Dear One,
I hope you’ve had a wonderful, restful holiday season.
I find myself slow to jump back in, still hanging onto the softness that came from the long, undirected days and nights of wintering.
Each year, there’s a particular feeling that shows up for me right about now.
The break is over, school and work are back in session, and the volume on our calendars start to turn up, up, up.
Yet something in us hasn’t fully stood up.
It’s not exhaustion. It’s not resistance. It’s the strange disorientation of being asked to move at full speed while our nervous systems are still stretching and unfurling, a cozy cat atop a blanketed lap.
Winter didn’t end because the calendar said so. And neither did whatever softened in you while life slowed down.
So instead of restarting, here are a few ways I’m experimenting with returning gently, without betraying the version of myself that emerged during the quieter weeks…
Not everything needs to accelerate at once. We can choose one area of our lives to remain unhurried.
Maybe it’s mornings, or meals, or how quickly you say yes to the new (this is the one I’m dabbling in).
This isn’t indulgence. It’s integration.
Winter teaches us that slowness is not the enemy of momentum. It’s the necessary pace equilibrator that makes periods of movement sustainable.
During the break, certain obligations likely revealed themselves more clearly.
Some things probably felt nourishing, while others felt oddly burdensome once the noise dropped.
That information matters.
Gentle re-entry doesn’t require immediate action. It simply asks that we don’t unsee what winter showed us.
Pay attention to what your body resists now.
It’s usually telling the truth.
Many of us feel pressure not only to catch up on work, but on energy.
We feel we have to be immediately responsive, available, and up to speed emotionally, mentally and physically.
But we don’t have to match the pace of our inbox.
Our systems are still recalibrating. This isn’t a flaw. It’s intelligence. We can let our energy return before we demand performance from it.
Urgency is loud. Intuition is quiet.
During slower weeks, intuition often becomes easier to hear. Returning to routine can drown it out if we’re not careful.
Before agreeing, rushing, or fixing, I’m experimenting with pausing just long enough to ask myself:
Does this actually need to happen now? and Am I the one that needs to do it?
Sometimes the answer is yes. But often, it’s habit masquerading as necessity.
We don’t need to preserve everything, just one thing.
One boundary.
One insight.
One rhythm that felt more like yourself.
Let it come back with you as life resumes.
Winter doesn’t ask us to stay still forever. It asks us to remember how we want to move.
We get to decide what comes back with us.
Here’s to returning from a quieter, more attuned place.
❄️PS-What’s one small thing you’re letting stay slower as life picks back up?
To find our more about my transformational Retreats, to buy my book: You Should Leave Now, to schedule your Soul Session, or learn more about The Self Retreat Kit, please see my website. xxo
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