The days are getting longer, but winter will be with us for a while yet. The season’s cold, inclement weather provides the perfect setting for reflection, says Janet Rae Orth, an intuitive consultant and energy coach.
“If we look at nature, plants and trees tend to go into a dormant period,” she says. “Animals hibernate, spending more time in their den. The light is shorter, and going inward is natural. We can see how we’ve changed, reflect on our growth, and define what we want next. These are important cycles and should be embraced.”
Spring and summer can bring the curse of a sunny day, says Suneel Gupta, author of Everyday Dharma: 8 Essential Practices for Finding Success and Joy in Everything You Do.
“Sunny days are great, but there’s also that pressure we put on ourselves—‘I should be out there. I should be hanging out. I should be taking a bike ride. I should be doing something productive with my schedule,’” he says. “Sometimes having a snow day can be wonderful. It gives us a little bit more space. I think all of us can use more of it to reflect.”
Choose Healing Activities
Winter activities are perfect for reflection. For example, a lot of people enjoy sitting around the fireplace at this time of year. “There’s something about a fire, the way the flames flicker, we’ll just stop and look at the flame,” says Orth. “Anything we can do to stop and slow down.”
Reading also creates an element of reflection, especially when you choose fiction. “Stories tend to take us to other places,” says Orth. “We can think of things in our life that mirror the experiences the characters are having. We can reflect on what we read and go inward because our imagination is stimulated.” While meditation or journaling can be great, Orth says reading can provide an alternative or supplementary way to encourage reflection. “[Journaling and meditation] are wonderful, but really, we just need a period to be with ourselves in stillness, staring at a flame and reading a book, especially if we’re someone who does a lot of activity the other times of the year.”
Savor What’s Good
In addition, reflect on the good things in your life, recommends Gupta. “We have a negativity bias,” he says. “Ninety-five percent of our life can work great, but we tend to focus on the 5%.”
Take a moment to think about things that are going well. Gupta calls this his savoring exercise. “I like to make a list of 5 to 10 things in my life that I’m enjoying,” he says. “It could simply be the little moments with my kids or the kind of work I am doing with my clients. I pick one and go back into the experience as if it’s happening right now. I imagine that I’m there and start to reflect on the people, the situations, and the conditions.”
Savoring is different than gratitude. “Gratitude can sometimes be turned into an intellectual exercise,” says Gupta. “The risk is that we give it the same type of productivity and character that we do with our work, instead of allowing it to reach us at a more emotional level. I have found that if I can inventory out the things that I’m grateful for, but really kind of hone in on one, it causes a deeper kind of reflection.”
Why Winter Is Important
When we practice self-reflection during the winter, we prepare for the spring, which is about energy and life, says Orth. “For some people, winter can feel empty, but that emptiness creates space,” she says. “Honor what you’re feeling and what you’re needing. Sometimes, we need a period of self-healing.”
Taking time to reflect can help you create better balance, says Gupta. “We’ve built a Netflix of negative memories inside our head, but we have a sparse catalogue of positive memories,” he says. “Reflection, especially when it challenges the negativity bias, helps even the playing field. For me, I have more concrete, positive memories to draw from. I’m not trying to convince myself that everything is wonderful and there are no problems to be fixed, but I realize something good always happens. It makes me just that much more resilient for the next time something doesn’t go my way.”
Orth says we can get out of balance without time to go inward. “Slow down, enjoy the new pace,” she says. “Go inward and reflect. Practice quieter activities, read, journal, stare at a fire, sip tea. Spring will come again. But for now, embrace your inner space.”
