Wintering For Empaths - Embracing The Rhythm Of Nature

Welcome to this episode of the Empath Playground.

I'm your host,

Heather Brown,

And I'm so excited that you're here with me.

So some of us,

If you're listening to this,

Um,

When it comes out,

Have just gotten out of holiday time,

Lots of time with friends,

With family.

If you are a parent,

Your kids were probably home,

You might've been traveling.

And so as a sensitive person in the world who feels everything,

There was probably a lot more around you than usual to feel and to take in.

So you might be feeling now,

As we move into January,

Really a need to just kind of hermit,

To go within,

To have that introspective time.

You might also feel really tired.

And not only does that make sense based in coming out of,

You know,

Being around people and traveling and all of that,

But also it matches the energy of the winter.

If you look to nature and kind of see what things are doing,

Watch the animals,

You know,

The bears are sleeping right now.

The trees are dormant,

Depending on where you are in the world.

A lot of plants are going into dormancy right now and it's okay to do that.

And if you,

You know,

Look around January is always,

You know,

Gym memberships are pushing and it's what's your new year,

New you,

What's the goal,

You know,

Push,

Push,

Push.

But it doesn't really match the season.

And as a society,

We're really disconnected from the season.

And I find that when I lean into that more cyclical living,

Not just with the seasons,

But also with the month following the moon,

That cycle of ebb and flow.

When you lean into that,

It feels so much easier to navigate being a human,

Being a person showing up in this world.

And so I want to recommend to you that if you're not feeling that push of January,

That surge of energy,

That's maybe being advertised to you and promoted around,

It's okay.

There's nothing wrong with you.

Actually,

It's showing that you're really tuned in to the rhythm of nature.

Give yourself permission to,

To be there.

And there's not a problem with wanting to stay home and journal,

Wanting to rest,

Wanting to have a cup of tea with a blanket on your couch,

Instead of going out with friends,

You might feel like you're letting them down.

And that's that people pleasing,

Right?

We don't want those other people to be uncomfortable or sad or think we don't care about them.

But there's also a good chance that they're feeling a similar thing and they're kind of pushing to go out.

So you might be that example in your friend group of what it looks like to tune in to that more nature introverted hibernation winter.

And I'm not saying never go out.

Definitely go out and walk.

It's beautiful.

It's a nice time to be in the season,

Even if it's cold,

Dress warm,

Of course,

But there's magic in the dormancy.

There really is.

So if you're feeling like you aren't ready to get out there and go,

Go,

Go,

Don't.

Now I actually was planning on recording an episode in December,

Kind of right before my family was all on holiday break.

I had things coming into me all about the aura and how to grow it and how to shrink it and things were coming in,

But I realized that I was moving into this energy of stillness and also an energy of just wanting to be with my family.

So I didn't record it.

And for me,

That's pretty big because people pleasing is something that I have grown up doing.

And I've really worked hard at listening to what that inner voice is telling me,

That inner wisdom,

Even though those great ideas were coming in and I had so much to share.

I ended up instead just writing it all down and knowing that I'd have the energy to verbalize it later.

I had expected that I would be verbalizing it on the next podcast.

However,

As I leaned into that energy that I was feeling and followed my intuition,

I realized this is what needed to be shared,

This stillness.

So as I'm coming out,

I'm slowly starting to feel into this energy,

Even though we're in the winter,

It's like this slow kind of flow of energy.

Almost like if you think about when a stream has been frozen and it starts to melt and there's just those little trickles of water that start moving and flowing.

Most of the stream is still frozen,

But there's this little trickles.

And that's how I feel right now.

I feel like I'm having little trickles of that energy of wanting to share things.

So you might notice if you follow me on Instagram,

I'm not posting super often.

I really didn't post a lot last month.

And then now I'm starting to trickle things out and just listen to it rather than the flood of energy that everybody thinks you need in January.

And even I create a vision board every year and even that felt too early in January.

So I cut out a few things from a magazine,

But I haven't posted them on my board yet.

And I'm just leaning into getting ready to do that as well.

And I think I might give myself a couple months to finish it.

I love creating vision boards.

I've created them for the last several years and I actually use the same board over and over again.

And I just cover it every time with a new layer because that's what we are,

Right?

We're a combination of all of our past experiences.

And then if we focus in on the present of what we are which is when I look at that board,

Then we get to be there even with those other layers that,

You know,

We've grown from.

So a little off topic,

But I love vision boards.

But back to our topic around stillness and rest in the wintertime.

I wonder how many of you experienced illness in the last month or two?

I know a lot of colds and flus and things go around in the winter.

And of course we know how germs work and indoors and all the science behind that.

But I think there's something bigger happening as well in that it's pushing us into the rest into the rest if we're not taking it.

And a lot of us don't rest unless we get sick.

Like we don't give ourself time or permission to really,

Really rest unless we're sick.

And really even when we are sick,

Think of how many medications are advertised to us to be able to push through the sickness and be productive anyway.

I noticed a few months ago,

I think it was in August or September,

I had this very big feeling that I needed to take a break.

I needed to take a week off.

I felt like I needed to just go and be by myself somewhere and just really recharge.

However,

With circumstances in my family and things that were going on,

Although I could have still made it happen,

I made the choice to not take the break and to continue a life as it was going.

Following that,

I had a series of things,

I talked about one of them earlier in a different episode,

But basically a series of illnesses that took me out kind of made me have alone time like I had been wanting,

Except I was not feeling very good during that time.

And I had lots of time to just lay in my bed and journal when I wasn't sleeping.

So that time of rest that could have been spent maybe at the desert or somewhere really beautiful and feeling good,

I spent instead,

You know,

In my bed,

In my room.

Still alone time,

But not quite how I wanted it.

And I have noticed this pattern with a lot of people where they don't really get that rest and they know they need it.

You know you need it when you need it,

But you don't take it because XYZ.

And what I'm finding is that if you don't take it,

You really will take it at a different time,

And your body's going to choose that time.

And it's not going to be in a way that is completely nourishing.

It's like the body comes up with the best alternative it can.

Like,

Okay,

They're not going to take that break that I keep nudging them to take.

Well,

We're just going to do it this way then,

I guess.

So the question I want to propose to you is,

Do you believe that you can rest when you are well?

Or do you believe that you must earn rest?

Or do you believe you can only rest when you're sick?

And of course your initial response might be like,

Oh,

I believe I can rest when I'm well.

But I want you to really think about that.

If you believe that,

Are you acting on it?

Or is it just kind of a thing to think but not really follow through on?

And I'm not trying to like shame anyone for not resting.

I'm speaking to myself at the same time as I'm speaking to you.

That this is something where I know you can say,

Well,

It's a privilege to rest.

Or,

You know,

I need this money and I need to pay my bills.

Or I have children and I get it.

I understand all of that.

But you're going to take a sick day anyway if you don't take the rest.

So could you take a well day instead?

Is that possible?

Could you take a well evening?

Could you hire a babysitter and just go take a nap instead of going out?

You know,

What does your body want?

And maybe you are craving to go out and then go do that.

But I think for a lot of us,

We're craving to go in.

So I just,

This episode is going to be pretty short.

I'm following my energy as well.

I felt like this was something that was ready to be shared.

But I also think I want to invite you more into that introspection and maybe some journaling around what does rest mean to you?

What does rejuvenation mean to you?

And if we took people pleasing off the table,

What is your soul really asking for in this moment?

And it might be different tomorrow,

But just this moment.

So I'm not going to lead a guided meditation this episode,

But I am,

You know,

Giving you those journaling prompts that I just mentioned.

You can rewind and yeah.

And I hope that you're able to find nourishment in this winter time for yourself.

And I also want to mention that if you're feeling still kind of overwhelmed and overloaded with everyone's stuff from December,

Being around all that family,

Go,

Go back and listen to the first episode,

The end that meditation,

Any of the first two episodes meditations will help you clear and help you recharge yourself if you're feeling like you need that.

And maybe once you've done that,

If you feel like you need it,

Then coming back to those journaling questions,

And it might be a little easier to find those answers once you've cleared your energy and cleared yourself of all that other stuff.

So if you're somewhere cold,

I hope you have a cozy blanket and a cup of tea.

And if you're somewhere warm,

I hope you feel full of gratitude that you get to spend winter in the warmth until next time.

Thanks for joining me and have a beautiful day.