shorts The Slow Season
Acupuncturist and Chinese medicine practitioner Bajda Welty helps us cope with the winter blues.
BY BAJDA WELTY PHOTOS BY BAJDA WELTY
It’s winter here in the PNW. Most people around here think that’s a big old bummer! Mood bleak, weather dreary, ground soggy, sky gray most of the time. It’s a tired time of year, the daylight is short and the darkness is long. Before you look outside, I challenge you to look inward this season. Do you have a word of the year? What is it? Mine is simplicity. Wander inside yourself for a few moments to ponder: How is my heart? How is my mind? How is my body? How is my soul? This can be a miserable, sad time of year, literally. Many people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). You may experience your mood, energy level and motivation sinking, eventually settling in the cold muddy depths of the well. So, go there. Slow down, live at the measured speed of the season. What does this free up? For me, letting the resistance slide right through my fingers gives rise to imagination and time to reflect. Consider any intentions or resolutions you may have set last January: Where did your journey take you? What surprised you? What joy did you find? What sorrows did you experience? What adventures did you have? What risks did you take? What challenges did you face? Don’t feel rushed to come to conclusions. Ponder, wander and wonder. There isn’t a deadline that crashes down with the ball at midnight on December 31. Many cultures, like the Chinese, start each new year with the second new moon after winter solstice. That means not until late January or into February. So, if you look at the year from the lens of 12 moon cycles instead of 365 days for the earth to orbit the sun, we are entering the last quarter of the year. Not quite done yet, with time left to reflect and inform your 2024 intentions. Revisit your 2023 goals, apply curiosity, buckle down and explore what purpose they were perhaps guiding you toward. The season, like flashlight tag, requires faith and willingness. Come February and March, the dark, murky bottom of the well may become lighter. Your vision may turn back upward and outward again. This is the time to sprout new dreams and sew new seeds of intention, fantasy and resolution. Energy and motivation will stir, rising from mud to sky. Life begins again, new and refreshed.
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PNW BAINBRIDGE WINTER 2023
TIPS FOR WINTER: Get warm—Hot yoga, sauna, hot bath, tea, soup, sweaters, socks, hats and scarves. Get moving—Exercise to get blood flowing, lungs circulating, oxygen and endorphins pumping. Get rest—Sleep more hours. Get reflective—Answer the questions in the adjacent article. Get light—Make use of candles, full spectrum lamps and bright decor.
