There is buried treasure in the quietness and stillness of winter
Seasons of Change is a monthly column from Jayne Clark addressing different topics each season. Winter’s focus is changing perspectives—the bright side of winter. Jayne Clark works intuitively with clients to help them resolve issues regarding relationships, loss, grief, health, and career path. To learn more, head to jayneclark.com.
Horns are honking! Telephones are ringing! The email inbox is full! Traffic is stacked up and pretty much everywhere we go there is a television blaring the latest tragic news. We feel pressure at work, at home, and definitely on our way to yoga class because of those last couple of to-dos before leaving.
On most days we swim in a sea of demands, expectations, and self-judgment that we should be getting ahead and doing it better! We can’t even sit in the Starbucks line without texting, emailing, or making that all-important call.
We know we are unhappy. We know our lives are unfulfilled to some degree. We know that if we died today we would feel incomplete. This is our experience … madness. So we get busier. We do more. Think more. Strategize more. Plan more. We get up earlier and stay up later because we are so certain the sky will fall down if the kitchen isn’t clean before we go to bed.
And then … we look in the mirror and wonder “where in the world did we go wrong?” Just for a moment, long enough for our eyes to well up with tears, our awareness is lit up like a bonfire of a harsh reality that doesn’t work. But just like the mouse on its wheel, we make that secret vow all over again to keep going, keep pushing, and keep forging ahead until we get it right.
But there is a very powerful secret that has been talked about for centuries. It’s called “Slowing Down and Being Quiet.” Even though I’m poking a little fun at our “mock five, get it done and get it done yesterday” culture, there is tremendous truth in it.
The season of winter is Mother Nature’s way of slowing down and allowing herself to be rejuvenated. It is vital to her ability to produce new and richer life in the spring. If we were to join her, we too would feel the natural support of our own going within, becoming still and quiet. Our over-taxed and -stimulated system would have the opportunity to be replenished and nurtured, allowing us to bring forth new life when it is time.
Winter is a wonderful time for reflecting on our lives and who we really are. It’s a time of cleansing and healing old ways of thinking and believing. It allows the old parts of us to die so that we may rediscover what our heart truly wants. It prunes away our habits and repetitive negative conversations so that we may receive divine guidance and direction as to best navigate our lives.
There really isn’t some mysterious answer as to how to live fully and align ourselves with the divine perfection of our spirits. It’s simply about slowing down long enough to hear. And then being willing to let go of our “control freak” nature so that we can be shown what our next step is. We must become teachable, pliable, and flexible again.
Winter is very yin. It is an open and receptive energy that allows our potential and sacred path to be birthed in new and evolved ways. We find buried treasure in the recesses of our psyche when go within, rest, and mend our relationship to stillness. Everything that is outdated in our being gently melts away and room is made for the new.
Spring will be upon us before we know it. There will be plenty of time to engage in the business of life again. But for now, enter a restful state of being and allow the old to burn off, our roots to go deeper, and our vision to become clearer. When spring comes, when it is time for us to awaken and go forward, we will have the energy and direction to do so.
From that space we will experience our spiritual journey, relationships, and career in a whole new and inspired way.
Image: Some rights reserved by Moyan_Brenn