Yay! It's winter!

Let’s face it, most people get a little bit sad as winter sets in. We associate winter with cold, dark, rain and sickness and most people will begin to fear the onset weeks before it actually arrives.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Read on to learn how to get the most out of winter  - you might even find it becomes your favourite season!

Attitude

Consider your cultural conditioning. Research came out last year that surprised many of the winter naysayers. In Norway, a very cold and dark place in winter, "people view winter as something to be enjoyed, not something to be endured," according to researcher Kari Leibowitz. This difference in attitude means that despite extremely long and dark nights, people suffer less depression and actually look forward to the season. The reasons they enjoy this time appear to be connecting more with community (less Netflix more festivals and activities) and focussing on things they enjoy like sitting in front of open fires, lighting candles, snuggly blankets and warm beverages. If all else fails, at least winter fashion is a fallback. As they say in Norway - "There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." You can read more here

Yoga & meditation

Of course I would say this but there is no better way I know to stave off stress and general malaise in any season. Yin yoga can help keep immunity and resilience up and a strong physical yoga practice will compliment this to keep you fit throughout the season. You could even try hot yoga to get that daily sweat action happening. Meditation is just as important - keeping fit mentally as well as physically.

Hand sanitizer

Nuff said, especially if using public transport.

Keeping warm

Similarly, it’s proven that keeping warm, especially your chest, helps stave off those winter bugs.

Rest before you need to

In our culture, we applaud productivity, getting shit done, achieving and extroversion. These are all great, but they’re only one aspect of a complex picture. Humans, and especially women, are cyclical beings. Cycles of exertion and recovery are inevitable, and we can get the most out of each aspect by fully embracing it. A way of thinking about this is a dafoldil bulb underground in winter. From the surface, it appears there’s nothing happening, but all the while the preparation is in place so that the bulb can burst forth in spring in full flowering glory. Bulbs cannot flower when there’s not a proper winter. By embracing the natural tendencies in winter to rest more, eat more warming, nourishing foods and reflect more, we can also use this time to grow beneath the surface. By being conscious about our need for rest we can avoid getting sick, for example, when you’re feeling under the pump, resist the urge to push through and take a day off (I know this is a CRAZY idea, but try it, practice makes perfect and you’ll avoid needing weeks off with flu later on).

I would love to hear your favourite aspects of the winter season. Let me know via the comments box below!

Confession time

I have a confession to make. I have often come close to burnout. I worry about EVERYTHING. I am a total hypochondriac, make way too many lists and get twitchy if the washing up isn’t done.

This is partly because I’m naturally super enthusiastic, eager to give, and have my eye on the big picture. Which is great, except that it can easily slip into not enough sleep, forgetting to eat or eating crap, exhaustion and being so caught up in my head that I am not present for myself or anyone else.

What’s worse, is when I get stuck in this mode, I die a little bit inside. I harden. I stress out. I am not much fun to be around. And then, when all it falls over, as it invariably does, I feel guilty, angry with myself and super critical and judgemental.

For years I thought that the problem with all this was my inconsistency. That if I could nail the right routine and STICK WITH IT I’d achieve great things. It’s taken me literally years of study, self reflection, yoga, meditation and working with amazing teachers, to realise that what I really needed to learn to do was not to try and be the same all the time, but to rock my inconsistency rather than fight it. To learn to lean into chaos and experience, and find ways to continually rebalance.

Now rather than feeling like I’m never quite there, I feel really good in my life and my body, and that while my life is far from perfect, I can handle anything that it throws at me.

The good news for you is that I’ve done the exploratory work for you, and can help you shortcut your way to to a super-charged, inspired and empowered way of living.   

So, I hear you thinking, ‘that’s great Ruth, but WTF are you actually talking about’?

What I am talking about is a lifestyle approach that is both structured and unstructured.

I have a whole online program dedicated to learning about the unstructured informal side, that will be available later this year. It’s a program where you decide on the pace, tools and outcomes you want to achieve and I am there to support and guide you every step of the way.

But I truly believe that everyone benefits from structured breaks: periodically taking deliberate time out to step back, slow down, recharge, and replenish our inner resources for inspiration and vitality. In doing this we reconnect to our inner selves, you know, the kind of natural ease and comfort that children have but that we lose touch with as we grow up and get busy, busy, busy.

Feel like you could do with some of this? Come and join me for one of my Autumn mini-retreats, in Brisbane or Melbourne! Places for Brisbane are filling up fast.