Episode 73: Welcoming Winter Solstice

Hello, and welcome to today's show. I am so excited you are here. We are going to be talking about the winter solstice. I'm so excited. I actually woke myself up this morning thinking about all the things I'm excited about winter, and this is a huge change for me. I grew up in the Midwest, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It's frigid cold in the wintertime, and it's so cold that I've just started to despise winter as I became an adult, and I just hated it. I hate the way that the cold felt on my skin. I hated the way that the cold felt when it hit my jeans. It gets very, very cold where I'm from in the winter. And as I've gotten older, I have a new appreciation for the seasons, and I have a new appreciation for the cold.

And I've been working on it over maybe the last five years, like befriending the cold. And I think it is really important that we have a contrast between warm and cold in our bodies. I'm super excited for winter, and this is a huge change for me because if you would have asked me if I was excited about winter five years ago or ten years ago, I would have told you you were crazy.

But I've done different things to embrace the cold, from taking cold showers to relaxing my energy when it's cold outside to even hosting a retreat when I knew it was going to be snowing and planning hikes in the snow. I wanted to bring that childlike wonder back into my life because, as a kid, the first snow is always exciting. You get to go outside and get to go play in it, and it's just amazing. And as I got older, I kind of moved away from that for many different reasons, but I'm excited.

So it's important for us to celebrate the season changes depending on where you're listening from; maybe you're going into summer and not winter. Wherever it is, it's important to celebrate the season changes because we're going through those changes as well. And the winter solstice, it's literally the act of death and rebirth. It's the darkest day of the year, so it's literally saying this is going to be the darkest day, and every day after this is going to get brighter and lighter and more beautiful.

I think it's important when we have this season change to think about what it is that's dying off and what it is that you want to be reborn from that death. And we go through many cycles of rebirth and death throughout the year, and I think that for winter, this is the biggest one. I think that it is the one that allows us to go, "This is complete. Now, it's time for renewal. It's time for rebirth and rejuvenation and beauty."

And I think how you can embrace that death and rebirth are to call out and look at things in your life that you're wanting to let go of, that you're wanting to have a death with. And it could be a pattern, it could be a relationship, or it could be a thought that you constantly tell yourself. Are you tired of things in your life that are no longer working for you?

Call those things out, tell the universe, "I'm ready; I'm ready to have a death with this. I'm ready for this to be complete, and I want to have a rebirth and a renewal and a rejuvenation." Now be careful what you wish for. When you say to the universe, "I want this to die," the universe is going to respond to your request, and it's going to get uncomfortable. This season the universe has already been taking tallies of the things that you want to let go of even if you didn't say specifically, "I want this to die."

The universe is like, "Alright, you don't want that in your life anymore? You're tired of it? Let's get rid of it. Let's create a change!" And change can be very, very scary. And this is where in winter, we get to get warm and cozy and slow the pace of life down. But you have to be willing to give yourself permission to slow the pace down. The environment, your environment, will naturally start to slow, but you might have a lot of things on your to-do list. How can you let some of those things go so that you can rest? So you can give yourself permission to sit in Mother Earth's womb?

This is the time where I really allow Mother Earth, creation, to cradle me and comfort me. I imagine myself going back in utero, like being in the womb of a mother and allowing mother creation to just hold me. And this is a deep, deep meditative practice that I want to invite you to go into. And this practice will assist in rebirth and will assist in death because it allows us to slow down.

So if you're interested in experiencing what I'm talking about, I'm going to do a new winter solstice healing. This is something I love doing. Depending on when you're listening to this, you can go to my website, it's theamyrobeson.com, and sign up for the free Sacred Gifts program. You will find that healing in the Sacred Gifts program of the member portal. We will also send it out on winter solstice, which is December 21 this year.

I think that it's amazing that we have a way to connect with Mother Earth in relation to the seasons, and she wants to go inward. She wants you to go inward as well. She's constantly nourishing us throughout the year, and this time of year, it's nourishment within, nourishment within, really being cradled, really being supported, really being held, and I want you to ask yourself, how do you want to be held? Why is it important for you to be held?

Because answering the question of why and how will support you in creating a really safe environment to surrender into, relax into, and to receive. Because if you don't feel safe and you're not sure why you're doing it. And the answer to why could be simply, "Because I want more love. I want to be held. I want someone to hold me without me worrying that I have to do anything in return."

And by answering this why, you'll receive on a deeper, deeper soul level. The other thing I would encourage you to do for the winter solstice is to write down the things that you're excited about. What are you excited about this winter or this season change? What do you want to get out of it? What do you want to receive out of it? And by getting clearer on that, the universe will then start blessing you more with those things.

I'm just being guided to share a couple of things that I'm really excited about. I'm excited for the cool air on my skin, breathing it in. I'm excited for the quiet nights, like just being able to hear the branches kind of wrestle in the wind. I'm excited to see the naked trees without the leaves on them. I'm excited not to hear the bugs chirping. Now, I love bugs chirping in the summertime, but it's really beautiful to hear it just kind of silent at night. I'm super excited to slow down. I've had a really long year and I've been looking forward to winter because I know that by the end of December I'm really taking the time to really slow down. I'm also excited to spend some time with my family.

So those are just a few things I'm excited about and looking forward to. I have some other things that I'm excited about and looking forward to, from professional goals to the food I'm going to eat. Because I plan to bake a lot this winter, and I've already started baking. And I'm super excited to continue that process, making really hearty winter meals and allowing the ingredients to change with the season as well. So what are you excited about? What are you excited about for this winter solstice? Get excited. Do a ritual. Listen to the free winter solstice healing that I have for you. Take time to be held and surrender.

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I look forward to seeing you in the next one. Happy winter solstice. I love you guys. Make sure you like and subscribe. See you soon. Bye.