Winter is a time for turning inward and exploring our deeper selves. Winter invites us into a season of self-reflection, releasing stress, and reconnecting with our deepest truths.
Winter is rich with deep, dark, and slow Yin energy, and as qigong practitioners, we can learn to embody the wisdom of the season in our daily lives. Just as summertime provides bright Yang energy with warm sunlight and long days to play outside, the winter months offer an equally expansive opportunity within our internal landscape.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine and Qigong, we view winter as a time in which the Water element is alive and vibrant. In the world around us, rain and snow fall from the sky and blanket the earth with its magical beauty. Constantly moving and transforming, the Water element can teach us the lesson of flow.
During the summer, the sun's heat evaporates the water's energy causing it to rise and move upward into the atmosphere. During the winter, the water energy cools, condenses, and returns to the earth. Like water during winter, we, too, can move our attention downward into the roots and deepest layers where we find our inner truths.
Our culture constantly exposes us to external beliefs and influences that can pull us outside of ourselves and away from our inner knowing. Other people's opinions, judgments, and societal standards can create false ideas about what we "should" do or who we "should" be.
Returning to our core allows us to let go of false external influences and expectations so we can remember what is real. Without the constant bombardment of our minds and emotions, we can rediscover who we are and what truly matters to us.
Winter is a wonderful opportunity to learn from and embody nature's wisdom—the same wisdom that lives within us.
I love meditation practices because they are a great way to reconnect with the wisdom of nature and our inner truth. If it is in your joy, allow me to guide you on a gentle, simple, yet powerful meditation invoking the healing qualities of water that cleans and nourishes you, enabling you to receive the gifts that winter offers you.
Feel free to listen to the meditation or read it yourself. If you read it, I suggest you read through these instructions before you begin.
Guided Water Meditation
Start by finding a comfortable position for your meditation. You can either sit in a chair with your feet planted on the earth or lay on your back. If you're tired, it's best to sit upright, so you don't drift off to sleep.
Once you're comfortable, take several long, slow, deep breaths. Breathe in slowly through your nose until your lungs are full of air, then exhale out through your nose. Allow your body to become relaxed, calm, and peaceful.
After a few moments, begin to imagine that you're stepping into a beautiful garden sanctuary. This is your own inner sacred and safe space. You've been here before. In your garden, you feel at ease and comfortable. You look around the winter garden sanctuary. You see evergreen trees with winter berries and hear birds pecking at the ground and nesting in the branches. You start to follow a path that leads you to a sacred pool of hot spring water in the middle of your winter garden sanctuary.
As you step into the pool, you feel the warm water surrounding your feet. It's refreshing, soothing, and cleansing.
As you go deeper into the healing waters, you feel it rise up to your lower ankles, then your calves, and then your knees. With each step, the water rises, and you can feel it cleansing and clearing stagnant energy from your body.
The water is now up to your hips, your lower back, and then your mid-back. Wherever the water touches, you can feel it activating healing energy and returning your body to its most healthy state of being.
Allow yourself to go deeper and allow the water to cover your arms, shoulders, neck, and now your head. Feel any energies, beliefs, or thoughts that aren't true getting washed away. Anything that isn't authentically you is dissolved, leaving you thoroughly and wholly connected to your highest self.
Continue breathing and imagine this cleansing process. You embrace the warm, effervescent healing water with each deep inhale and exhale.
When you feel complete, smile to yourself and open your inner eyes and ears to hear and see your inner truth.
It's time to leave the sacred pool of water. As you return to your path, passing back through your garden, you feel refreshed, knowing the restorative energy you just cultivated is being carried with you into the rest of your day.
If you're interested in learning more practices for experiencing the wisdom of winter and the element of water, then I have the perfect qigong program for you…
Qigong For Winter Workshop-Embracing The Wisdom of Water
Qigong for Winter- Embracing The Wisdom of Water. In it, I will share various practices to help you cultivate inner strength and awareness to be in touch with your deepest truth and experience profound inner peace.
In addition, this series focuses on practices that boost the immune system and help you to stay healthy and vital during the year's coldest months.
And a significant part of the practice is dedicated to working with kidney Qi, which is connected to the water element. When you fortify the energy in the kidneys, you reduce low back pain and sleep better.
I look forward to practicing with you! This is an 8-week live online series. Click on the link below to learn more.
Hugs and deep bows of gratitude to you and your practice,
Maria
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