28/12/2025
In this fast paced, consumer culture we inhabit, it's very easy to get caught in the pull of what the marketing companies want us to focus on at this time of year. I know I have many times this year alone!
This season is naturally the pause after the busy summer, the long exhale following the inhale. You see it in animals, plants and some people even feel it in themselves. No other natural organism functions on constant high speed, there is a balance of rest and productivity. Yet it feels we have lost sight of this over time.
I am lucky enough to have spent Winter Solstice in Glastonbury this year. What I noticed predominantly was ever green foliage being brought in to decorate shops and homes, the aroma of warming spices, immune boosting foods and gentle candle light flickering in windows.
It nourished my soul to spend time in the true energy of winter and what it should feel like.
When I returned home, the change in my nervous system was drastically noticeable. Bright lights in shops and on houses, masses of traffic, stacks of junk food taller than the average person and blaring music. The aggressive nature of what Christmas has become was reflected back at me in the stressed faces of busy peolple who were wrestling the demands and pressures they were trying to meet.
It made me sad to see how far removed we have become, but it also gives me hope to see it still lives on in some areas of the UK, and that we have a choice.
Needless to say, I will be adjusting my own winter habits to reflect what feels much more in line with who I am and how I want to live my life.
