Winter Season: A Season for Integration
We so often hear how important it is not to hold on to our stories of the past and carry all of our emotional baggage with us. In fact, we are encouraged to be in a continual state of letting it go! While I think it is important to do this, I believe there is something else of equal importance: sitting with what is.
In recent years, I have complained about the bitter cold of winter and quite honestly stopped appreciating its gifts. But this year for whatever reason, I am realizing its gifts of stillness, quiet, silence and more. It is the perfect time to courageously explore all aspects of the self---especially the ones that we aren't particularly fond of.
Practices of self-inquiry, like meditation, give us the opportunity to take the seat of the observer in our own experience. Most importantly, these practices offer us the choice to see which part of ourselves we are initiating our lives from.
When we only gravitate to the spaces that feel good, there's a disconnect, a lingering sense of incompleteness. I believe that incompleteness dissipates when we openly welcome all aspects of the self---all parts need to be equally welcomed, seen and heard.
Quiet practices, like self-reflection, or sitting on a rock in nature, yoga and more, offer us an opportunity to change the way we navigate through life. The more we sit quietly with ourselves, the better we undertand the nature of the self.The more we understand the self, the more we are able to compassionately understand others.
The silence of winter is a gift which offers each of us the opportunity to realize we have a choice in each and every moment. We have a choice to move intentionally. Speak and live intentionally... and to even let go intentionally. The journey of self-awareness never ends.
The opportunity to grow is always present, and for me the silence and space of winter offers the perfect time for gentle contemplation. Welcome this time, lean into your self-realizations, learn from them, and embrace them.
Every year we greet winter busily with Holiday celebrations: Hannukah, Solstice, Christmas, Kwanza. Each Holiday holds a unique wisdom and joy and we need to be still long enough to discover it.
Start now to integrate this wisdom into your life in a meaningful way. When you do, then and only then, do you have cause for celebration, because now we are conscious of how our unique holiday informs our beliefs and values, who we are, how we choose to live our lives, and the legacy we will leave behind.
The foundation of self-awareness allows us to give to ourselves the choice to let go and/or integrate all the aspects of that which defines us; and, when we do we are finally, whole and complete.
During this season of many celebrations, my wish for you is that life bless you with its finest gifts, and that each and every day you offer yourself 'choices' which expand your wholeness.
With Gratitude,
Elaine
