The Holidays and the Winter Energy Shift 

How to Take Care of Yourself and Your Relationships 

Are you tired? Do you think you should be feeling things you’re not feeling? Are you experiencing low-level depression, sadness, wariness? Perhaps it’s the holidays!

The entrance of winter makes for a dramatic and yet often unseen energetic shift in everything. Much of the time we ignore the messages from nature because we live with enough insulation that we can. However our relationships know.

This is the season full of expectations that are not spoken of, acknowledged, or asked for. The holiday seasons call up our histories. In your history was December a time you felt joy? Did you feel the stress of your parents? Did you experience being left out? Overwhelmed?

There is such a range of experiences tied to this time of year.  Our deep relationships become more focused, appreciated, and pressurized. We often partner with someone whose experience of December was very different from ours.

This is the time beyond most others when we should be full of care and making sure that our intentions are matching our impact.  These will be some of the best gifts we can give ourselves and others. 

For yourself, and therefor your relationship:

If your introversion is knocking on your door, make sure you take time for yourself quietly every day. Be sure to tell your partner you love them and you’re taking care of the relationship by listening deeply to yourself. Remind them you’ll be back later.

If your extroversion is banging on your window, call somebody besides your partner, take a walk, smile at someone who needs the smile. 

This is naturally a time of letting go, having more exposure to our roots, and seeing the bare branches that are our structures. Reflection is invited and can be a wonderful opportunity should we decide to take it.  Make these decisions together, be gentle with your selves, and work on being satisfied with ‘showing up’.

Wendy Palmer Patterson