When we use the word blues, we conjure music, soul stirring music, that often tells stories of love gone wrong, betrayals, and heartaches.
For many people, winter is a lonely time, so much so, that the lords of diagnosis have coined a term for it, SAD, or seasonal affective disorder.
In Chinese medicine, SAD is not a diagnosis, but a flow of energy from the external to the internal. Hibernation is upon us as we approach the shortest day of the year, the solstice of December 21.
Winter can teach us how to see in the dark, and asks us to look within, to follow the movement of introspection, and to return to the roots and sources of soul, of the deep-hidden inner nourishments of our lives.
Beating the winter blues is not to try and make a spring-time of winter, it is to know the time we are in and move accordingly. What is nature doing as the days grow shorter and colder? Cultivating stillness and quiet as a source of strength builds and charges our reserves.
Soul of Winter
So as winter builds, ask yourself some questions: If you are depressed ask that the gift of that depression be revealed to you. Thinking of depression as a necessary stage in the composting process of the soul is very helpful. Out of depression, beauty will eventually arise, the soil of a heavy heart is sometimes necessary for the plants of joy to return.
Staying home, keeping warm, and cooking warm nourishing soups….while remembering the arts and creative process that feeds our lives helps to keep natural depression from turning into something chronic.
When the new year comes and the days begin to get longer, we will participate in our annual 3 week detox program to purify our bodies and minds, and to make way for the vitality and creativity of the spring.