Welcome into this space, on this new year of 2026. Here we are. I love the feeling of a new year, I always feel a surge of motivation and an energy that wants to fuel something new or bring freshness to something ongoing. And so, I started the new year very much in this energy, enjoying how good it felt to feel and think of newness and positivity and leaning into a flow with this, putting action into daily life, feeling the surge to tend to new beginnings.. Simultaneously, I was aware of a niggling inner conflict; was this draw to put action into the world misaligned with the time of year and what I really needed and what was best for my family? I felt the impetuous speed of New Year sway and at the same time an intuitive inner knowing I needed a slower pace.

Here in the UK it is the Winter season, and with the shorter days and darker nights it can naturally bring in a feeling of wanting to do less, curl-up somewhere cosy and go into a sort of hibernation mode. This is a natural withdrawal from our outward experience, a want to slow down, feel warm and held in comfort. This makes sense, as nature quietens, the obvious external growth slows down, most food doesn’t grow at this time, all goes into a stillness and allows for the winter weather to do what it needs to do for the Earth to restore and reset. Meanwhile, all the uneaten fruits from the seasons before feed the Earth by going back into the soil as nourishment for the end of the yearly cycle. It is the time of year where in nature we land into rest, go within and allow for a slower pace. The expression of this part of our yearly cycle invites us to nest.

So, whilst I am aware of this and do consciously feel an inner tug to honour this and hibernate, I also simultaneously get a surge of wanting to put action into the newness of the beginning of the year. I hadn’t landed on one or the other and was trying to sort of embrace and do both and this is when I got the guidance and reminder…It blew in via a very strong storm and high winds with a sudden power cut for five days. This immediately threw us into darkness, having to stay and work within our immediate environment to maintain a flow of meeting all of our needs, relying on ourselves, each other and what we had to achieve this. Whilst smoothly moving through this, illness then struck, once again needing to draw on my immediate surroundings and inner strength and this time to also hunker on down to rest; to then suddenly be without a vehicle. All of these happenings meant I had to stay put and each one deepened my need for going within. I couldn’t rely on the external right now.

Maybe the calendar new year isn’t meant to be turbo-d into a new beginning and action-orientated state. The Winter’s rest is the ending of a cycle, the rest after our Autumn descent, into stillness…maybe in returning to the Earth’s stillness there is a much deeper energetic magic at work within this. Maybe we can create a space to allow for ourselves to be with all of our fruits from the year, for processing all we have learnt from our cycle and trust that in this more downtempo phase we will shed what no longer serves whilst planting new seeds for the new cycle ahead. Trusting that within our restful and restorative hibernation mode we are receiving our Winter nourishment, knowing all is well in this darkness.

The more I deepen in this reflection on Winter, the more I want to honour this part of the process. It took power cuts, illnesses and car breakdowns to slow me down, yet I still resisted the rest and stillness I was being asked to enter. The Christmas and New Year celebrations don’t actually make sense when deepening into this time of year, they seem to disrupt the ease into this flow and distract from the honouring of this sacred rest. Maybe the presents we receive are the learnings and collection of gems throughout the yearly cycle, ready to lay beside us in our hibernation, helping in our restoration and then reset, nourishing our new seeds for planting. Spring will be in the air for the rise of our ascension into a new cycle and then it is here that our seeds for our new years resolutions can be really fuelled alongside the happenings of nature, encouraging external growth and action once again. This current time has brought in a very strong reminder to practice rest and restoration, to stay put in this more than might feel right, to root deeply into our natural inclination and instinctual urges. Honour the sacredness of the Winter and the darkness… It is an ending, but it isn’t the end. I am here now reflecting to explore if we can bring in a celebration of this new year, deep in the Winter months with joy of resting and nesting.

I am aware that it isn’t always easy to allow for this mode to fully immerse alongside the external traditions and draws of the worldly noise, so, what can we try and incorporate into our routines to bring this honour and scared space of our winter stillness during this time? I would love to hear anything you feel drawn to share related to these reflections. It moves me into asking more questions, the main one right now being – What is deep rest?

Thank you for being here, with so much Love and honour at this time.