Engage with the silent wisdom of winter to chart a course for renewal and growth.
This is the third in a 4-part series around Winter's Rest.
Listening to the Silence: Uncovering Winter's Wisdom
We've got a little snow here in the city, definitely freezing temperatures right now; lots of snow at my forest home, where I'll be soon, tramping through knee-deep drifts. Snow and chill blanket the earth in tranquility. It's still January, first month of the year, not all that long, year-wise, since New Year's Day. The month continues to offers a unique whisper, an invitation for you to slow down and listen closely.
But it's also got another key importance -- this is the third week into the new year's energy. It's the best time to explore
As a professional navigating the echoes of past challenges, this quiet portion of the season is your time to continue to reflect on aspirations and the calls of the New Year. How have you met the first 2-1/2 weeks of this new, fresh time?
Winter is about stillness. Its lesson is that stillness is not empty. It is forever offering the chance to tune your vibration to deep insight and clarity. This post delves into using the serene landscape of winter to attune to your inner voices, answer the deeper calls of your spirit, and continue to articulate your path forward with renewed purpose.
Decoding the Whispers: Answering and Embracing Winter's Reflective Call
The whispers of winter are subtle yet profound. They remind you that amidst the quiet, there is a space to listen—to really listen—to the aspirations and dreams that are overlooked during busier times.
As you can stop and feel, even right now as you read, in your bones, in your blood, in your heart -- the reflective nature of winter provides the perfect backdrop for deciphering these messages. Acknowledging them, now and as your path for the year unfolds before you, will lead to the significant transformation and healing you've desired.
As you hone your ability to understand and embrace these whispered messages, you start a dialogue with yourself about what truly matters. Within this dialogue is the first step towards meaningful change and growth that will lead you to the most productive year you've ever had. Within this quiet space, seek the truth of getting past what's been holding you back, confronting these barriers, and making the active choise to move beyond them.
By engaging with your innermost thoughts and desires during winter's quiet, you set the stage for your year of intentionality and empowerment.
Setting Intentions: The Art of Crafting a Vision in the Quiet
The new year is an unrivaled opportunity to define the contours of your future for the coming year. January specifically is a time of craft and wisdom. If you are not already doing so, use this time to open to a vision that resonates deeply with your core being.
In the quietude that only winter can provide, you have the chance to push against the memories of the old year, still fresh enough to work with, yet far enough to see objectively. January too, is still like an empty container, a cup waiting for fulfillment -- one you can fill with visions of the year just born.
Reflect on these questions to surface more of what your soul wishes to experience:
What do I truly desire for my life, that I need to action this year?
What changes do I seek for this specific year, and how will I begin them in this moment?
What assignments has my soul set for me this year, and how will I bring them into being?
What did I want MOST to do or have done or say I had completed in the prior year, that I did NOT end up doing or completing -- and if I truly want that, how will I make sure I do it this year?
What true urging is calling me to rise out of the divisiveness of work-life and life-life and into a life that melds both work and life in a divine dance of creating all I desire out of my life-time-energy?
To gain clarity on your reflections, write them down. There is power in capturing your thoughts in written form, because as you read them back -- right now, next week, next month, a year from now -- you will receive detailed signposts and helpful guidance on how to become all you wish to become.
Beyond mere resolutions, these intentions are promises to yourself — commitments to your healing and growth. They are informed by the deep introspection that winter encourages and are imbued with the wisdom you've gathered from your experiences.
Turning Inward: Healing and Harnessing Your Inner Power
The quiet of winter is an opportune time for you to turn inward, addressing and healing the wounds of the past, including any lifelong professional wounding stemming from past work-life-energy damage. The journey of healing is deeply personal and requires self-compassion and wisdom. Acknowledge that healing is not a destination, but a continuous process of understanding, growing, and reclaiming your power.
In winter's whispers, begin by cultivating self-compassion. Remind yourself that healing is cyclical, and that it's okay to be precisely where you are in your journey. Practice speaking to yourself with kindness, especially during moments of frustration or setback. The way you talk to yourself influences your path to healing. If you can tell that you've internalized any critical scripts, this is a good time to work on the process of surfacing their origins and eliminating them from your life for good.
If you're a shamanic practitioner, journey to meet and talk to your spirit animals and helpers. Ask them why you chose the "boot camp" of a difficult childhood as your life's journey, and how this "boot camp" can empower you in becoming the powerful and wise one in your life. As you embark on this inner journey, you will uncover strengths and insights that lay dormant under the snow of your experiences.
Healing to the point where you are capable of reclaiming your sovereignty is not a linear path. It's a journey with ebbs and flows, much like the seasons themselves. By committing to this inward turn, you harness your inner power and authority, emerging from winter's rest not only with a clearer vision for your life but also with a strong foundation of sovereignty and power.
Emerging with Clarity: Heeding Winter's Teachings for a New Beginning
Carry with you the wisdom and insights you continue to surface in this season of introspection and renewal. As winter brings snowfall, short days, windy chill and depth for reflection, the first month of the new year, the month most like an empty vessel calling to be filled, the season itself is still moving and in motion. Slowly, January has moved past its centerpoint. We may exclaim "however did it get to be a month since winter began?" but the lesson to be learned is that of growth across time. Each day is a valuable asset, to be lived well and to focus towards your truest calling.
The quiet of winter, once a canvas of silence, now echoes with the promises of growth and renewal you've made to yourself. Armed with clarity and strengthened by your inner work, continue to activate the New Year.
That empty vessel January however, is always moving onward. February's energy begins to prepare to receive all you're filling your cup with right now.
How will you access your own personal winter insights as you #reclaimyourwildness?
Be well,
Katherine
