In our How to Hibernate series we have been looking at ways to stay well during the dark, cold season of Winter. To give us a helping hand we asked one of our favourite yoga and wellness experts Jane Kersel to share her favourite ritual for this time of year, to help us be our best!. To make the most of this exercise, you will need some daily quiet time for introspection. Over to Jane…
“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant—there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing—and keeping the unknown always beyond you…” Georgia O’Keeffe
Just like the Great Mother has nature letting go of its dead wood and dying back into the ground, so too, are we invited at this sacred time of year, to join that deep surrender to the natural order of life and dive deeply inwards, away from the bright lights of the outer world to the eternal light of the inner world.
The key to unfolding and growing as an individual is in letting go of the outer world and what everyone else is doing and concentrating on what stirs you deeply from inside, what moves your soul, what lights your fire, what gets you excited – not trying to be someone else, but learning instead to be the best version of yourself for yourself.
A simple practice for this time is to sit down in a quiet place for 15 minutes every day with a journal and a pen. Close your eyes, stop, soften, pause and listen inwards, define your breath, drop out of rational thinking and ask your heart:
- What patterns/ways that I show up in the world am I ready to let fall away?
- What thoughts and judgements I may say to myself, no longer serve me to my highest?
- From this day forwards, loving myself in all my radiance and magnificence, how will I choose to show up in the world?
- What truly lights my fire in terms of passion and creativity and how will I now and today moving forward express that on a daily basis for my own well-being?
- How much more magic could I create today?
The last question is a question that you just let float in your consciousness – it’s not one to be pragmatically answered. Instead it keeps a joy in the heart and a deep connection to spirit that the mind then seeks to alight on, because what the thinking mind thinks, the proving mind seeks to then find evidence to prove.
