This Winter Solstice meditation is a guided, relaxing mindfulness practice that will help you rest in the Winter darkness and renew your being with light on all levels. It’s also an opportunity to let go of what is no longer serving you, allowing space for focused New Year intention, and a rebirth of ideas to achieve your life goals.

Meditation Preparation

To set up, you’ll want to find a place that is dark and quiet.  You may want to light a candle to represent the light inside of you, that creative spark that we’ll be stoking.

Essential oils can help calm your mind and create more focus.  For this meditation I’m using Frankincense and Lemongrass.  Frankincense helps lessen depressed and anxious feelings which tend to be more pronounced this time of year, prompted by the darkness.  Lemongrass helps to clear negativity and uplift your mood.  You can place 1 drop of each in your hands with a dollop of carrier oil and anoint your temples, heart space, and soles of the feet.

Have a pen and paper or a journal nearby where you can write down any insight that comes as we sit.

Also, you can briefly use the acupressure points in my free self-acupressure guide to help you relax. As you release tension, you’ll be better able to focus on the meditation process. You can download the guide below.

Winter Solstice Meditation Instruction

Center Your Attention

Come into a comfortable seated position on the floor or on a chair.  If you’re using a chair, make sure your feet are fully planted on the ground.

Closing your eyes, take several deep breaths, consciously focusing your mind on the present moment.

Exhale out through the mouth to let go of physical tension.  Once you’re feeling settled, allow the mouth to stay closed.

Center your attention by following the movement of the breath. Inhale through the nose. Feel the breath moving through the trachea, filling the lungs, and feel the diaphragm pressing down toward the pelvis, grounding you.  Stay energetically grounded as you exhale and feel the breath moving up and out through the nose.  Watch the ebb and flow of the breath.

Now see if you can make each part of the breath deeper, and longer.  Lengthen the spaces in between breaths, noticing any emotions that come up in the stillness.  It’s common to feel fear when empty, the same feeling that many people have in Winter.

We are microcosms of nature and energetic beings animated by breath.  Consider this, each breath is keeping you alive.  We need both the inhalation AND the exhalation, the life giving breath and the clearing release which creates more space for the next breath.

What Can You Release in Order to Create?

Now as you continue to breath deeply, let’s see how we can relate to the other aspects of ourselves.  What can we let go of?  What can we let rest in the darkness or even die away in order to make space for something more new, more healthy, or even more exciting?

Feel the full volume of the body pulsing with breath.  Feel it’s fullness, emptiness, and the flow in between.  Consider the health of your body and as you ask this question, see what comes up in this space:

“What habits can I let go of that will help my body be more healthy and vibrant?”

Sense the answer in your body.

Now connect in with your heart, your capacity to love and relate to others.  Some relationships served a purpose in the past, but are no longer helpful. Ask yourself the following, or change the wording to fit what you would like to create in your heart instead:

“What relationships can I let go of in order to feel more emotionally spacious and loving.” 

Watch the movement of the mind…

The mind can be the most challenging to shift. Many people are wired for self-criticism and negativity that their belief systems are very limited. Once your open to changing your beliefs, you have the greatest potential to create more happiness in your life. Ask yourself:

“What habits or beliefs can I let go of, can I let die, in order to experience more clarity of mind?”

Give yourself some time to let any thoughts bubble to the surface in answer to this question.

Letting go of the previous attachments in the body, heart, and mind may get you closer to spiritual connection. To explore further, you can ask yourself:

“What can I let go of to experience a deeper sense of myself, to connect with spirit”

Feel into your wholeness.  Notice the warmth inside you, imagining a spark of hope in the heart that grows to a flame, and then to beams of light radiating out of your body in every direction.

Remember that this light sprung from darkness. We needed to let go and experience a symbolic death to some aspects of our lives in order to rebirth new experiences. We needed to visit the past and make peace with it in order to imagine new possibilities for the future.

Slowly Widen Your Awareness

Return your awareness to the breath moving through the central channel of the body.

Open up your ears to what you hear, notice what you’re tasting, smelling, and feeling against your skin.  Finally, gently open your eyes.

Take some time here to make sure your attention is balanced, inside and out.  Write down anything that came up for you during this meditation.  This is a special time for reflection, but of course this is appropriate to do anytime of the year, not just the Winter Solstice. You can repeat this simple meditation practice whenever you’re feeling stuck and that you need to make a major shift in one layer of your being. When we meditate, we’re tapping into our innate wisdom that’s beyond the mind’s comprehension. It’s this place where we receive the most helpful guidance for living a joyful life.

Did you enjoy this meditation? Do you already meditate? Is it for relaxation or to receive guidance or other motivation? I’d love to know about it in the comments!

It’s a fact that we have loads of information coming at us from the external world, more than any other time in history. And if you’re an intellectual being, getting wrapped up in thoughts (regardless of whether they’re positive or negative, necessary or not) can keep you from resting or progressing.

Are you interested in developing a home yoga practice?  I have some fabulous home yoga resources in this post that will get you going!

Doing yoga at home does not mean you need to go it alone. Certainly, you’ll want to listen to your body to guide the focus in your practice. Eventually, you can sequence the entire session by yourself. In the meantime, there are plenty of resources to get you started.

Below are the resources I turn to when I’m needing more guidance, inspiration, ideas, and focused attention at home.

Home Yoga Resources

1. Yoga Practice Books

If you found this article helpful, please let us know in the comments! Also feel free to ask ANY questions about how to get started with your personal home yoga practice.

The Holiday Season can be the most magical time of the year, celebrating life and love with family and friends. But for some of us, it can be quite the opposite.

Arguments at the dinner table, strained relationships, and reminders that some friends and family are no longer with us, can turn holiday joy into despair. Then, we might see this as a time to survive or get through quickly, unable to feel the deeper meaning of each holiday.

I have a lot of experience in this department, but even when my heart is hurting from a big dose of family dysfunction and I feel anxious about whether certain relationships can ever be repaired, I know that my heart still has a great capacity to experience peace and joy.

How can you make the same space in your heart?

Certainly if you’re deeply depressed or in a rage, speaking with a therapist may be your best option. This post is not meant to replace professional advice if you’re feeling mentally or emotionally unstable either.

But if you simply have the holiday blues and are needing a little something to help you shift your perspective and give your heart some hope, then please read on.

There’s not one answer that will help everyone. These are the things that keep my heart open and my attitude bright during the holidays. Hopefully you will find something here that helps you as well…

Establish Safe Boundaries At Gatherings

First, it’s my personal opinion that you should not feel pressured to attend a holiday gathering if your heart is not in it. There may be some of you who disagree, but I don’t see the point if you’re only there for show and are emotionally distant.

What if your family has a history of drama? Verbal abuse? Degrading behavior? Maybe you should determine ahead of time what you’re willing to endure and if it’s worth it. Is this time together building your relationships and helping you feel more connected to life?

If the answer is no, then perhaps you can reflect on what is a better way to celebrate. Especially if your heart is feeling tender, it may be best to be with people you feel safe around and who fully support you.

Self-reflect Through Journaling

Journaling is my favorite self-help tool! When I write down my feelings and thoughts, it immediately lightens the weight on my heart and mind.

I try not to use it to complain about others though. Instead, if I’m writing to help heal a relationship I try to write about my experience without blame. This helps me to see the situation from the other person’s perspective and to see how I may have contributed to the unease.

Using journaling to shift your perspective may be all you need to create more space for joy!

Lift Your Mood With Essential Oils

Aromatic use of essential oils, perceived through olfaction (smelling), immediately effects the limbic system of the brain where we experience emotions and can create new memories about past experiences.

I know many people choose to drink a lot of alcohol at events, you know, “liquid courage” and to provide some distance from uneasy feelings that may come up. Oils help you to experience these uneasy feelings but then create an experience that helps you surpass them. So, using oils to lift your mood is a much healthier approach than intoxication!

The oil blends I go to when I’m feeling low are dōTERRA’s Consoleand Forgive . They promote feelings of comfort, hope, patience, and contentment.

You can also try diffusing the blend below. Ylang ylang is especially nourishing and resonates well with the heart.

Lovingkindness meditation

Metta, or “lovingkindness” meditation is a very effective way to heal your own heart and your relationships. I wrote about it at length in How To Keep Your Heart Open and Bright With Lovingkindness Meditation.

If you can carve out 20 minutes in your day, try the guided practice below and follow up with a brief journal entry about how it went.

Seek Out Energy Healers

Qigong & Reiki practitioners, Acupuncturists, Shamans, and Hypnotists can help you clear energetic & emotional blocks and allow your heart heal on a very deep and profound level.

If you need any help finding a practitioner in the U.S., please let me know. I would be happy to connect you.

Spend Time With Your Spiritual Family

By doing all the self-reflection work above, it’s probably clear by now who the people are who fill your heart with joy. Maybe it’s a group of work friends, a church group, a support group for moms, a grief support group.

For me, I love to reach out to my yoga family of fellow teachers because they understand me in a way that even my closest family members do not (and that’s okay!).

Let this group of friends be your spiritual family. You can lift each other up and show others how deep connections at this special time of year are what really matters.

Do you have anything to add that will help our hearts heal this holiday season? Please spread the love and let us know!

Do you trust your parental instincts? Does parenting in this modern age overwhelm you? It’s my hope that I can guide you just enough in this post so that you can start trusting your inner voice more.

I’ve been on a roll here, advising about environmental toxins like chlorine, harmful foods like sugar that damage gut flora & immunity, and how to heal without harmful pharmaceuticals. These are things that I think parents may want to know about as they try to keep their families well. With each discussion, I’m offering holistic alternatives and wisdom from Traditional Chinese Medicine. It’s my hope that you’ll learn how to prevent or deal with these challenges in a natural and effective way.

It occurred to me today that even though my focus is on helping you find solutions, that the vibe here may still be very “doom & gloom”. This may be especially if you become easily overwhelmed with parenting and health advice.

My son has always had a later bedtime, usually going to sleep between 9:00-10:00pm and waking between 7:00-8:00am (reasonable, since we homeschool). One would think that the Summer would have little affect on him and other night owls, since it’s dark at their actual bedtime. But it just not true for us and unfortunately bedtime is starting to creep past 10:00pm.

It would be much easier to let go of these rules during the summer, but I think it’s still important to strive for a reasonable bedtime to maintain a healthy circadian rhythm. We stick pretty close to all the suggestions I mentioned in Natural Sleep Remedies, Part 1: Finding Your Rhythm , especially:

• Waking with the sun, without an alarm
• Getting plenty of outside time in direct sunlight
• Not having a protein overload at dinner
• Avoiding sugar and any caffeine-containing foods
• Turning off all screens by 7:00pm
• (Trying to) go to sleep before 10:00pm

But the energy of Summer is so Yang, so intense, that it may overpower a person’s ability to settle, especially children who are very Yang and excitable themselves. And when it’s hot and muggy, the environment is not conducive to cuddling up to sleep anyway.

 

Try these 7 Solutions for Summer Sleep Struggles

1. Adjust Diet for Summer

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), we recognize that certain imbalances occur in different seasons. In the Summer, the ruling element of the season is Fire and the Heart is the organ & channel that becomes easily imbalanced, showing up as insomnia, restlessness, hysteria, mania, hot flashes, dry mouth, palpitations, etc.

The best way to get ahead of any imbalance is to eat in harmony with the season. Your family is probably craving more raw, cooling foods (especially juicy fruit) that are out at the Farmer’s Markets at this time. It’s great to indulge in watermelon, cantaloupe, berries, grapes, kiwi, cucumbers, fresh fruit popsicles, dandelion & other seasonal greens, and seafood. But we need to be careful to not overindulge in eating fruit, and balance out the sugar increase (and possible insulin surge) with plenty of fat, which I’ll address in next week’s post.

Most of us do best to reduce or avoid warming, stimulating foods at this time. Onions, garlic, peppers, ginger, fried foods, and chocolate hamper a person’s ability to cool down and rest at night.

2. Hand & Arm Massage to Pacify Heart Channel

Try massaging the inner arm on the pinky finger side against the Heart channel to sedate it, meaning, massage from the pinky up toward the armpit.

 

 

 

If your child become ticklish as you move up toward the arm (thereby getting excited, which we DON’T WANT at bedtime), then just give them a hand massage and stretch the arm instead.

 

 

 

3. Acupressure to Calm the Mind & Spirit

We covered many acupressure points that help induce a sleepy mood in my Stress-Relieving Acupressure for Moms Guide. These are for general relaxation as they help “calm the spirit” as we say in TCM.

You may also want to press along points on the Heart channel, especially Heart 7, which lies on the medial aspect of the inner wrist. It’s said to calm the Shen (mind & spirit), pacify the Heart and clear the channels .

 

 

 

Of course you can also work with a TCM practitioner to address a Heart Qi (energy) imbalance with acupuncture and herbs as well.

4. Spritz or Massage with Peppermint on Hot Nights

When it’s too hot to settle in bed at night, many parents I know like to use peppermint essential oil to cool down. Because heat rises and we see this with energy in TCM too, I like to use mint on the forehead, scalp, neck, chest, and shoulders to cool the upper body and move heat down and out.

5. Warm Epsom Salt Baths or a Foot Soak

Magnesium in Epsom salt is easily absorbed through the skin via baths and has been shown to reduce cortisol levels, helping one shift to the parasympathetic nervous system where we rest and digest. Your kids may be taking many baths & showers if they’re also swimming in the Summer months. So if they are resisting a bath at nighttime, consider a simple Epsom salt foot soak instead.

Warming up the feet will also help to pull down hot energy from the upper body, creating a feeling of being grounded & centered, which helps when going to sleep. Lavender is a wonderful calming essential oil that can be added to the bath.

6. Yoga Nidra for Kids’ Sleep Struggles

Yoga Nidra is a relaxation method for the body and mind that helps one shift consciousness, resulting in a deep restful sleep. Some children may love this. Others may have a hard time laying still for this. You may need to get creative to make it more interesting for your child.

Here is my recording of Yoga Nidra, geared toward adults. If it becomes part of your personal nighttime routine and you find value in it, it will be easier for you to introduce it to your child. You can adjust it by working with fewer body parts or just using touch, instead of speaking, to communicate awareness of your child’s body to them.

7. Journaling to Process Summer Excitement

Some kids have a hard time shifting to bedtime because they don’t want to stop playing or they can’t shut off their minds, especially as they get older (many adults reading this have this issue too!) Even once in bed, they may have a hard time letting go of ruminating thoughts, like revisiting events of the day that caused uncomfortable emotions (like shame and embarrassment).

For whatever reason your child is struggling to sleep in the summer, writing thoughts in a private journal or drawing a quick picture can really help. I’ve been suggesting this to my son a lot lately and it really helps him when he’s afraid to lose a vision of something he started doing right before bed.

Of course, you may want to try a longer bedtime period, relaxing in the bedroom with the curtains tightly shut, lighting low (but enough to read mellow bedtime stories) in addition to all the suggestions above.  When my husband and I are diligent about these points, then bedtime is usually quite enjoyable!

Do you keep a bedtime for your kids during the Summer? Are they having difficulty settling down at night? Please let us know in the comments if you have any suggestions that can help these kids rest well!

If you change your attitude to one of gratitude, you’ll start noticing more positive changes in your life. Below are some ideas for you, practices that I do myself each and every day to develop a grateful heart!

Why Developing Gratitude is So Important 

During a parent class at my son’s nursery school ages ago, we had to choose just one characteristic, from a humongous list, that we thought was most important for our child to develop.

In my group, I remember the other parents choosing “independent”, “motivated”, and “organized”. We all agreed that these were wonderful characteristics to develop and would lead to successful lives for our children. The parents said that children with these skills would be “easier” to manage.

I was last to share and declared that “grateful” was by far my first choice. The other parents didn’t nod as agreeably and looked a bit puzzled, wondering how gratitude would get my son far in life.

I explained that someone who is truly grateful appreciates all that has happened in their lives, values their relationships, and has an internal motivation to pay it forward with kindness. People need this shift in attitude and thinking to really enjoy life.  That is what I want for my son more than anything: a love for life.

I said a lot more that seemed profound at the time (perhaps only to myself, but that was okay)! I was grateful for the exercise, for the clarity of discovering what I wanted to model for my son.

Why is Developing Gratitude So Challenging?

I know, sometimes it’s hard to feel grateful. When we experience sorrow or see others suffering, we tend to focus on what we feel is wrong with the world.

Feeling grateful does not mean than we endure injustice. But we can be grateful for even the most unpleasant circumstances if they urge us to make meaningful changes in our lives and the lives of others.

Sometimes it’s political unrest that motivates you to become more involved in your local government. Maybe it’s a decline in your health that prompts you to make changes in your lifestyle. Perhaps the loss of a friend or family member makes you realize that life is short.  Then you’re prompted to spend more time with loved ones and live life to the fullest. We can be grateful for all these experiences.

You may wonder why you should take my advice on this. I am certainly not all-knowing. But as a yoga teacher, I feel it’s my duty to offer this advice. The entire training in yoga is about remaining open in the body, heart, and mind, regardless of circumstances. We develop this training for the rest of our lives.

Our work is to live fully in the present moment, even the most dreadful, boring, and seemingly meaningless moments. To do this, we’re required to make peace with the past and admit that whatever happened led to this moment, right here, right now. We can remain hopeful and positive about the future knowing that everything to come has a purpose.

In Yoga, we respect our lineage of teachers who have passed on this wisdom and most of us express our gratitude for them and the practice itself whenever we come to the mat.

How To Develop an Attitude of Gratitude Every Day

• After getting out of bed each morning, touch the floor or even bow down on the ground and give thanks for the new day given to you. 
• Read this post & listen to the meditation below that will help you develop a grateful mindfulness practice. 
• Say grace, sing a song, or simply take a moment of silence before eating a meal. Bring to mind the animals, plants, farmers, and workers who provided the food. Thank the cook, even if it’s yourself. And when preparing a meal, think about the people you are cooking for, how you feel grateful that they are in your life and feel pleased that this is one way you can express your gratitude and nurture them. 
• Pause before exercising or whenever you’re especially mindful of your body. Appreciate it’s strength and endurance, even if it is not what it once was. 
• Stop complaining!!!
• Try to hang out with people who inspire you to keep your heart open. 
• Generosity and gratitude go hand in hand. When you give someone your time, effort, or even money, you are valuing their services and expressing your gratitude. Think about this when you’re donating, volunteering, or do any kind of shopping. 

Do you have ways that have help you develop a grateful attitude?  If you have anything to add to this list, please let us know in the comments!

I value all of you and am so delighted to have you in my life. Happy Thanksgiving every day!