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Weekly articles will be back in January.
Dear Friends,
This time of year always poses the interesting conundrum of reconciling seemingly opposing desires and requirements.
On the one hand, my body yearns to slow down in accordance with its natural rhythm and enter into the winter period. On the other hand there are the holidays, with added social activities and beyond that, the New Year with its promise of resurgence and new beginnings.
While I’ve always felt a strong connection to the cycles and rhythms that guide our internal experience and with that our external connection to place and nature, nowadays I find myself engaging more than ever with the practices that align with those natural forces.
Over the last few years I’ve experienced the real benefits of utilizing morning light exposure and winding down in the evenings with low light to deepen physical vitality, mental clarity and better sleep.
While intellectually understanding these mechanisms is one thing, being able to feel the beneficial impact from adhering to these practices has been a game changer in its simplicity and efficacy.
With this deepening connection to daily rhythms comes the heightened awareness of the winter period as a time of rest, replenishment and contemplation. Traditionally the fallow season offered a respite from the demands of working the land and a chance to go inside - spatially and spiritually.
For nature, this dying off and resting is crucial, the dormant period of vital importance for the new growth and fertility that follows it.
Last weekend, during the final session of “12 Facets”, our year-long immersion into archetype and myth, we explored the story of Persephone and Hades. A significant teaching aspect within this myth is the correlation of her location - her place - with the seasons.
Persephone’s stay in the underworld begets fall and winter in the world above, her emergence and return brings fertility and growth. The cornucopia of harvest is followed again by her descent into the land of the souls where she reigns as a guide for the souls and as their queen.
In the Northern hemisphere this innate archetypal and bodily wisdom towards dormancy nowadays stands in stark contrast with the hustle and bustle of the Holidays: bright lights, extra demands on body, emotions and mind, multiple social engagements and for many a time of stress, loneliness or excessive spending.
Originally meant as a period of contemplation and celebration with rituals, candles and fires adding depth to the turning of the light cycle on Winter Solstice, the present day holidays don’t offer much respite or slowing down.
The New Year - regardless of whether you observe it on Winter Solstice or January 1st - signifies the first signs of rebirth, still underneath the surface, and the gathering of life force. Renewal and growth is soon to come.
Most of us, even when we refuse to declare vigorous resolutions for change, feel the budding promise of renewal and emergence at this turning. Regardless of the intensity of our engagement with New Year’s resolutions, the gathering of life force necessitates a period of dormancy - rest, recovery and spiritual nourishment.
While I don’t want to offer authoritative advice on how you “should” navigate those seemingly opposing forces, or how you personally might want to approach the quickening of life force in the form of resolutions or changes, I can share some principles as well as some of my personal practices with you here as a means of support.
Engage in rituals that make this season meaningful to you.
Find simple ways to take time and connect with your senses without interruption. This could be lighting a candle, drinking a hot beverage, sitting in front of a fire or taking a walk in nature. Engaging with your senses anchors positive experiences in the body.Retreat - even if it is just for a few moments.
Find some time to step away. This could be just a few minutes away from the phone, computer or people. If you can set aside a longer time, a few hours, half a day or even more, plan your retreat ahead of time. What does retreat mean to you? Perhaps it's a long hot bath, or watching a movie without interruption. Perhaps it’s engaging in a practice, journaling or just laying around and taking a good nap. Retreat does not have to be spiritual or productive, the most important aspect is that you took time away from “the usual”.Look back at the year before you plan ahead.
Take some time and review this past year. Look at your calendar, scroll through your photos, perhaps even your balance sheet. Note the highlights and the challenges. Detail your best experiences and accomplishments. Look for areas that could use improvement, but resist the urge to make big declarations of change or feed self-criticism.Be of Service.
There are many good reasons for engaging in charitable acts and giving of yourself for the good of others. Asides from making a positive difference in someone’s life, the act of extending yourself beyond your own personal needs and comfort activates circuits that regulate your nervous system and deepen empathy.Let something go.
This is an excellent time to release and de-clutter. This might be as simple as cleaning out a drawer, going through your closet or purging your files. It could also mean a releasing of old grudges, a giving up of an outdated belief or having a clarifying conversation.Embrace boredom.
Letting your mind go fallow is essential for new creativity and goals. Very rarely do we allow ourselves to have a pause. There is always a feed to scroll through, a text to answer or an article to read. There is courage in embracing boredom and allowing it to become the substrate of new growth.Get as much sleep as you can.
You’ve heard it before, but it can’t be said enough. Getting 7-8 hours of quality sleep is the best way to counteract stress, regulate hormones and your nervous system and support mental health. This is even more important in the winter when we tend to use more artificial light and as such can throw our sleep cycles off.Spend some of your evening in the dark.
Winding down before sleep supports the body in falling and staying asleep. Turning lights low, using candles and red light lets your body know it’s time to unwind and rest. The less bright light you get in the 2 hours before bed, the better your sleep will be. It also sets you up for the next evening, as bright lights will shift your next sleep cycle as well. And, no - it’s not enough to put blue blockers on while scrolling in bed.
For me personally, this time of the year brings the end of one teaching cycle while already preparing for the next one. Teaching and traveling for a living means booking, planning, announcing and creating events way ahead of time.
Taking all I’ve written here into account, for the first time this year we have planned out and announced the entire 2024 schedule of in-person immersions, weekend and day-long events, live online classes and teacher trainings already! (You can find the full list of In-person events in UK, EU, US and Australia and online time streams to accommodate those time zones here.)
While this took quite a bit of focused time and attention the past month, it means that now I will be able to take some time off to rest, reset and nourish, with the seeds of the next cycle already sown and gathering life force.
I’ll be taking this time to do my own personal retreat as the year turns. I will be mostly offline and there won’t be any new posts here until January.
On Thursday, January 4 we’ll start a new teaching cycle with 2 free classes for “Calling in the New Year”, where I’ll be guiding you into embodiment practices to gather vitality and creating a personal ritual.
These calls are scheduled to accommodate most time zones and there will also be a replay. You can sign yourself up here for the UK/EU/US class and here for the US/Australia/Asia class. We’ll dive into the exploration of the embodiment of renewal beyond resolutions and checklists.
In the meantime I’d like to thank you for subscribing to this publication! I started “The Temple of the Body in the World” as a means of exploring themes of my work in a more long-form format and have enjoyed the opportunity to share with you in this way tremendously.
There will be weekly articles on the intersection of intimacy, relationship, myth, archetype and ritual again after this time of retreat in January.
Wishing you a season of joy and renewal!
Warm regards,
Michaela
Michaela, your work and it's offerings have had a profound effect on my life's journey this past year. Our experience at the Esalen institute was enlightening and the Ojai retreat served to further galvanize my resolve to integrate your teachings into my daily self care.
I wish you, Tao and Sienna a cozy winter solstice of gorgeous serenity.
With much gratitude and love,
Kristin Millane