What does winter remind you of?
Quick, right off the top of your head, you’re likely to come up with words like:
Hibernation.
Cold.
Snow.
Grayness.
Cold!
Many negative adjectives get attributed to winter such as dead, gray, cold, arctic, chilly, and barren.
As a Wisconsin native, I have my own aversions to winter. Being so far removed from the vibrating nature of summer makes me feel sad and closed off. I cringe in the late summer and fall, thinking about the oncoming weather changes.
I dread winter.
The outside world slows down and makes its way inside.
However, this year, I’ve tried to make a mental shift from the dread of winter to the opportunity in the season instead.
Of course, the life of trees holds the perfect metaphor for this.
Dormancy allows for maximum yield.
What happens to trees in winter?
It’s easy to think of the trees as “dead” in the winter. In fact, that’s often how we talk about them. But they’re far from dead!
The grueling conditions teach them how to thrive instead of die.
During their dormancy period, trees go through a slowing, self-preservation stage in order to proliferate come warmer weather.
An apple tree can’t produce a very good harvest unless they go through an adequate dormancy period.
Dormancy allows for maximum yield!
And even while the upper portions of trees stop growing in winter, their roots are very much alive and extending.
The metaphor is so perfect, it makes me a little giddy!
How to Human in the winter
The winter is the perfect time for humans to go inside too. Warm homes where we gather are where are roots also extend.
We need the period of rest and preservation to come alive in the summer.
We need the extremes of hot and cold to appreciate the full spectrum of temperature and season.
I mean, I think about the sheer work summer brings with it: the constant proliferation of weeds, the steady growth of lawn, the infiltration of bugs, the watering, and the number of activities I feel obligated to do outside while I can.
In winter, we can take a break from all those responsibilities and obligations. Let them lie in retreat under sheaths of snow.
We can focus on the activities that took a backseat in the summer, such as the waiting sewing projects, the interior repairs, the shelves of books that went unread.
That go-go-go energy of summer needs a balance of winter energy, just like the yin and yang, the masculine and feminine. Balance.
Winter is a slowing down and rooting, not a long, cold death.
The grueling conditions can teach us how to thrive instead of wither as well.
We don’t die slow deaths in the winter, like it feels like sometimes, we shed the layers that don’t serve us anymore and pay attention to what keeps us alive, not just physically but mentally too.
So, today, I offer you a winter forest bathing exercise to go along with this sentiment of rest and balance.
Winter Forest Bathing Exercise
- Head to your favorite nature space outside. Make sure you’re bundled up enough to stay warm and comfortable.
- Lean up against a tree or other natural structure and take a few large breaths, finding a deeper sense of relaxation with each breath. You may feel natural closing your eyes.
- Take a moment to identify with the tree or object holding you up. The intense process its undertaking at this very moment.
- Allow yourself to become drawn into the same process as you rest back-to-back. The turning inward. The slowing. The releasing of all the superfluous layers and stripping down to your true source of lifeblood. (The forest bathing version of the KonMarie method, haha).
- Find the relaxation, the turning inward, the permission inside the slowness.
- Next, bring your awareness to the outer layers of your body. The ones closest to the surface, exposed to the air. Next, bring your attention to the layer under that and the layer under that until you get to the core of your body.
- Take a moment to appreciate how the outer layers of your body protect the deep warmth of your beating heart. Your body shivers and contracts and does all it can to preserve your inner body temperature. A gift. Appreciate these signs of self-preservation.
- Now, slowly open your eyes to the life all around you. Smoke from chimneys, tweets from the hardy winter birds, deciduous greenery, tracks in the snow from romping rabbits. Make note of all the signs of life all around you.
- Then, slowly make your way inside, taking the new insights this winter forest bathing practice gave with you.
Journaling challenge: use one page in your journal to doodle the signs of life you noticed. On another page, draw or describe the layers of meaning you noticed in the lively dormancy of winter.
Bonus kid-friendly challenge: gather little remnants of nature in your pockets. Bring them inside and set them up in a nice little nature display. Set out a magnifying glass for further inspection.
{If you enjoyed this exercise, check out our free forest bathing starter guide with three more in-depth forest bathing invitations.}
I’d love to hear your thoughts or see your journals. Come on back here and drop a comment about your winter forest bathing experience or drop them in the Forest Bathing Central Facebook Group.