I am always fascinated by what gets my attention; what resonates with me. I\u2019ve learned to recognize that my attention is drawn to what my inner voice has not quite had a chance to tell me yet. Where my attention goes is quite a reliable barometer of what my subconscious is mulling over.
What I\u2019ve been drawn to lately has been a lot about quiet. Slowing down. Decelerating. And I know that I\u2019m not alone in this either! Everyone I know has felt that the pace of work for has accelerated over the past 3 years beyond almost all recognition. What was a murmur of fatigue has more recently become a groundswell of need for balance, calm, grounding, refocusing, and recharging.
So it is no wonder that I was drawn to the concept of Wintering for this week\u2019s newsletter! Interestingly, this came to me via multiple channels \u2013 a colleague\u2019s post on LinkedIn, a book recommendation from a friend, a video link from someone else. Clearly we are all in the mood to do a bit of hibernating this winter! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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WHERE IT STARTED…<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The concept and idea of Wintering was introduced to me through a close friend. She had heard of this book called Wintering<\/a>, and being a huge fan of the season herself, thought it would be something we would both like. The book is both about winter and hibernation, as well as about the concept of having fallow times in one\u2019s life \u2013 a season of life rather than a season of the year. \u201cSleep is not a dead space, but a doorway to a different kind of consciousness \u2013 one that is reflective and restorative, full of tangential thought and unexpected insights. In winter, we are invited into a particular mode of sleep; not a regimented eight hours, but a slow, ambulatory process in which waking thoughts merge with dreams, and space is made in the blackest hours to repair the fragmented narratives of our days<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I confess that the busier I am, the more \u201coptional\u201d sleep seems to be. It should be a non-negotiable pillar of health and self-care, but instead seems more of a \u201cnice-to-have\u201d. So I loved this idea of sleep being both reflective and restorative, and full of insights. Maybe this perspective will put sleep a bit higher up on my priority list!<\/p>\n\n\n\n DELVING DEEPER…<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Shortly after my friend recommended the book, a colleague shared her thoughts<\/a> on the topic, and I recognized that it wasn\u2019t just my friend and me who were feeling that urge to rest and recharge. The post also included a video of Katherine May<\/a> (the author of Wintering) reading an excerpt from her book that really grabbed me. Worth a watch!<\/p>\n\n\n\n REST VS RECHARGE…<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It isn\u2019t just rest that we need, however. I read a quote recently that rest and recharging are not synonymous. The metaphor used was really impactful for me in bringing home the message: When you stop using your phone, you are no longer draining the battery. This is rest. But not using the phone doesn\u2019t mean the battery gets recharged. For that to happen, you need to plug the phone in. That\u2019s recharging. We need to do both! AND A BIT OF HUMOUR…<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This was just too funny not to include. \ud83d\ude09 Enjoy this fabulous video<\/a> from \u201cmotivational speaker and life coach Self-Help Singh\u201d on doing nothing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even the subtitle grabbed me: \u201cThe Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times.\u201d
I loved this quote from the book:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/WINTERING-BOOK-COVER-652x1024.jpg\")
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Science backs this up as well. There are ebbs and flows in every facet of life and that includes our energy and productivity levels as well. There is scientific evidence to show that \u201cPeople would be healthier and more productive by working less in winter<\/a>.\u201d
And as this article<\/a> so beautifully stated:
\u201cA hundred years ago, people used to demonstrate their status and wellbeing by enjoying a lot of leisure time, but it seems that those days are behind us. Now we strongly value work, productivity, and being busy. When we\u2019re not busy, we not only fear that we\u2019ll lose our credibility, but we often also feel like we\u2019re missing out on life or like we\u2019re not living it to the fullest. But why do we do this? How have we come to value productivity so highly, that for some of us it has turned into a tyranny?\u201d
Perhaps we need to re-evaluate what we need in order to be productive? When it comes to machines, they need outages in order to continue to perform long-term. Humans do as well! And wintering might be the outage that we humans need!<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/WINTERING-QUOTE-1024x871.jpg\")
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