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Hibernating is Hard

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unspecifiedAt last year’s Live Free Retreat in San Francisco, Nisha taught us about seasons. How Spring is a time of intense and rapid growth. Summer is a time of celebration. Fall is a time of letting go. And winter is a time of deep rest and hibernation. Since I moved to San Francisco in the summer of 2011, I have been in a constant state of SPRING. From one launch to another, overlapping programs, lots of travel and the surest sign of spring: back to back babies. Like Spring, there has been so many blessings and lots of growth.

Finally this fall I finally felt the invitation to start letting go. Live More Weigh Less finally felt like she was ready to graduate from college and be off on her own without my constant care. Her next iteration will be revealed in 2017. Other partnerships started to no longer feel like a fit. At home, I purged my space and have been spending more time with my kids in the house just hanging around (it’s still total chaos).

Now I am trying (key word) to cultivate sacred rest. Hibernation. I suck at hibernation. All I want to do is run around making plans and creating things, but I’m deliberately saying no. But the tricky part is that the wide expanses of time are magnets for miscellaneous crap. Without my work around to be the bodyguard of my time, I find myself saying yes to things I don’t really want to do, or looking back at my week and feeling like I did nothing I actually wanted to do. And then I get pissed and angry and waste more time.  

Here are a few things I’m using to help me better at sacred rest:

Schedule it: I’m trying to schedule every little thing on my calendar from meals and movement to nothingness to driving to pick up Marshall at school.

Say no: If you don’t want to do something, say no. If you already said yes, cancel or reschedule when it will really work for you.

Create the environment: Living in San Francisco is tough because the weather feels like early spring all the time. And people are definitely in intense growth 100% of the time. There is no slowing down around here. Without the reminder of the natural seasons, I need to create it.  Christmas decorations, lots of tea, and mellow music help remind me it’s winter.

Rest isn’t laziness: It’s so important to get that we need rest just before another season of spring, which is right around the corner. I know I am cultivating my energy for new projects and new beginnings by laying low. It’s part of the process, not ignoring the process.

So here we are in the last two weeks of 2016 and the heart of winter. Even if you haven’t been hibernating, you still have a chance. And yes, even with the holidays. You have a choice to be a crazy-whacked-out-stress-case or not. No one is holding a gun to your head to do things a certain way. Decide what you really want. And what your family needs… they need a present mama more than presents.

In the comments below, I would love to hear your tips for hibernation and how you plan to cultivate sacred rest during the holidays.  

I’m sending you so much love to you and your family and I’ll see you in 2017!

Love,

Sarah

P.S. This will be my last letter to you this year, but I reach out on Instagram almost every day. If we aren’t connected there yet, you can do so here.  

 

All photos by Rosa Delgado Photography


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