Ease into December
December is here, and this month is chock full of happenings: holidays, gatherings, shifts in schedules, the glitch period leading up to the season change, and the end of the year to name a few.
And, it is a transitional time between the fast-paced, mobile energy of fall and the quiet stillness of winter. It can be a happily busy time, a gloomy time, and an overwhelming time - sometimes multiple things at once!
There are a few practices that will be especially supportive for you this month. Read on for tips on:
Navigating the glitch period between fall and winter
This month’s self-care focus: reflect
Welcoming 2023 with ease and rest.
There’s a lot of goodness here, so if your capacity is low, take your time and enjoy this writing in increments.
THE GLITCH
During the glitch, the two week period leading up to the first day of the new season, it’s common to experience characteristics of the upcoming season some days and sometimes, depending on where you live, characteristics of both seasons in the same day (ahem, NJ). You may have started to see some glimpses of winter already!
Winter is categorized as a kapha season with its dormant energy and typically dark, cold, cloudy, and wet weather. It offers us time to slow down, ground, and turn inward after the busy and mobile summer and fall. Depending on your inner nature and current state of balance, you may be soothed by winter’s energy or aggravated by it.
Also, just to make things REALLY interesting, the characteristics of winter are not always straightforward because there may be strong vata undertones (a continuation of some fall qualities) if the weather is more dry and windy than wet and heavy some days or for periods of time, depending on geographic location.
It’s always important to adjust your daily self-care practices (dinacharya) based on the weather and how it’s affecting you.
In the glitch period, it is a good idea to begin making small shifts towards the practices that will be supportive in the upcoming season to smooth the transition, especially on the days when the weather from the upcoming season is present.
Dinacharya is the intentional practice of daily self-care rituals, intentional routines, and supportive practices that will conserve your energy, promote peace within your being, and create new samskaras (pathways in the brain) so that you function more efficiently and optimally.
Dinacharya is nature’s method of habit stacking and it takes its cues from the energy of the season, the time of day, and how you’re experiencing the moment. It goes deeper than acting on autopilot and goes beyond ticking the item off of your to-do list because it calls on your awareness of your needs in the moment to adjust the practice accordingly and naturally leads to additional supportive practices.
Ayurveda emphasizes the morning hours for the bulk of dinacharya as an embodied practice of the quiet and still energy nature provides at this time. Beginning with self-love sets the tone for your day.
The most supportive way to meet yourself during the glitch - and any period of change (large or small, for one day or a stretch of time) - is through an intentional morning routine while maintaining awareness throughout the day and adjusting as needed.
Within the glitch period, generally speaking, on the days when the atmosphere is more dry and airy from fall, grounding and slow practices will be balancing. But on the days when more wintery weather (dark, moist, heavy) is present, uplifting and invigorating practices will promote harmony.
Here are some morning ritual practices to explore during the glitch when nature’s offering winter vibes (but of course some can be included later in the day or evening):
Rise with the sun - you can sleep a bit later on darker mornings but out of bed by 7am is key
Tongue scrape, brush teeth, oil swish
Wash your face
Enjoy the silence of the morning
Gratitude practice, journal, pranayama
Tea
Sesame oil massage
Warm shower/steam bath
A lively asana practice from 6AM- 10AM will be supportive including:
Invigorating sun salutations
Heart openers and backbends
Keep in mind, this is a list of actions you can take to support yourself and by no means is there an expectation to do all.
THE GLITCH + WINTER AT A GLANCE + YOUR NATURE
It is important to note that knowing your natural energy state as well as honoring your current energetic state will be very important while navigating the glitch with self-care practices that are aligned to YOUR INDIVIDUAL needs. The same is to be said for maintaining balance through the winter season, especially if the weather is variable where you live.
If you are naturally (or currently) dominated by the calm, slow moving, and grounded energy of kapha, winter weather can leave you feeling lethargic, a sense of heaviness, and uninspired.
However, if you’re dominated by the mobile energy of vata or always pushing forward from the energy of pitta, the kapha energy will be balancing in theory, even though you MIGHT feel uncomfortable or even unsafe because you’re not used to slowing down and may feel like you’re not doing enough.
If you don’t know your natural energy state and would like to learn it so that you can create more aligned practices or if you are having trouble maintaining harmony within your current state, let's work together and establish aligned self-care practices in a Personalized Self-Care Plan! We’ll design practices that will support your specific needs to save you time and energy.
DECEMBER’S SELF-CARE FOCUS: SLOW & REFLECT
December brings with it a natural tendency to reflect back on the past 11 months, celebrating growth and triumphs while also acknowledging failures, things that didn’t go right, lessons learned, what we want to leave behind, AND what we want to do differently moving forward.
In order for this to happen in a deeply authentic way, you’ll need to slow down your pace and create space for contemplation. Slowing down will look different for every person. It may look like taking a walk or driving without listening to anything, eating a meal without watching tv, saying no to invitations you’re not into, connecting to your breath or looking away from the screen for a few moments between emails/virtual meetings/projects, or many other ways..
I encourage you to make a list, maybe by month from this past year, of all the happenings. I bet you’ll surprise yourself with all the things you accomplished as well as the ways you pivoted when things went awry.
As you begin this process, be sure to include the good “little things” and seemingly insignificant happenings because they matter, too, more than we often give them credit for. And, embody last month’s grace and compassion practices as the hard stuff comes up.
Remember: you’re human and you WILL make mistakes - sometimes BIG ones. They’re a natural AND necessary part of humaning. Notice the times when you begin to judge or chastise yourself. Interrupt those moments with slow breaths in and out. Offer yourself forgiveness as you make peace with your actions and determine better ways for the future.
And if there are situations that you’re still feeling regretful about or uncertain how to move forward from, offer yourself the space to accept yourself and time to figure it out (with the understanding that it may take more time than you expect!). Meet yourself with gentleness, tenderness, and LovingKindness during these delicate moments.
I’m so excited because this month, I’ll be holding space for our first ever Failures & Lessons Learned Celebration for the Collective members on New Year’s Eve! You read that right - we’ll be celebrating one another’s failures and lessons learned, calling out what we’re leaving behind in 2022, and perhaps even share what we’re nurturing in 2023! It’s gonna be SO GOOD! If you want in, join us in the Collective this month!
WELCOMING 2023 WITH EASE
There is a big reason new year’s resolutions don’t work: they’re based on shoulds, guilt, and shame that are brought to you by a system that doesn’t adequately support your goals. Restricting, over-burdening yourself, and pushing yourself at all costs in the name of discipline isn’t it. Rigidity is an act of control and the reality is, there is so much about life we cannot control, especially with oppressive systems in place.
About 10 years ago, I started practicing a sankalpa, which is yoga philosophy’s heart-centered intention. It’s a deep conviction based on your profound needs and desires. Because of that authentic and personal connection, you are naturally set up for success with built in flexibility and room for growth and change, and takes “failure” off the table. So when life gets hard, you don’t have to throw in the towel, you simply reconnect to your heart and intentionally move forward with the next step that feels aligned. No rights, shoulds, or fails about it. Just love, compassion, strength that comes from an innate need for a shift, and grace.
The best part about developing a sankalpa is there’s no specific start or end date. You could begin on January 1st, May 23rd, or any other day. The sankalpa can last all year or for many years to come. You make the rules. Society doesn’t have a hand in this. And the best part about it is the evolution that happens over time. Because this is heart led, you’ll often find yourself on a journey you couldn’t have imagined that ends up to be so much richer and deeper than you dreamed it would be.
I have a lot more to say on this, which I’ll share with you in the next blog coming later in the month focusing on Winter practices. For now, I’ll leave you with some prompts and practices I’ve been sharing with my peeps in the Wholisitic Self-Care Collective over the last couple of month as we started focusing in on how they each want to meet themselves in the upcoming year and personalized steps for getting started:
Reframe the “New Year” - it doesn’t have to be pressured by self-improvement (construct of dominant culture); absolutely CAN be a time for implementing new or more aligned practices for how you want to feel, but this can start at any time and end at any time or be ongoing.
2023 Energy Planning
How do you want to feel in 2023?
What energy do you want to be present around you?
What energy do you want to experience?
What energy do you want to share with the world?
How do you want to experience life?
How are you powering yourself?: Slowing down, rest (in a way that is appropriate for you!), + simple routines.
…
Allow yourself to explore ease this December. Here are some reframes to keep your mental fortitude strong throughout the month:
You don’t have to make the holidays perfect.
You don’t have to run yourself into the ground trying to complete all you set out to do by the end of the year
You are not a failure if you don’t get everything done
You do not have to start the new year with a bang or with any sort of resolution or commitment to self-improvement
