Embracing Winter:
"Get Your Rhythms Going!"
by Randine Lewis
Falling out of harmony with nature's cycles causes dysfunction of mind, body, and spirit. Here's how to get back in sync.
When you look around today, you see a lot of people feeling unwell and unhappy, having a hard time keeping up with their own lives. There's a reason for that: They've lost harmony with the basic cycles of nature.
The Nei Jing, the oldest text on health and healing, written in China 2000 years ago, describes the problem. When one loses touch with natural rhythms, the seeds for disease are planted within us. Moreover, we begin to suffer spiritually; the text describes an interruption in that deep inner knowing that connects us all. When you're out of sync, in other words, you can feel it not only in your mind and body, but also deep inside your own heart-which always yearns to live in harmony with nature. That may well resonate with you, if you're living the typical Western lifestyle-rushing here and there, working and living in artificially lit environments, burning the midnight oil, and so forth.
So how do you get back on track?
First, you must look at the most basic concept: the polarity of positive and negative, light and dark. In Chinese medicine, we call these yang and yin. In the body, these are responsible for melatonin and serotonin, and as such it is essential that we respect them by going to sleep when it is dark, working to achieve deep sleep between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m., and going outdoors when the sun is shining so that the sunlight can hit your retina. This seems simple and straightforward-but are you truly honoring this most basic rhythm of life? Pay attention tomorrow, get outside, and try working with the rhythm of real dark and real light-no glowing screens or lightbulbs. See how you feel.
Then, begin to really feel the seasons-in the environment, but also within the body. Each season is associated with a mental, spiritual and physical aspect. And each calls forth a different aspect of our own true nature. Everything in this world has a beginning, a ripening, a decline, and an ending-and we see these in the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
To understand how they manifest in the body, simply consider the menstrual cycle-there is a clear onset, peak, decline, and end to it each month. Or take a look at the broader reproductive cycle. The 13-year-old girl is in the spring of her reproductive years, she'll cycle through peak in the summer of her 20s and 30s, begin to decline during the perimenopausal years in the autumn 40s, and naturally come to a close in the winter of her 50s with the onset of true menopause.
Westerners celebrate the spring and summer-the blossoming of potential, the ripening and reward of effort. But we don't honor the natural decline of autumn, or the ending associated with winter. These, too, are inherent in nature and in the body, the cycles repeating over and over, and each one must be allowed to express itself fully so that we can move on to the next phase in our lives. Each ending marks a new beginning.
Consider the approach many of us take with menopause, holding on to the idea that we can use hormonal treatments to create a kind of endless summer, to keep ourselves at our peak. When we do this, we miss out on the natural shift in consciousness that occurs as menopause approaches. Many women find that their focus begins to shift away from being defined by others and by external achievements, and toward a stronger and more meaningful self definition. Those who can live in harmony with the decline see in it an opportunity for adventure-there is freedom in this transition.
And when winter comes-that is to say menopause proper-it is a time to draw strength and creative force back into the body just as a tree draws sap inward to the heartwood. A natural menopause almost demands that you return to your center, and it is from this place that you will create something new. If you embrace the spirit of winter and allow this natural fallow period renew you rather than mourning the loss of seasons past spring will come again.
As always, it will be a time of incredible creativity-spring is a time a buds pushing out, a very dynamic time when we can experience a very forceful push from within. It is the feeling we might get in March on the East coast, when there is a feeling of hope, and a bursting forth of what was held in winter's depth. It can be quite violent-think of a plant bursting through a seed casing-or of the process of giving birth, if you have had children. There may be a period of pain, but it is in service of beauty.
Energetically, spring represents the right brain and the creative process. Therefore, it is a natural time for dreaming...and for asking yourself: What do I need to overcome for my dreams to come true? If your answer is accompanied by a feeling of anger-possible in the spring-release it by exercising vigorously, perhaps stomping, hitting, or screaming to get it out of your system. Then the new can emerge.
Then comes summer-represented by the heat of midday when the sun is at its highest, or when we are at the peak of our careers. Everything has blossomed and ripened; nature is at its at maximum expression. Because it is associated with fire, this is the season for passion-indulge in joy and love, let it overflow now. It won't deplete you; rather it will nourish you.
Support your body by eating the delicious cooling fruits of the season: watermelons, grapes, tomatoes. Take a nap in the midday if you can-a siesta, honoring your body's need for rest among the busiest season. And resist the temptation to keep the air conditioner set at 68-it is shocking to the body to go from a 100 degree day into an artificially cold environment. It allows the body no room to acclimate to what's happening in nature. Likewise, avoid ice-cold beverages-they may feel good going down, but they are shocking to the system, which is working to create homeostasis with the heat.
When summer is at its zenith, a decline is inevitable. This is something Westerner resist strongly, and I think it leads to many of our diseases. The stress of wanting to stay on top, to keep from aging, to hold on to position and power is intensely stressful, and leads to heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. We may take hormones to prevent the decline, get vitamin shots, plastic surgery-all in the name of keeping that edge.
But the truth is, the decline happens; autumn sets in no matter how much we resist, and if we don't honor the season and reap its rewards, its rich fruits rot on the vine. We don't have to face autumn with grief; rather, we can see it as the opening of a clenched fist, and opportunity to let go of the things that haven't been nourishing to us. It's a chance to surrender what doesn't work.
To nourish the body, eat orange things that lay on or grow in the ground: squash, pumpkin, carrots. Tend to your home now, staying close to the hearth, and allow yourself time for a little natural introspection. The Chinese pictogram associated with this seasonal return is a musical note over a heart, meaning resonating with what is true for you. Prepare yourself for the return of winter.
Winter, I think, is when women are at their best. It takes great feminine courage to go into the depths of the heart, to face our fears and doubts, and to emerge with real wisdom. But the most healing thing you can do is to pull back from the world to encounter yourself fully in this way. Then you can emerge with a clearer vision of your life, and live in alignment with it season after season.
If you can learn to gracefully live with the seasons, both physically and metaphorically, you will not need antiaging medicine. You will be ageless, timeless. When you live with what is, right now, you have the fullness of life available to you at all times.
Randine Lewis, MSOM, Ph.D., L.Ac.
FABORM