The Wisdom of Winter – What to do when you feel lost?

This week, in conversation with a friend of mine around the campfire, we were talking about the Winter energy invitations. He shared with me that despite feeling the need to be with people, and social life, he felt with little patience and availability to be with people. Paradoxical isn’t it?

I smiled and told him – “yeah, Winter is here, and you can already feel it”.

Winter has a yin energy, it is a contractive energy, inward. It invites introspection, solitude, interior movement. Unlike Summer, which is an expansive season, which invites us to move outwards, towards the relationship with the other, Winter invites us to the relationship with the deepest in ourselves, with Spirit, that’s why I consider it a deeply spiritual season.

Winter brings us the rawness of life, the dark, the shadow, the cold winds, the scarcity. It undresses us and takes us to the most difficult internal places, such as Emptiness and Loneliness, which often present themselves as Despair and Anguish. Just as nature lives its rhythms and cycles, we too internally live the four seasons of the year.

The Inner Winter are those moments in our life when we feel completely lost to ourselves. No ground, no direction, purpose or meaning, empty. It is at this time that many people seek therapy and/or seek spirituality. Symptoms are usually depression, anxiety, feeling empty, feeling lost, dissatisfaction. When we are in the middle of the Internal Winter, nothing mundane satisfies us, we can look around us and have everything we always wanted, however, we feel unsatisfied. This is so, because Winter’s invitation is to look within. It is to get nourishment from within, from the Spirit and the Soul.

“Winter teaches us that what nourishes us emotionally is the connection to the Soul, not the things of the world.”

This is why Winter is a deeply spiritual season, it cleanses, purifies, at times leaves us completely naked and puts us in touch with what is Essential for each of us. This is why my friend feels that he is not available to be with anyone, because what his soul is looking for at this time of year is true connection, it is Essence.

In winter resources are scarce, it’s time to rest, regenerate, and our soul knows that we have to be intelligent in the way we invest our time and energy. Winter teaches us that we cannot always be outward-looking, productive and harvesting. It teaches us the value of rest, silence, solitude, contemplation, restoration and regeneration. Winter is the great gestation of the Earth, from the outside it seems that nothing happens, that nature is dead, however, inside, the lands are regenerating, gestating, so that new life can be born again with the arrival of the sun and spring.

Winter is the season of waiting, it teaches us to draw strength from within, to have faith and hope, that the sun, and bigger and warmer days will come. It shows us the value of the heat of the fire, the true connection between people, love and mutual help. It teaches us the importance of the tribe and the community as fundamental resources to get through the most difficult times.

So what to do when you feel lost to yourself?

1 – Stop and give yourself time, remember that you are gestating yourself/o.

2 – Rest.

3 – Trust and have faith that this time will pass.

4 – Look inside, cultivate solitude, the relationship of presence with you.

5 – Do inner work, therapy, learn to know yourself, your mental and emotional dynamics.

6 – Invest in the relationships that are closest to you, observe these dynamics, as they say a lot about you.

7 – Cultivate self observation and contemplation.

The Inner Winter is like the cocoon time when the caterpillar turns into a butterfly. For such a process to take place, the caterpillar must allow itself to die. This process is very painful and difficult, so learn to cultivate a compassionate voice for yourself when you are in these processes of profound transformation. Learn to sustain yourself and be in Presence, as this will bring you emotional and spiritual maturity.

If you want to deepen the relationship with you, know more about my online program The 21 Days – Awakening Journey.

Open your heart, love your life!

Raquel