~ Jeanne and John Adams
We feel so excited every holiday season! We love the energy: starting with the winter solstice, building with religious celebrations and traditions, igniting our souls and lighting our path to the new year, and culminating in rebirth, renewal, and reconnection - our blooming - in spring.
Winter Solstice is when the sun slips easily into longer evenings and reminds us to come into a deeper place of stillness and connection. Symbolically, the solstice is a time of turning inward and listening to your inner voice. Like nature around us, we become less active in the winter. This quiet season can create moments of reflection and deep peace. We can use these quiet days and longer nights to create balance between the calm and peace of the season and the excitement of the holidays.
From the Winter Solstice to New Year’s Day, we can rest and reflect, pause and ponder, soften and stabilize. The energy of winter supports our desire for personal growth, brings awareness to our own natural cycles, and invites us to go deeply within to foster new inspiration. Winter solstice celebrates the return of hope, as our planet experiences the first slow turn toward greater daylight. Solstice is a magical, contemplative time – a time of spiritual reconnection and ritual with gratitude for the returning light.
December is an ideal time to reflect on our year’s journey, acknowledging achievements, insights, and understandings about our Self, to ponder intentions for the months ahead, and to prepare for the rebirth, renewal, and reconnection that occurs in the spring.
As the solstice approaches later in the month, we bring ourselves into a deeper place of stillness. The darkness draws us inward, giving space for quiet introspection. We can acknowledge our darker side, realign ourselves with our values and leave behind the patterns of thought and behavior which no longer serve us, making space to set forth our best intentions for the coming year.
We also may bring our attention to the years past, the lessons and blessings we have received, and how far these lessons have brought us on our life journey. We can safely assess and heal wounds, allowing us to create space for positive expansion. As we approach the new year, we clarify and set intentions for the coming months as the year ends and meditate on our highest good.
Moving from the tradition of New Year’s resolutions, which can be rooted in self-doubt and loathing, we set our intentions and focus not on the problem but on the solution. How can we channel our motivation, our positivity and that which inspires us, into bettering our lives and the lives of others? To set an intention, we bring our awareness to a quality or virtue that we want to cultivate more of in our life. Perhaps we want to invite more compassion, kindness, gratitude, grace, forgiveness, or love into our life or maybe we want to be more present or mindful, or become better at letting go.
When we approach these desires and intentions with compassion and love, we raise the frequency of our intentions. Take time to cultivate the energy you want to carry through the coming year and plant the seeds of personal growth that will be nurtured by the warmth of the reborn sun. Celebrate the wonderment of the season and use these yogic inspirations to embrace winter and to create balance between celebration and introspection.
Wishing you abounding joy in 2022!