It makes us jealous, manipulative, and also creative, and innovative. 

This is that balance of yin and yang again. It’s hard to be physical, intellectual and spiritual all at the same time.

There are competing interests and motivations. When moving from surviving to thriving, it starts with the foundation.

That’s safety and taking care of your body. When the body is healthy and strong, lots of imbalances in the emotions or spirit will fade away on their own.

Those that remain are a lot easier to discharge when one of the systems is healthy. 

So, let’s bring it back to having a template by which to live.

Winter is the season of fear. That’s kidney energy - worry, fear, anxiety. Those are healthy, normal things to experience when there is danger.

When the threat is over, it’s normal for them to go away. So, they are alarms to a threat response.

Most of us aren’t living in war zones. There is no natural disaster happening, and no threat, but yet we are on high alert all the time because of our lifestyles.

When we follow the wheel of life, we have a road map or template to guide us through whatever comes. that’s what living seasonally is all about.

So, if you live in one of those areas where the blizzard hit, guess what happens now?

Renewal. Renewal or spring, always follows death and destruction. Always. And what do you do in that time period? You rest to prepare for rebirth. 

So, that’s what I am going to invite you to contemplate for the new year. It’s a time for new beginnings and leaving behind the things you didn’t like and the parts of yourself that didn’t work so well.

So clean house - literally. Detox your gut. Declutter your brain. Pay your debts. Collect what’s owed. Start fresh. 

People say that looking back is a bad thing, but now is the time to do that. Remember.

Remember your people, your ancestors, your accomplishments, and mistakes. Take inventory and use that to plant your feet firmly in the now. 

Use this time to make a new start and consciously choose the direction you want your future to go in and maybe make some changes.

You can lead with fear and drive your kidneys into the ground, or you can roll with nature.

It will sometimes be a rocky road, but it’s going to be a rocky road anyway.

Living in the wheel of life just means you’re aware of it, expect it, and are preparing for it so it doesn’t knock you down when it comes. 

I know that is different from the “You can do it! Full steam ahead! Accept no excuses” style of coaching that lots of people have.

That’s one way to live, but I don’t see it making lots of people happy, so I am offering an alternative.

So, maybe you do a meditation on the winter solstice. Go into the darkness and take a candle, and see what your heart thinks, eh? Thanks for tuning in, guys.

I’m Laura Giles, and if you want to go deeper, check out my Tribe in the link below.

It’s free, and you can have more like this and meet people who are interested in moving from surviving to thriving in a natural way with others. Ciao!