01/05/2024
I've had Embracing the Darkness ready to offer you all since the Winter Solstice. But I couldn't bring myself to announce it. I'm not sure why, other than it just didn't feel like the right time and I never want my work to feel forced.
The solstice drew me inward... into the deep dark. I detached from the outside world and crawled inward in every way possible. Early bedtimes and lots of candle light. I cozied up inside under the twinkle of Christmas lights, sheltered from the cold winds and rains blowing through, occupied with episode after episode of every Julia Child show I could find. I sped through a few jigsaw puzzles and did lots of yin yoga and yoga nidra in the afternoons. I was also busy in the kitchen, perfecting the art of sourdough, trying my hand at Julia's Queen of Sheba cake, mastering blueberry scones, and keeping meticulous notes on it all as one does when they are mastering these types of skills. 👩🏻🍳
Baking has always been a form of therapy for me. It's how I got through early labor, it was a great distraction during endless hours of studying during college and medical school, it's what I've turned to when feeling sad, it's what I've turned to when there's reason to celebrate - the chemistry of baking - how the smallest and seemingly insignificant of actions can result in the biggest of outcomes - is the perfect mix of challenge and pleasure for me. The precision of baking pulls me in, keeps me focused, titrating and whisking and mixing just the right amounts for the exact amount of time... creating textures of cakeyness, ooey gooeyness, chewiness, fluffiness, silkiness, crispy edges, molten centers - all with the same end product: deliciousness ... to be shared.
Baking is a way for me to care for others. To extend compassion. To nurture. To offer up a brief moment of enjoyment, of pleasure, of the experience of YUM. Cooking can do this too - but baking is always an expression of love, because it is always a superfluous act. ❤️
Well - the holiday season is over, but winter has just begun. The festivities of December have rolled into the start of a new year. One type of busy-ness morphed into another. This is when many of us experience that sensation of being thrown back into life. Back to work. Back to the hustle. Back to the grind. Back to the routine. Back to the kids' busy schedules. Getting catapulted out of your winter holiday cocoon into the stresses and demands of life can create feelings of annoyance, depression, apathy, grief, resentment.
I've felt all of those during the winter months. But those feelings are not who I am. I am love and I want to template my life around love. I want to let as much life into my heart as I can. And I want to express this love in everything I do. I want my words to be an expression of this love, my gestures, my presence, my responses, my actions. All of it, all of me, an expression of love. The sadness, despair, boredom, and grief are real, but not the energy I wish to carry through the days and weeks.
If we're not careful, if we're not intentional about how we want to feel, these feelings will consume us and make us forget what we're really made of, who we really are. They'll swallow us up like a tidal wave and jostle us around to the point where we can't determine which way is up. Or sometimes the effect is more subtle, yet equally detrimental in the end: what starts out as a sense of coziness, like being wrapped in a blanket in front of a warm fire, gradually transforms into inertia and indifference, and before long, we realize we've merely been coasting through our days on autopilot instead of actively living and participating in them.
The heart knows how to welcome all of the uncomfortable feelings that arise during the dark, slow months of winter. How to receive them with open arms in a nonjudgmental way, and then transmute them into the love that is your birthright ... your essence ... but it can feel difficult to cultivate love. It takes practice, just like baking.
Life is like baking: things can get messy, there can be a surprise right around the corner, accidents can be for the best, patience is a virtue, it's okay to take a risk, and failure is an opportunity for learning and growth.
One thing that can help opening the heart and facilitate our capacity to be present with the more difficult feelings that go hand in hand with being human is to cultivate health in the physical body.
Hormone balance is the foundation of physical health. And it also supports mental-emotional health, and energetic health. I always start with physical health first, because so many of us are primarily focused on this aspect of our being.
Getting hormones balanced makes it easier, more comfortable, to be in our physical body. And when we are more comfortable in our physical form, cultivating the great light of love within our hearts becomes easier.
If you're interested in establishing a healthy hormone balance this winter, I invite you to check out my course, Embracing the Darkness. It's set up as a video slide with lecture presentation across 3 modules: circadian rhythm, melatonin and leptin. There are also some bonus items! And I'll be including a Yoga Nidra meditation for deep rest and nervous system rebalancing to be sent out separately as well.
It'll be on sale for two weeks. Take a peek and let me know if you have any questions!
May we embrace the darkness with the intent of cultivating the light and love within.
By understanding how these systems work together, you will have the knowledge and tools needed to invoke harmony in your mind and body, helping you feel connected at the deepest levels of your being.
