The Power and Purpose of Winter

Body, Mind, Spirit and Space:
Tips for Using Winter’s Magic

What do Winter, receiving love and wisdom, your front door, water, your career, your kidneys, your sexiness, reproductive capability, your ears and your ability to live a life truly aligned with your deepest soul’s purpose have in common?

They all signal and determine just how much fun you are having in life and how well connected you are to your Heart’s desire.

Everything is connected. In our Western modern world, we tend to look at parts to see how they fit together to make a whole. We don’t often know of the underlying matrix of systems and cycles that actually compose, energize and activate the body.

Your Life Force Essence is depleted by being overworked, anxious, ‘multi-tasking’, “99 Lives” we all live. Winter’s invitation to slow down can received and our Life Force, the Well of Being, can be restored more easily during Winter’s long dark nights, allowing us to be fully prepared and eager to ride the crest of energy that will arrive in Spring.

Buried Treasure There is treasure buried deeply in winter. For thousands of years, humans have used winter to go inside, repair, rest and mend and return to stillness, entering what Feng Shui calls a yin state of rest, reflection and spiritual connection. In many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, Winter cold drives the flowing water deep below the frozen surface of streams, lakes and rivers.

Living in cities, working in high-rise buildings, TV’s in every room, car and restaurant, everything in our modern world seems to be on high volume 24/7/365; non-stop activity is pace of life today and it is toxic to career and life fulfillment and creates in our bodies an environment where overthinking, mental chatter, anger and illness occupy the space where love, clarity, calm and happiness should be living. Winter allows us need to follow the subtle whisper of our body’s desire to slow down and go deep within.

Your own life’s purpose is like a deep, flowing river feeding your being. Think about it: are you excited to get to work? If you answered anything from “no” to “duh” or “yeah, right” you are probably not living your “life’s purpose & true potential.”

Take some time this Winter to access this inner knowing and calling. These tips will help you find it, and have the ‘heart’ and courage to make the simple changes to put you on the right path once again. Living your Life Purpose, you have a powerful impact on all life around you, work seems like play, relationships are rewarding and it’s like being ‘in love’ all the time.

Tips for Using Winter’s Power:

Mind:Our minds are products of the 21st Century; like monkeys, they are constantly jumping and leaping from branch to banana, all the while exhausting our ability to restore our Spirit. Meditation is one way to calm the mind but for many, meditation becomes more frustrating than following the trail of thing to thing to thing…but its benefits, even just trying, nets big results.

First thing in the morning, grab a pen and paper and start writing, whatever comes to your mind, continue for 3 pages and then rip it up. This little trick helps dump those pesky thoughts demanding attention. I also do this before I go to sleep and have wonderful restful sleep as a result.
Breathe. A few deep breaths will center your spirit and calm your mind.
Look to the near left corner of your spaces–your desk, your home, your rooms. Clear this space of clutter, and leave it quiet and empty with the feeling of being in a sacred library. This will help calm the mind and enhance Wisdom & Self-Knowledge.
Remove clutter, visual clutter comes in the form of many things, even a lot of different colors in the same place, or magazines or CDs or books all together will cause visual clutter. Pictures hung randomly (use a grid pattern to calm the mind and ease the spirit. This allows soft flow of vision rather than focus jumping around).

Body:

In Winter, our bodies require different nutrition than in other season. Cold and darkness drive us inside to seek inner warmth. The ability to listen clearly (ears) is heightened in the cold, silent months. To keep your Life Force strong, incorporate Salty & Bitter foods into your diet, as they have a centering quality that drives the body’s energy deeper into the core, leaving the surface of the body cooler, and thereby we notice the cold less. Use only pure Sea Salt and in moderation. These foods also protecting the heart-mind balance by adding a few bitter foods as their energy ‘enters the heart’.

Rest more and earlier. Take advantage of the extra darkness.
Winter asks us to store physical energy–in the form of a little extra weight. It is important to maintain activity to keep the spine and joints flexible.
Fluid movement activities like yoga, dance, chi gong, walking all help the body gently process its energy for restoration.
Use a body brush to move lymph and stay healthy: starting at feet and then hands, brush toward your heart. A loofa sponge or shower mitts will also help exfoliate the skin and move the lymph.

Good Foods Heal the Body, Mind & Spirit: Paul Pitchford’s landmark book combines the wisdom of ancient AND modern sciences. It’s one of the books I am devouring this winter (with some sea salt and maybe lettuce :)). Healing With Whole Foods, Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition Bitter foods include: lettuce (try this in a soup, it’s amazingly delicious), watercress, asparagus, alfalfa, rye, oats, as well as:

Grains: Amaranth, Corn
Legumes: Red Lentil
Nuts/Seeds: Sunflower, Pistachio
Vegetables: Beet, Dandelion Root, Okra, Red Bell Pepper, Scallion, Tomato
Fruits: Cherry, Persimmon
Cautions: Chocolate, Sugar, excess salt

Spirit:

Relationships are nourishment for the Spirit. The quality of your relationships depends on how well you know yourself and how comfortable you are with exactly who you are.

All of this works together to bring you more in tune with your Intuition, Your Source and then available for a glorious relationship with another. The primary relationship to get ‘right’ is the one with Self–“Know Thyself” and I say Love all of you. Accept all the emotions that traverse your being, validate them and release them. Check out this book for the connection between your emotions and your ability to heal: Five Elements, Six Conditions

Winter is the perfect time for reconnecting to yourself and your Source, and for taking time to reconnect with those you love.

Feed your own Spirit and those of the ones you love by Listening more deeply. Look into the eyes and faces of those near you as you listen for the love or pain between the words. This method of receiving someone allows you to be truly connected to the beauty of each soul, and the heroic human experience as we all search for the Love our Souls are capable of receiving and sharing.

Receiving (and Listening) is an Art. Receiving means being open, trusting, centered, vulnerable, fearless and flexible. With these attributes you are more available to see the beauty in every situation, and every situation as a step closer to the wisdom and love you are wanting. Even receiving that traffic delay as a gift–could it be the perfection of timing so that you are in the right place to miss a negative event or to make the perfect connection leading you to a fantastic experience. Winter is associated with receiving. It might take a bit of soul-searching but there’s a gift in everything, somewhere.

Space: Feng Shui is a lot like ‘house psychology:’ your life and your home are a metaphorical match when seen through Feng Shui eyes.

Winter, water, North and your Front Door, or any door, reflect how you connect with the flow of your own life, your life’s purpose, your career and your ability to Receive. (there it is again)

Your front door is of major importance as it serves many Feng Shui purposes: inviting vital life force to your home, life and career, it is a sentry with a watchful eye, announcing who you are, what is important to you and what guests can expect when you open the door. Doors in general open us to opportunity and should be beautiful, work perfectly and open completely onto a beautiful view, inside and outside.

Your front door is known as the Mouth of Ch’i. Do you use it daily?

Most of us don’t use our front doors daily, some don’t use them ever. This is equivalent to going through life with your hand over your mouth and nose. No fresh breath enters your body, and no freshness enters your life and your home if you don’t use your front door. [Note: your front door is the door with which your address is associated, not the back door or garage door you might use all the time.]

Open your Front door daily
Make certain it works perfectly and opens completely, nothing behind it.
Make sure it opens onto a beautiful view (no powder room or view of the second floor or sleeping areas)
Be sure it is beautiful, place a new welcome mat and seasonal flowers, but make sure that it looks wide and open to receive.
Make sure your house numbers are visible and either horizontally displayed or in an ascending layout.
Add lighting…balanced is best.
Be sure that you don’t have a ‘floating door’ one that doesn’t look attached to the walkway, porch or earth. A “floating door” will unsettle and un-ground you and your opportunities.
Make certain ALL your doors work perfectly and fully open. You’ll have greater health, increased opportunities and a happier life flow and career.
Check that your plumbing is working perfectly.

In many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, Winter snow drives the flow of water even deeper than the surface of streams, lakes and rivers. This is Nature’s way we need to follow the subtle whisper of our body’s desire to slow down and go deep within. Take advantage of the benefits of Winter to deepen your ability to access your truth, receive insight, connect to your intuition and know your true, beautiful self.

The Power and Purpose of Winter

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