Every year you can guarantee I will start talking about the dark half of the year about this time. Funnily enough, the dark half of the year truly begins on Litha or the Summer Solstice and extends to Yule the Winter Solstice. Both points in time where we are stil full swing in the reverse of what they are said to be bringing. But, you can start to see the little tells in the earth, light whispers of autumn on the wind, the smell of spring in the air, they start to appear before our brains and bodies are aware.
Often times the dark half of the year, is met with terror, those of us (yes, us, I am in the category) who suffer with seasonal depression, see the cooler, darker months coming and start panicking before a single leaf can tinge red. We may have a love/hate relationship with the 'ber' months, September, October, Novemeber and December, loving the season and the activities but dreading the impending dark and dreary. That's all okay. Maybe we can help ourselves reframe it.
We are scientifically proven to not be supposed to be moving at the pace in which our society dictates. It is not how we as animals are supposed to act. We are not meant to be 'on' the way that we are all of the time or engaging all of the time like our technology would like us to be, it's bad for our brains, bad for our bodies and lordy is it a nightmare for our nervous systems. We can perhaps then apply that to this part of the year. A time for rest, a time for allowing ourselves to embrace the High Priestess and the Hermit. To turn inwardly and work on ourselves or the projects that we have been putting on the side in order to snap to when the societal bell of obligation rings.
Consider what you would like to be working on in the dark half of the year, when the world seems to hush a bit more. Do you want to dive into shadow work? Is this a gestation period for something you want to debut? Or, do you need to allow rest, is there a call to put the phone down, cozy up with a book and learn some really good somatic stretches? What systems can you put into place to help with your daily tasks so that when your body begs for rest you aren't staring at a sink of leaning dishes? How can you help yourself?
This isn't to say that this half of the year is now going to be free of SAD, but, it can be less like dragging yourself through a muddy bog while someone blasts Rudolph on repeat over head. It can be a time of deep nurturing and nourishing. A time when you learn more about yourself and what you need in order to show up in the world the way that you want to. What can you do this half of the year to use it as a healing span of time instead of one of dread.
Blessings,
Alyssa
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