I’m a real advocate of seasonal self-care. It’s is a crucial part of wellbeing: it’s so important to know what we need and exactly how to get it. However, this changes throughout the year and I think it’s helpful to check in each season to see which parts of your self-care routine might need adjusting to serve you in the here and now. After all, self-care starts with self-awareness. We need to know what’s going on for us in order to know what we need, and although this is not always easy, I find that looking to nature can often provide a good hint. She’s an expert in seasonal adjustment!
When we look to nature, we can see winter as a time for simplifying, retreating and resting. I don’t know about you, but those three words are a tonic for me, and I feel a small internal sigh when I write them. As a nature-wellbeing practitioner I spend a lot of time outdoors; or more specifically, among the ancient trees of the enchanting Queen’s Wood in Highgate, north London, where I spend my Wednesdays observing the way the woodland ecosystem changes through the year. After a hive of activity in autumn as squirrels dart around stashing their acorns and the leaves dance in the air as they make their way to the earth, the wood becomes still. Not completely, as there is always something moving, but noticeably more still then other times of the year. Growth and productivity take energy and that is in shorter supply now.
Some creatures hibernate. The birds that are not adapted to the winter weather migrate. Even trees go into their own version of hibernation-dormancy, where growth and food production stops. The deciduous trees lose their leaves as they no longer serve the purpose of drawing in the sun’s energy and they require huge amounts of water to maintain - which also uses up energy stocks. To avoid freezing, trees draw their sap away from the thin, exposed branches and deeper into their core and the roots, where it is protected by the warm earth. We don’t judge nature for her adjustments, and I believe we should extend ourselves the same courtesy.