I’ve always had a complex relationship with the start of December and winter arriving. I found that my body was always craving slower days with space to retreat and turn inward; conflicting with societies messages of doing more, consuming more and overextending ourselves in a purchasing frenzy.

Coming out of the holidays, January and February always felt hard. My body was craving rest, reflection and nourishment while the pressures of societies were telling me we must immediately jump into our New Year’s resolutions and changing something about ourselves. Something always felt off…. until I learned about “wintering."

Naturalists use the term wintering to describe how animals survive the colder months. Nature doesn’t try to resist winter. It doesn’t try to be productive all year. It prepares, embraces and surrenders to the medicine the season offers. The seeds are planted but they are resting.

As the season changes and the days become shorter, this is a direct invitation from nature to embrace winter with all it has to offer.  Deep nourishment, reflection and rest allows us to emerge more centered, embodied and empowered as nature’s true new year of Spring arrives.

We all have an inner whisper waiting to be heard. That whisper usually holds the vision, the dream and the key to the transformations we are all looking for; in our personal lives and the world around us. When we are living in the constant overwhelm and exhaustion of the grind culture, it is hard to hear what that whisper is trying to say. It takes rest! The good news is the energy of winter is here to support you right now!

Using the rhythms of nature, the wisdom of woman gathered in community, and the teachings from Tricia Hersey’s “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto,” we will anchor into the 4 pillars of the book (rest, dream, resist, and imagine) while we journey through the winter months together.

We will tap into what Hersey calls “trickster energy” disrupting what modern society teaches us about the winter months and the holidays. Reading this book got me reimagining…What if we could do it differently this year?  What if we could slow down and practice a different way of being? What if we could accept the invitation nature is offering and rest into winter, emerging more rooted and centered as the true new year of spring arrives?

Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power. It asserts our most basic humanity and reminds us that we are enough!! Hersey’s book shows us that our dream space is sacred and rest is how we reclaim access to the wisdom there. She reimagines rest as more than just naps but in any portals through which we return to ourselves, where we can listen. The place where we can tap back into the well of innovation, imagination, creativity and humanity that lies within each of us. We are at a time when creating space to reimagine our personal lives and the world around us is not just an ideal, it is critical.

I hope you will consider joining us! Registration is open now through the link below. We kick off with a quick pre-holiday gathering next Thursday, December 12th at 7pm where I will introduce our book, reflection prompts and some tools to help you stay anchored through the holidays. Then we will reconnect in the new year to dive into all the medicine this season offers!