Happy Wintertime Folks!

I hope you are feeling wonderful and enjoying your pre-holiday experience! I'm feeling pretty wonderful, and I also feel the pull of culture in me. Isn't it weird how powerfully we are influenced by the culture around us? For example, I am hardly ever interested in shopping and buying things, but recently, I'm thinking about going into stores and browsing amazon.com! Do you notice that at all?

It's paradoxical that during the most still and quiet time of nature, we humans are at our busiest and noisiest. If you go for a walk in the woods tomorrow, you will notice that nature is indeed very quiet. Animals are hibernating, birds have flown south, and the trees have lost their leaves. The energy (qi) has moved deep down into the roots and core. There is no buzzing, fluttering, chirping, busyness and no business (if you know what I mean)...just a deep and cold quiet. This is the energy of the Water Element! Nature rests, so that when the warmth of the sun returns in the Spring, the potential energy generated during winter can EXPLODE into life!!!  We have been seeing this happen on a small scale with flowers blooming in this unseasonably warm December. If you have have been feeling out of sorts - know that our tree and plant friends are feeling that way too!

You may experience the dichotomy between cultural influence and natural movement as feelingoverwhelmed, stressed or on edge. If that's the case, even if you're in the throws of shopping, I encourage you to stop and take a break. You have the full support of the natural world to slow down right now. Listen to the wisdom of nature —  powerful potential energy can build within you when you rest!

Below are some gifts to help you with this. Feel free to share this with anyone who might benefit! 

For your virtual stocking stuffer, I would like to offer you 2 questions to contemplate right now, for 1 minute:

1. How would your life be different if you used this time of year to rest deeply, rejuvenate and refill your energy reserves? [set timer now!]

2. What are 3 ways that you can sync up with the deep, dark, powerful, quiet energy of wintertime? [set timer now!]

If you had trouble with that second question, read on!
 
For your main holiday gift, here are some Winter Practices: Try each of these for a minimum of 1 week and see your life change.

1. Meditate: Set aside 10-30 minutes per day to simply sit upright, be still, payattention and let go of your relationship to your thoughts and feelings.  DOWNLOAD: I've been listening to this meditation with my daughter before bed and it's made a big difference. Enjoy this FREE 10 Minute guided Stillness Meditation I just recorded for our current 10 Day challenge participants

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2. Sleep:  For one week, go to bed early and wake up late! Up until the last 100 years, we have gone to sleep and awoken in sync with the sun! In summer we slept less and in winter we slept more. Imagine that! Our genes are actually programmed for non-electric light. 

How to Create a pitch black bedroom experience

• cover alarm clocks

• put up light blocking shades

• throw the TV out

• If you don't throw your TV out, install this on your computer for night browsing.

3. Eat:  For one week, eat more cooked root vegetables and winter greens (like kale). Eat more grass-fed meat. Make soups and stews and eat lots of good fats (coconut oil, almond oil, olive oil, ghee, grass-fed animal fats). Eat warming foods like ginger and Cinnamon. YUM!  Avoid raw and cold foods that deplete energy. 

These practices can help to strengthen your mind, body, and spirit and tune you into the gifts that the winter energy offers. They may even save you some money if you can abstain from cultural induced shopping. ;

Thank you for your commitment to a brighter and more beautiful world.

With SOOOO much Love,
Lance