Moving from the darkness into the light

Monday is the 21st and marks the Winter Solstice. After Monday the days will start to get longer, slowly but surely. Winter the time of darkness is a hard time for many people, including myself. This year especially seems to be hard for so many. I am doing my best to do all of the things that help support me through this time of year and that includes coming up with a celebration for Monday to mark the rebirth of light. For cultures other than ours here in the United States, this time represents the true ending of the year bringing a time of reflection on the past year, creating space to let go, honor and close the chapter to create space for the coming year. Creating that space allows for us to delve deeply into and ignite a fire for our visions and intentions from our deepest heart for the coming year. Using this renewed time of light to spark and inspire our movement forward into the space of the new year.

This year I have not been in the holiday mood to decorate and do all of the frantic holiday things I have in the past. I have cut way back on decorating and gift buying this year and have been spending time doing more study and work on my personal yoga practice. I will also be creating a new tradition of celebrating the Solstice this year. The next few days will be about learning more about the Solstice and other cultures who celebrate it and incorporating some of those things into a celebration of my very own. It means making quiet time for myself to think about what is most important, what I have learned, what I need to surrender and release and recognize what I have done this last year. Once I have completed that then I can move into looking into my heart, the deepest part of my heart to hear what it has to say about the new chapter for the year to come and my intentions and dreams going forward.

I have shifted how I look at this time of year to move into the light and celebrate that light even though we are still in the winter time of year and especially here in Seattle still dealing with crappy weather and dark days. As part of my Solstice celebration I will be taking time out each day to recognize and celebrate the light even on the darkest days. Holiday time can be stressful and busy and many times we forget to do the things we need to do to care for ourselves to help renew our energy so that we can continue to do all that we ask of ourselves on a daily basis. Making time to care for ourselves can be a part of celebrating the light and the season.

So take a few minutes each day to care for yourself, think about the past year, what was good, what you need to release and move forward from and what dreams and intentions you want to move forward to in the coming year. Do what you need to do to support all of those things that you thought about and your steps moving forward. Celebrate the light, hope, yourself and allow your dreams to move outward from the deepest part of your heart, opening your heart wide. You will be surprised what comes up and moves you forward. The more open your heart, the more amazing things will have to room to come to you. I know this from experience, I just got lost a little in the darkness and now I am once again moving back into the light with celebration.

Namaste and Happy Solstice....