Slowing Down This Season
Finding Rest in Nature’s Rhythm and the Wisdom of Samhain
We’re stepping into the busiest stretch of the year. Do you sense it building?
Work projects must be completed before Christmas. Social plans crowd the calendar. There’s shopping to squeeze in and festive meals to plan.
If these weeks ahead stir more trepidation than excitement, read on. I have written this blog with you in mind.
A different rhythm
Take a moment to look outside. As our lives become a juggling act, nature reminds us of another way.
Here in the UK, nature isn’t stepping up the pace like us. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, it’s dialling right down. Trees are drawing in nutrients and shedding their leaves. Final fruits and nuts are dropping from the branches. Mammals and birds are fattening up for winter and preparing spaces to shelter in.
In a few weeks, winter will wrap her cloak around us with the first frost. It will be three months before we start to see any significant stirrings outside. The first day of spring, early February, will be heralded with the snowdrops’ shiny white faces lighting up our verges. That’s a long way off.
Right now, nature is preparing to rest, not burst into action. We would be wise to do the same.
Ancient knowing
This great transition in nature is marked by an ancient festival: Samhain, a Gaelic word meaning summer’s end.
Samhain is one of eight festivals that mark specific points in the wheel of the year, a tradition that dates back thousands of years. You will know of four of them: the solstices and equinoxes. The other four, including Samhain, mark the transitional times of the seasons, from summer to winter.
In the northern hemisphere, Samhain is celebrated as Halloween nowadays. It has morphed into a curious display centred around ghosts, pumpkins, sweets and tricks. These customs also have ancient origins, but I won’t go into that right now.
I want to focus on the qualities of this festival being about completion and renewal. Samhain is a time of endings and beginnings.
Our Celtic ancestors, two thousand years ago, would celebrate Samhain as our equivalent of New Year’s Eve on October 31st and New Year’s Day on November 1st.
They celebrated their new year as they dropped into the darker months. How does it feel to you to think of the year beginning in darkness and not light? It feels unfamiliar to many.
Why did our distant ancestors begin their year by going into the winter? Well, the Celts didn’t see a new beginning as starting with the light, but with the darkness. Their days would begin at night and their year began with transitioning into the dark months.
Embracing this ancient idea, how would it be to align with what nature is doing right now? To begin a new year with rest? To allow yourself to slow down? To step away from the cultural norm of being busy over these final few months of the year?
Nature is pausing now to regroup, and so should we.
Slow thinking
Just like New Year’s Day in the Gregorian calendar, Samhain presents a perfect opportunity to reflect on the year that has passed and set intentions for the year to come.
And this is where setting goals comes in. Remember setting those New Year’s resolutions in January, only to see the idea of them slip away within the first few weeks?
What would it be like to set a goal now, knowing you are going into a period of rest?
Winter’s a time for these seeds to go deep within, to gestate. Imagine taking several months to truly reflect on what you want to bring into your life, with no expectations to take action on it. This is what nature does. It withdraws, making plenty of space to rest in the darkness. Only at the start of spring does it begin to stir into life.
Aligning your life with the wheel of the year in this way means that the first time to take action on something is the Celtic festival of Imbolc, in the first few days of February.
That is four months away. Four months to allow an idea to gestate and take form. Wouldn’t this give you a much greater chance of success in achieving it?
Seed selection
Whether you are celebrating Samhain now in the UK or in April/May in the southern hemisphere. Samhain is a time of reflection, looking back on the past year and seeing what has come to fruition, and what hasn’t. These few days give us space to consider which seeds we want to nurture through the dark months, to gestate, ready to emerge at Imbolc as a stirring.
So, with all this in mind, take a quiet moment with a pen and paper this Samhain and ask yourself:
- What have I achieved this year?
- What didn’t I manage to do, and why was this?
- What ideas am I taking through into winter?
And round off this reflection with the biggest question of all:
What needs to change so I can slow down this winter?
Slowing down takes courage. It might mean having honest, perhaps difficult conversations with family and friends. It means setting firm boundaries with yourself, and asking what truly matters to you about the festive season and what you are ready to give up. It might even mean pushing back at work, challenging the pressure to finish everything before the end of the year.
Do what you can, and let the rest wait. Whatever you don’t manage this time will come round again. That is the gift of aligning your life with the wheel of the year. The wheel keeps turning, and with each turn, you have the chance to grow a little more.
Samhain blessings to you, Nicola 😊
Find out more about Samhain in our Inclusion Calendar
