Winter is a Time of Rest and Recovery
By Ashley Preete,
Massage Therapist
Dec 4, 2023
There are many different kinds of rest your brain and body need to feel whole and function at their best. As the darker days and cooler temps set in, remember that this time of year - which so many of us dread - presents an excellent opportunity to build a little more rest into our routines.
We live in a world that seems to demand we go-go-go all the time, but Mother Nature has some ideas of her own. If you start to notice a downshift in your mood towards gloom, fatigue, or despair, try to heed the message of the season: slow down, do less, and snuggle under a blanket with a hearty bowl of soup.
Bears hibernate for months. While we can’t do exactly as they do, given how human demands, responsibilities, and metabolisms differ from those of bears, we can take some lessons from them. It’s designed to be a quieter time of year. Instead of fighting against it, we can embrace it.
Recovery of any kind comes from finding balance. Everything in its natural design goes through phases - from dormancy, leafless trees, and not an insect in sight to bright blooms, buzzing bees, and rich greenery all around, and so it goes around again. Winter, spring, summer, fall. Here we are again in winter.
This darker, colder time of year is actually perfect in design for rejuvenation and replenishing our reserves of energy. Our lives contract a little, we retreat into our homes. When we’re out in the world less, we focus more internally. The spaces we live in, the projects that have been percolating in our subconscious, seeds building up stores of energy so they can burst forth with life when the time comes.
Before we can do that, we need this precious time to recover from the seasons of life and motion that came before. In these silent nights, we can reflect on the lessons we’ve learned, the goals we have for the future, and the things we need to let go of from our past.
In order to fully take advantage of this opportunity to recover, there are two places we can really zone in on: sleep and saying no.
We are conserving resources! Some of us don’t like to drive at night, refuse to travel in the snow, or we’re prone to coughs and colds. There are a million and one reasons you might not want to go where you’re invited, and you can practise setting your boundaries. This is not the season for stretching ourselves too thin or working later than necessary.
Now that we have that settled and we’re staying home, we can get the one thing we really need to recover: REST. I mean, really rest - as in SLEEP. Just as our ancestors did when the days were shorter, you too can take advantage of nature’s rhythms. Go to bed earlier, stay in bed longer in the morning.
This change in your sleep routine will gift your body with additional non-REM sleep, lowering your pulse and heart rate while strengthening your immune system. Talk about recovery - deep sleep is when your body gets down to the important business of repairing muscles, cellular structures, and organs while regulating hormones and doing some detox.
Winter doesn't have to be depressing if you adapt to the natural life cycle and embrace the quiet of the season. Reflection, rest, and recovery are essential to restoring your energy reserves and making sure you’ll have the stamina to make it through those busy springs and summers.
So go ahead and put a kettle on. Snuggle up with a cup of tea or cocoa, put on some fuzzy socks, and clear your calendar for some introspection and some extra snoozing! Later on this month, we’ll talk about some other kinds of rest you need so check back each week!
Ashley Preete
Massage Therapist