We are closing in on the sweet spot of the winter season, the midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox –  where the medicine of winter can be received, as we are gifted the hope of spring as the light continues to return.

Have you sipped from the cup that winter has to offer you, the medicine of deep restoration?  It’s not too late.  BUT, it soon will be – so I invite you to gently receive winter’s chalice and take a long slow sip.

Within the next couple of weeks, mark your calendar for at least an hour, preferably two, for an intentional time in nature to sip from her cup.  Choose a location where you feel most at ease to move slow, meander, or sit.  Green spaces, a local park, botanical gardens, or your backyard will work perfectly if you cannot get to a wildspace.  

How do you take in winter’s medicine?  Follow the step below, and you will receive restoration that will support you throughout the rest of the seasons.  
 

Sip from Winter’s Chalice Practice


Phase 1: Orienting and dropping in

  1. Before taking a sip, honor the landscape you are in by offering your full presence.  
  2. Look around with gratitude for the living and non-living surrounding you.
  3. Listen for who you are keeping company with for this moment in time – water, birds, the wind
  4. Invite the smells of this landscape into your body, acknowledge and receive this gift.
  1. As you orient yourself to this landscape, allow the sensory information you are receiving to support you in softening your body.  Each bird call is a reminder to relax and soften.
  2. Feel your feet on the earth; allow yourself to “drop-in” to your body as a surfer drops into a wave and is carried by water’s momentum.  Gently let go of thoughts as you feel the sensation of your body.  Inhabit or fully occupy the space within your body with your felt awareness.  
  3. With this practice, you could stay in one place for the whole time or notice what is calling your attention in the landscape and slowly go there.  
  4. When you are in a spot that feels good to you, where you can fully relax, the next phase of this practice begins.

Phase 2: Entraining to Winter’s Rhythm…. sipping from the cup

  1. In this phase, you rest and continue to soften your body.  You allow your body to entrain to the natural world – an embodiment of winter.
  2. Clarifying definition: the biological definition of entrainment is the process of making something have the same pattern or rhythm as something else – Cambridge Dictionary.
  3. Nature is the tuning fork, and the more you soften and allow yourself to be fully in the moment (free of past and future), your body will come into resonance or entrain, with the natural world.  You don’t have to do anything, your body is made of the same material as the natural world, so it inherently knows what to do.
  4. You might not have experienced stillness in a while, that is okay; gently bring your awareness back to the present moment with the support of the sensory offerings from nature.  Receive each one as a gift; this is sipping from the cup of winter.  
  5. Allow the stillness and restoration from the winter landscape to settle bone-deep, to be the nourishment that will sustain you through the year.  
  6. When you are complete, give gratitude for the landscape, all the seen and unseen, as well as gratitude for yourself, for receiving the medicine you desperately need.