ALIGN WITH THE SEASONS TO UNLOCK YOUR VITALITY
Winter is a season for reflection, rest, and preparation. We create new goals and envision what needs to take place in the coming year to maximize our joy and power our evolution into healthier and more aligned versions of ourselves. I believe one of the best ways to reconnect with our own vitality is to realign our lives with the natural rhythms and cycles of our body and the earth.
Nature is perfect in every form. It doesn’t need instructions to be healthy or happy, or joyful. Even in times of tumult, upheaval, and change, its beauty remains. Nature only takes what it needs and is always replenishing and restoring its wholeness. We must remember that every cell in our body is borrowed from nature and thus retains this wisdom of how to heal. It is most often an overactive mind and a disconnection from our own rhythms that prevents our bodies from healing in many ways.
I would like to introduce a concept that, just as the seasons, most aspects of our lives could be viewed as temporary phases. That our schedules, priorities, eating habits, rituals, goals, supplements, gym routines, sleep requirements, and grocery lists be just as seasonal as the seasons themselves. When we practice connection to the slow, pulsing beat of the earth, time slows down, and we can rejoin the majesty of our oneness.
Here are 5 ideas of how to begin your own intentional reconnection with the natural cycle and rhythms of winter.
Maximize restorative sleep through alignment with your circadian rhythm. Sleep more than you would in the summer.
Prioritize recovery and increase intake of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and healthy fats to ensure you have adequate storage to fuel expansive spring and summer seasons.
Reduce your consumption. Minimize wasteful spending. Do more with less.
Connect to your oneness through nature and with service to community.
Cultivate more curiosity and compassion, rather than judgment and shame, regarding cycles of struggle and suffering you recognize within yourself and others.
Aligned in Health,
Robert R. Crosbie, MD, MPH