Winter Solstice 2019! Learn How to Stay Enchanted This Season.
Winter Solstice 2019 will arrive in the Northern Hemisphere on Saturday, December 21, 2019 at 11:19 p.m., EST.
That makes it time for the Seasonal Self-Gift Registry! For our friends in other regions, I invite you to apply the seasonal gift registry and good wishes to your anticipated season.
Greetings, Enchanted Journeyers! Just stopping by while I’m out seeking enchantment in every corner of my world, to wish you a Happy Winter Solstice. We’re beginning a new season soon, with a new year and new decade to follow!
SEASONAL SELF-GIFT REGISTRY
I created this idea of a Seasonal Self-Gift Registry at the beginning of each season. The gifts are experiential and earn you as many Enchanted Keys as possible. Here’s how it works: You set aside some time to quiet yourself and meditate on the upcoming season. Make it ten to twenty minutes. Immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of the season. Then schedule moments to experience these things on the calendar so you feel abundant at the close of the season. Grant yourself Enchanted Keys: Mindfulness, Altered Perceptions, Journaling, Sensory Experiences, Reduced Clutter, Humor, Movement, Art, Nature, and Meditation.
ENCHANTMENTS FROM AUTUMN
As you transition from autumn to winter, I trust that you have enjoyed crunching through fall leaves, warmed your hands in front of a campfire, consumed all things pumpkin and have given thanks for your bounty. There is stillness to winter that begs for the soul to sit in silence. Ironically, it’s one of the busiest times of the year, with travel, holidays, shopping, cooking, baking, hosting and attending parties. But there is a long slow breath, or several, to be had that connects us to ourselves and also to Higher Sources. We begin to release autumn with its gourds, pumpkins, spiced chai lattes and bountiful harvest.
WINTER MEDITATION
Meditation: Find a comfortable position. (Preferably near a source of warmth.) Take a few deep, cleansing breaths and exhale fully after each one. As your physical body relaxes, envision winter, and what images the season holds for you.
SIGHTS You might visualize glistening snow-covered mountains and pine trees. The sky might appear as white, gray or a crisp, cloudless blue. You might be able to see your breath. Trees are bare, making bright, red cardinals and blue jays visible on the branches. Maybe you can imagine your gaze set upon the light from candles.
SOUNDS What are the sounds that you associate with winter? Is there a blanketed hush over the world? Maybe you hear the caw of a hawk echoing in the air.
SCENTS Drift to the smells of the season, such as pine, sandalwood, Frankincense, and myrrh.
TASTES Taste winter. Chocolate peppermint bark, eggnog, freshly baked cookies, holiday foods from your traditions, such as the Christmas Honeybaked Ham or Chanukah’s fried potato latkes and jelly-filled doughnuts.
TEXTURES Textures may include wool or soft yarn knitted into scarves and mittens. The edges of holly boughs are prickly. Consider what textures you are aware of in winter.
SPRING 2020 Winter will end as spring begins next year on Thursday, March 19, 2020, at 11:50 p.m.
DO THIS TO STAY ENCHANTED Take yourself to the end of winter and consider what you will have missed if you don’t experience it. Then make a plan to do those things. Schedule them on your calendar or the Dragons will make you forget you ever dreamt of them.