Welcome 2023

Hello sweet friends,

I wanted to wish you a very happy start to 2023. I know it is February now and a little late to be wishing you a happy new year but we take things slow around here as you know! 🙂 I mentioned on my Instagram (@spoonfulsofcozy) where I post more frequently that I always struggle in January. From the freezing temperatures to the bareness of the trees and grey skies can make things feel bleak and to me, January also holds many contradictions. We get told that we must do do do, have to become a new/ better person, create new habits, crush goals, and there is just so much striving, and yet the true nature of the season calls for the opposite, a pause. Many animals have gone into hibernation and slumber, nature has shed its leaves and is waiting for the first signs of warmth to bloom again. It isn’t trying to become something new. It allows itself to be what it is and to rest until the time is right to put in effort and motion to sprout and grow. In the last few years especially since I became a chronic migraineur, I have followed the way in which nature moves more than society. I feel I wouldn’t struggle with Winter as much if I didn’t feel constantly inundated with society’s messaging to do quite the opposite of what feels natural.

And although I don’t make resolutions or hard goals for myself, something I want to get better at this year and set some boundaries around is being very intentional with the messaging I let permeate my peace and thoughts.

Do you also struggle with feeling guilty for resting and not achieving during the winter months? If you do it’s okay. There isn’t something wrong with you or me. We just want to live in a slower and more gentle way. To respect our bodies as our soul’s vessels and not force so much upon it. When really Winter is for replenishing. I think of it like this, would you try to force something to grow in the frozen soil right now? In freezing conditions where all that would happen is struggle? You wouldn’t because it would be unfair to try to force something in such circumstances and conditions. So why would you do that to yourself? Force a new workout regimen now? Only partake in “healthy” eating habits where sweet treats are the enemy? We often don’t treat ourselves with the same kindness and respect that we would even to a little seedling we want to plant. How sad is that? I am guilty of this and have gotten trapped in the become the best version of yourself messaging that we get inundated with in the first months of the year. But something I have to remind myself often is that we don’t have to earn rest. We don’t need to constantly be doing and achieving to then feel like we are allowed to slow down and rest. Even though so much of society pushes this form of toxic productivity onto us. So I hope these first two months you haven’t felt the need to strive intensely and instead taken part in nourishing activities. And of course, if you are someone that likes to get after it during these months that’s okay too. We all should live and cultivate the type of life that feels nurturing to us.

-M