By Cierra McNamara, Founder, Mayu Meditation Cooperative
Though many of us in Colorado long for snow, for others winter is a season to endure. Seasonal Affective Disorder burgeons with the short, cold days. Melancholy and lethargy can become part of the wintertime psyche just as predictably as wool socks become part of the wardrobe.
Recently the Danish concept of hygge, a quality of well-being rooted in coziness and contentment, has entered the English lexicon, particularly as a quaint solution for the winter doldrums. An article in The New Yorker describes hygge this way:
“Winter is the most hygge time of year. It is candles, nubby woolens, shearling slippers, woven textiles, pastries, sheepskin rugs, lattes with milk-foam hearts and a warm fireplace.”
With images like this, it’s no wonder hygge has become trendy. Who wouldn’t want a remedy for winter depression as simple and immediate as wrapping in a flannel blanket and sipping hot chocolate? But what happens when the efforts to create a cozy outer environment fail to warm the underlying chill of one’s inner environment? What happens when you can’t hygge-hack your mind?
“During the winter months all things in nature wither, hide, return home and enter a resting period. Desires and mental activity should be kept quiet and subdued, as if keeping a happy secret.”
As a meditation instructor, I’ve worked with many people eager to find a solution for their stress. Often, beginning meditators assume the practice requires superhuman talent or some innate skill they lack. They’re convinced their mind is more active, and their emotions more grim, than normal. In winter I tell them they’re in luck! Meditation in the dark season can be easier—it’s the time of year when the universe conspires in your favor.
Eastern philosophies long ago expounded principles for living in harmony with nature. Ancient advice for finding equilibrium in winter reads like an instruction book for meditation. A classic Taoist text, the Neijing Suwen, states:
“During the winter months all things in nature wither, hide, return home and enter a resting period. Desires and mental activity should be kept quiet and subdued, as if keeping a happy secret.”
Jason Elias, a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine in New York expresses it elegantly:
“In winter, the earth lies fallow… In this deep stillness of nature, winter calls us to look into our depths, to reconnect to our inner being, to befriend the darkness within us and around us. In winter, like seeds that are beginning their metamorphosis … all of our energies are being called to examine the depths of our being… The entry to our inner world is most accessible during this time of year.”
In this context, seasonal melancholy and fatigue aren’t considered pathologies, but accurate, appropriate indications of a mind turning inward.
For anyone struggling with fatigue, anxiety or depression, simply opening to the possibility of winter as an ally rather than an adversary can be helpful. Recognizing the body’s inclination to slow down and withdraw as days grow shorter is an important step toward reestablishing inner balance, even if you’re unsure how to honor that intuition.
In meditation, we learn to appreciate the present moment, to let go of expectations for a future outcome. Eventually satisfaction with what is becomes as alluring as the hope for what may be. The same can be said for recalibrating with winter. Merely aspiring to be in sync with earth’s rhythms is enough to initiate the process. In time, nature’s wisdom will rouse from its hibernation within you. But until then, you can both nestle together by the fire, wrapped in a flannel blanket with a cup of cocoa.
Conspire with winter
- Slow down: do one fewer task each day, decline the most taxing projects, practice walking/eating/driving/speaking slower.
- Lay low: get to bed earlier, wake up later, nap more.
- Listen: Reduce audial distractions: turn off the radio, turn down the tv, seek out sounds of nature.