In ten days we observe Imbolc, Candlemas, or Groundhog Day – take your pick.
Each of these Temporal Landmarks observes the astronomical mid-point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.
The Groundhog may or may not see his shadow, determining if we will have an early spring or a prolonged winter. Imbolc is also celebrated as St. Bridgid’s Day, a saint feast day and a seasonal festival, representing the light half of the year. Candlemas is a Catholic tradition that lands 40 days after Christmas and the birth of Jesus, where Mary and Joseph presented Jesus at the Temple. At Candlemas Mass, your candles are blessed and used throughout the rest of the year.
These traditions may have some roots in agriculture, lambing season, or weather divination. In the Northern Hemisphere, many of the celebrations relate to the seasonal change, the eagerness of the coming spring, and the casting off of winter.
In the last few posts I’ve described Winter as a time for retreat; the long nighttime hours, cold and inclement weather, and short daylight hours perfectly pair for staying in and dreaming.
But the Earth moves fast (67,000 miles per hour!), with the Northern Hemisphere tilting back toward the sun. Regardless of whether or not Puxetawny Phil sees his shadow on February 2, Spring is coming.
In the meantime, this season brings a bit more light, and a bit more warmth, interspersed with erratic weather. Is it Winter? Is it Spring? It is sometimes both yet neither – Imbolc is its own season, a cross-quarter, a point along the way of an endless cycle.
In these last few days of Winter Winter, I’m going to go over the list of things I talked about last week, one day at a time. If we can add them to our daily lives, they benefit us as we move into the next Season of Joy.
The first thing on the list was Meditation.
Yeah, yeah. I know you know. You’ve heard all the benefits of meditation. The studies prove over and over.
Maybe you already meditate. Do you? I’m curious. Have you noticed a change in your life? What has changed?
Write that in your journal today – acknowledge or recognize the changes in your life that you attribute to your meditation practice.
For those who have yet (such a powerful word, yet!) to start a meditation practice, allow me to make an analogy.
Huge Disney and Pixar fan, here. Have you seen the movie Cars? Yes? Then you’ll remember this scene. No? I’ll give you the setup here.
Cars is about a young, hot-shot, rookie race car named Lightning McQueen. Lightning McQueen’s grand ambition is to win the Piston Cup, making him the first rookie ever to do so.
In the race to win the Piston Cup, Lightning McQueen ignores the wisdom of his pit crew. He allows the pit crew to refuel him but refuses to take the time to change his tires reasoning that the time gained by skipping this crucial step will help him to win the Piston Cup. His treatment of and demeanor toward his crew inspires them to quit during the race.
I won’t spoil the movie for you but you might be able to guess that his decision to keep driving at his top speed (which has been said to be between 198-230 mph) on those tires didn’t work out the way he thought it would.
Well, meditation is like taking a crucial pit stop.
Meditation allows you to refuel. You hear this saying a lot right now about filling your cup or filling your tank. There are many ways to do that. Meditation does it by increasing your emotional health, enhancing self-awareness, and, in some cases, can help with insomnia.
Meditation is like the tires on the car, helping support you through emotional stress by transmitting or slowing it, absorbing it, helping you change the direction of maladaptive thoughts and maintain flexible and robust thoughts, or learning new techniques to manage stress and get a new context on your stressful situations.
Meditation is an adjustment that can help your performance by boosting your creativity and imagination, lowering your blood pressure and heart rate, and increasing your patience and tolerance.
It’s the moment you take for yourself when you are racing endlessly around a track, completing hundreds of laps, when you stop.
Maybe it is to answer a question. Who is this for? Why am I doing this? Do I really need to go this fast?
Maybe it is to take a pause and catch your breath before you resume.
I find it to be a good way to allow my spirit to catch up to my body. I wonder sometimes, who is driving this? How did I end up here? I’m running through paces.
Maybe I can create a bit of spaciousness.
Take a deep breath and meditate on that word for a little bit – spaciousness.
Spaciousness is the feeling we get when we admire a sunset, look out over the ocean, or notice a bird’s first chirp of the morning.
A few breaths, one hand over your heart, one on your belly, close your eyes – pause.
That’s all meditating is. Bringing some equanimity, some balance, to your morning, afternoon, or evening. We don’t have to go so far as to say it will bring balance to your life – that will come. But we can start somewhere – here:::now – since that’s the only thing we have.
I use the Calm app most mornings. I love Jeff Warren and his Daily Trip. He hosts a free meditation virtually every Sunday called “The Do Nothing Project”. It’s a good reminder.
But you don’t have to do that – use an app or join a virtual meditation.
Did you arrive early to an appointment or to pick the kids up from school?
Instead of doom scrolling the news, set the timer on your phone for one minute, three, five, or ten minutes, and close your eyes. Take some deep breaths.
Focus on the breath. Or focus on the feeling of your hands in your lap.
You don’t have to twist yourself into a pretzel, shape your fingers into mudras, or repeat a mantra – unless you want to.
Be easy about it.
Thoughts will come. Let them. And then remind yourself, oh yeah. I’m focusing on my breath.
You may get squirmy. Normal.
Your nose may itch. Scratch it.
Just observe it and attend to it mindfully. Be kind to yourself.
Oh! I’m getting squirmy! Ugh. That’s OK. That’s normal. I’m just going to go back to focusing on the weight of my hands on my jeans.
My nose itches!! What should I do? Do I have permission to scratch it? I want to scratch it. Ok. I’m going to scratch it. I’m going to think about my hand lifting from my thigh, moving through the air, and scratching my nose and then I’ll just set my hand back, gently and smoothly, back on my thigh.
That’s it. That’s meditating.
Just once a day to start. Baby steps. Like weight lifting, don’t do too much too soon. Slow and simple rules the day.
You can pick a word to ground you if you wish – one that resonates with you. I like words like love, trust, spaciousness, or yes. But I don’t always use a word. I might contemplate the robins that eat the berries from the camphor tree in my front yard, slowly pet my Norwegian Elkhound, admiring the pattern of her coat, or slowly sip my morning tea without doing anything else.
Make it easy for yourself. Your soul longs for this nourishment. Think of it as the light you bring to the darkness or as a seasonal change. Let it be the ground on which you move toward Spring.