21st November 2023

Time to rest

We're now a month away from the shortest day and longest night in the Northern Hemisphere and it feels like the darkness of winter is starting to envelope us. I personally love November, it's my birthday month so it always feels extra special and I love the crisp, bright sunrises and the starry night skies. But I know November can feel hard for a lot of people, the daylight is less, the nights start early and it can feel like you are living in darkness. I have struggled alot with feeling low in the winter months and it took until a couple of years ago and change of my perspective for things to start to be different.

I am one of these people who crammed alot into their day, my days started early and finished late, I achieved alot before 9am and even more by 10am. If you asked me to do something, I would say "Yes" first and figure out how to make the time later. I liked being busy, I liked having alot to do, I thrived on time pressure and worked well with a deadline. I carried this attitude throughout the year regardless of what was going on around me and then wondered why I was so burnt out and exhausted, particularly in Autumn and Spring in the changing of the seasonal guard. I spend alot of time and nature and always notice the cues Mother Nature gives us, but it is only recently that I started to pay attention. You see I think as humans we have generally lost our energetic link to nature but animals haven't. Their instincts tell them when to hibernate, when to procreate, when to sleep and when to wake. They are acutely tuned to the seasons and the light levels and they alter their behaviour accordingly. As humans, we used to do this more, we used to alter our behaviour according to the time of year, but I think we have lost that in modern society. Technology means that we have light 24 hours a day if we want it, we have access to the web and other humans whenever we want it and we can eat whatever we want whenever we want. I think this lack of awareness and synchronicity is what gives us burn out, is what makes us exhausted. The expectations we have for ourselves and our daily life have been set by a capitalist society hellbent on us being consumers. And we are. We love the tech, we love the ability to shop when we want and how we want. But...this has come at a price, we have lost our own instincts, our own awareness, it has been dulled over time to such a degree that it is almost completely gone.

For me, yoga brought me back to this, it brought me back into my body, and by being more aware of my body I started to notice what it needed rather than what I thought it needed. By finding my breath I could start to tune inwards and begin to feel my way rather than think it. It turns out my body needs a lot more rest than I was giving it, and my mind also needs this complete rest. I started spending more time alone, never lonely, just in my own company more. I started allowing myself time to reset and at this time of year it is a reminder that we all need to slow down. Our bodies need more sleep in the winter, our body clock changes and just like the animals and the trees we need to rest, recharge and just be.

Now don't get me wrong, this is very much a work in progress and there are definitely still times when I over commit and burn myself out, but, I'm getting better at allowing myself the down time afterwards, I know I need to schedule the rest in as much as the activities. This week, is there a way you can make a little bit more space for yourself.? Whether thats having a cup of tea and being completely present in your surroundings, getting to bed 15 minutes earlier or simply taking a mindful walk in nature. Give yourself permission to slow down, to rest and recharge because before we know it winter will be making way for spring. Enjoy winter for the break it gives you, appreciate the time to slow things down a little and if you can take time to just be, no doing, just being.

With love, Sarah xx

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