02/21/2025
In the thick of it.. ..winter continues. Perhaps your feeling a little blue, your muscles tight, life feels stagnant. Maybe your feeling restless, feeling the beginnings of the spring energy bubbling in you sparking some desire to create, start new projects, get out in the world. Yet, the days are still cold. As we move through these deep winter days, still allowing for rest, we can also begin preparing ourselves so we can have the inner fortitude to meet the springtime renewed, with vitality and clarity.
Begin to awaken your sleeping body, begin to lubricate your joints, open your muscles and gently detox your system. Be gentle... begin with some daily stretching, paying extra attention to your joints. Starting with your ankles do gentle rotations of 3 in both directions, then move up to your knees, your hips, your rib cage, your shoulders, your head. 3 rotation to the the right, 3 rotations to the left. Then your wrists, add big circles of rotations for your arms, moving backwards, and then forward like you are doing the breast stroke. From there let your body lead. Put on some music. Move the places that call you, let your body guide, feel the joy of opening, and releasing.
Add other gentle modalities...walking when the weather permits, yoga for strength, and qi gong to tonify the body's whole system.
Be gentle with yourself. Add a daily cup of warm lemon water for a gentle liver detox. Or some nettle tea with oatstraw- nettle detoxs the liver, oatstraw relaxes the nervous system and provides minerals to nourish the bones.
Feel yourself awakening, stretch and yawn, give yourself voice and space as you begin to rise from winter's hibernation.
Write, draw, dance, stretch.
Let the natural increase in light guide you out of the darkness.
It happens a little each day, not in one big jump. Take your time, do what you can. Spring is approaching.
Enjoy the stillness still present, and begin to fill the space with creative reflections, dreams and new visions for yourself. When the time comes, you will be ready. You will emerge renewed, restored and fresh.
From the seed, the bud, from the bud the leaf, from the leaf the flower.. We are moving from seed to bud, begin to feel yourself again, and let it be good. Let it be good.
