How to fall in love with winter
The January Box is open for 2 more days if you’d like to join me on my joyful January journey
After hating it for many years, January has become my favourite month of the year. I have to swiftly state before you click off in bewilderment or disgust, that I used to long for summer and actively hate the cold season, approaching it with a deep sense of dread in the pit of my stomach. I am sensitive to the cold, with bad circulation. As a teenager, I lived in a very cold draughty house and still remember the dread i’d feel about leaving my warm bed to put my uniform on. Winter also holds the anniversaries of both mine and Dave’s mums deaths (grim af, we know). So Winter for me meant: illness, death, sadness and being almost constantly cold. BAD TIMES.
This January, in 2021 might be the toughest January yet. Yet, despite the pandemic and uncertainty and government idiocy I find joy in this month and season. Solace, in fact. Despite expecting the latest round of lockdown restrictions I found myself spiralling over the last few days and experiencing giddy spikes in anxiety. Bedding myself deeply in nature by spending as much time outside as possible has been a balm for my whole family so I am planning on continuing to do so.
How I fell in love with winter
But I have been able to drastically turned this on its head. I am that person who stops in the street to watch the starlings, simply full of the joy of it. I now love proper winter weather. I feel excited at the prospect of temperatures dropping, the first frosts, the fog descending, icy puddles; signifiers of the season. There is something so delicious in the contrast between a warm home and the cold outside.
I acknowledge my privilege here in a big way. For me, the onset of cold weather is exciting rather than dread-filled, because I’m able to afford to put my heating on. Fuel poverty is no joke for many people in the UK.
This icy face of winter is much maligned, yet holds so much beauty, if you look at it in a different way. Dew, frost, ice and fog can be breathtakingly beautiful.
How did this turn around come about you ask? because I realised we need it. I need it.
As I’ve got older, I’ve understood more the necessity of the seasons. Everything in life is cyclical and there is a time for abundance and a time to be fallow. Fallow time is critical to facilitate rest and enable the onset of abundance again. We are meant to rest and sleep more in winter, meant to work less. In our electric light-filled world we have become de-sensitised to these urges, and modern work patterns simply don't allow us to slow down.
The light bulb moment came for me when I realised that if we can find even small ways to listen to what mother nature is trying to tell us, we would all feel a lot happier.
How to fall in love with winter.
Embrace its darkness to create.
I fostered a love for working in the pitch dark of night at University. My mind felt totally clear when all other distractions had gone. I did my best work through the night, and I still do; its just very rare these days for me to be able to stay up so late as I have kids waking me up. But there is something about the quiet dark evenings that make them ripe for creating, writing, planning and dreaming. The darkness is fertile ground.
Gaze at the moon.
I love seeing the stars and the moon ever earlier in the day, and I love that now the kids are awake to see them too. We have had some beautiful clear nights here in Kent, where the stars are shining so brightly at 6pm. "I can see a shooting star mama!" (always aeroplanes, but who am I to dampen their joy?!)
Celebrate the sunrise.
Isn't it lovely that so many of us can enjoy the sunrise, something normally reserved for the very early risers in the lighter months? Our morning drives to nursery/school have been bathed in pink, gold, and lilac, and add a dose of pure magic to our day.
Celebrate.
There is much to celebrate in the winter months, and I encourage you to do so with gusto. Yes, Christmas, but also the Solstice, Advent, Chinese New Year and Burns Night. You don’t have to throw a huge party; a simple dinner with your family can be surprisingly uplifting and festive, without leaving you feeling burnt out.
Hunker down.
Listen to natures cues and hibernate as much as you’re able. Create a cosy comforting nest. I love decorating for Winter; an extension of our Christmas decorations really: bare branches, evergreen, winter herbs, wreaths. I add a ridiculous amount of blankets and sheepskin to our sofa and bed- so we can physically burrow and nest in our cosiest comfiest spaces. I light the candles in the kitchen every single day, and every time we use the lounge 9always carefully, and always blowing them out if unsupervised). We need sparkle, comfort and cheer now more than at Christmas. (More winter decor tips in The Nesting which you can sign up to here)
Go outside//move your body.
Don't forget to go outside. Yes, winter is a time when we spend more time indoors but too many of us forget to spend time outside too, and it’s so important to do so. I know myself well enough now that I need to get outside regularly- daily- to ease anxiety, give my eyes a rest from screens, breathe deeply, and stretch my body. Sometimes this is a family trip to the woods or beach, sometimes this is a 15-minute walk around the park, sometimes it’s stepping out into my frosty garden with my morning coffee, closing my eyes and listening to the birds.
Rest at the first sign of illness.
It’s inevitable that illness strikes in Winter. This is often our bodies telling us we need to slow down and take it easy, and I have finally finally learned that it is far better to rest and relax routinely, and especially when you first start to feel poorly, rather than pushing through ‘becase it’s not that bad’ and having to take time off later for being burnt out and super poorly. Me and Dave are both in positions where we can rest more freely now (again- I acknowledge our socio-economic privileges here) and we try to do so as much as we can. Even with a 3-year-old, and an 8-year-old currently homeschooling, we find ways to slow down and rest if we can feel ourselves coming down with something (and just as much as possible, generally). We’ve found that colds and cough’s disappear a lot faster if we give in and just crawl into bed instead of drugging ourselves up to the nines and carrying on (we used to do that A LOT).
Eat well.
Winter is a time of brilliant brilliant comfort food. Hallelujah! I think we’re meant to crave it, meant to put on a few pounds of warmth over winter. Our winter coats! But I learned that I feel thousands of times better if I ever so slightly nudge my bodies cravings for processed, sugary food into whole healthy hearty food instead. I don’t cut sugar out entirely because it’s delicious and I love it, but it’s also a bit addictive. So I gently remind myself to add in some healthy stuff too and my body and mind are happier for it. I feel so much better when I eat more fruit, veg pulses, seeds and nuts AND chocolate cake.
Sleep well.
An almost primal urge for sleep strikes ever earlier in the day in the winter months and yep, you guessed it, I heed it. Jeanette Winterson’s essay on adoring the night is brilliant, but a little unrealistic if you have kids (she talks about slipping under the covers with your lover in the afternoon. I WISH!) After the kids are in bed, I sometimes get straight into the bath or my bed and enjoy a deliciously early nightand It’s pure unadulterated bliss, I can tell you.
So, these are the things that have turned winter around for me, into a season I adore. How are you feeling about winter so far? Are you a lover or a hater?