Winter Yoga: on Stillness and Deep Rest
and why I’ve been MIA for the last month
Am I the only mama who loves watching her kids sleep? I take so many photos like this…and they help me relax a bit when things get too amped up!
You deserve to rest
Hello Yoga Mamas! I’ve been laying low this past month or so. Since my dad had a stroke right before Christmas, I’ve been pulled off center a bit as my family and I have scrambled to figure out how best to support him in this phase of his life.
Mamas, raise your hand if you are helping your ailing parents while also taking care of kids — as if we didn’t already struggle to find time for ourselves! Even if you have one kid and no elderly parents to care for, just the mental load of considering someone else’s needs can make simple things feel overwhelming. Every mama I know is busy. You deserve rest. We all do.
That’s why I’ve been more at peace this winter with just letting myself sort of hibernate. I’ve pulled back from my usual busy schedule just a little bit, knowing that the more I let myself sink into the natural resting phase of winter, the more energy I’ll hopefully have once spring hits.
I know that sometimes life gets so busy, it can seem impossible to slow down…but it doesn’t have to be a huge change in your life. Read on to see what I mean!
Winter: a time to just be
During these fallow periods, I think about how I can be yoga more than just do yoga. What does that mean? Yoga is both a practice and the state of mind achieved through that practice. To me, choosing to shift to a more ‘being’ mode means being more receptive, creating moments of stillness to listen to my body, and hanging back instead of pushing ahead.
We are part of nature and all around us, nature lives according to the season. Even if we’re not buried in a ton of ice and snow here in Chicago, the temperatures are cold and daylight is short - that all definitely has an effect on our bodies and minds.
So, what exactly do I do to be more receptive, to embody stillness, and listen to myself more deeply?
Do less. Really. That might mean lightening your schedule, do more quiet activities, or even do a little less yoga on your mat, especially if that’s what your body is calling you to do. You’ll get back to a more active phase when you’re ready!
Practice yoga nidra. There are so many free yoga nidra recordings online and this is such a lovely way to rest, enter a more meditative state, or even help yourself fall asleep by methodically relaxing your body and mind. Here and here are some of my favorite resources for this practice.
Free write. I often feel like I’m writing to produce something for someone else to read. How liberating it is to just write in a stream of consciousness style to air out my thoughts and feelings. If you’re not into writing, this might be better to do as a conversation with a close friend or therapist. It’s great to just let your thoughts and feelings flow through words.
Do some fun yoga activities with my kids. Okay, full disclosure: I don’t really do that much yoga with my kids even though I’m a kids yoga teacher. I should be chock-full of ideas about how to share my yoga practice with my kids, right? It’s really more a matter of prioritizing. Maybe it will help to think of it as integrating quality playtime with yoga time so that it’s a win-win for everyone. Here and here are some old posts I wrote on specific practices to share with kids. This little tip is a nudge to myself to share my work with my kiddos!
Do you enjoy that feeling of hibernation in the winter? Does it compel you to adapt your yoga practice to the season? I’d love to hear your ideas on how you honor your body through the seasonal shift into winter.
New moon: another invitation to be still
In the life of a mama, there are many times when we are called to be still: during our menstrual periods and during the fourth trimester, for example, we need more rest. Women’s lives and bodies are cyclical and living in tune with those cycles helps us stay more balanced in motherhood.
Mother Nature offers us another cycle to balance our activity and stillness: the phases of the moon. Today is the eve of the new moon. This phase of the moon is a great time to create space for stillness and introspection. The yoga practice of sankalpa can be a nice way to get some clarity around this time and it pairs well with yoga nidra. Here’s a yoga nidra practice focused on sankalpa, plus a great post by Ashley Zuberi on sankalpa.
No time for yoga nidra? Perhaps you can at least set aside five minutes at the end of a busy day to relish a restorative yoga pose. Here’s one of my favorites:
Supported Wide-Angle Pose with bolsters a blanket
Happy New Moon, Yoga Mamas! I hope this post inspired you to hang back and take it easy if that’s what you’ve been needing. It’s fully possible to adapt your yoga practice to be more restful. Please feel free to comment here or DM me with any questions on creating a more restorative yoga practice. I always welcome you to share what’s already working for you, too, for the benefit of all the mamas in this space.
Thanks so much for reading this post! If you found some gems here, or on another Urban Yoga Mama post, please share the love:)
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Sending thoughts to your family as you navigate this difficult time as a caregiver for your dad and kids.
I’ve been finding times to rest more and lean into nature’s invitation this winter, though it’s a funny time for me because I’m also entering this last part of pregnancy where anticipation soars and there is a lot to do to prepare. One of the things on my list for this last month is rest. The hardest part is the mindset shift around that!
I’ve also started sharing more of my yoga practice with my kids, simply by just letting them be in the space with me and play while I practice. They loved being around for the 7-day squat challenge (as you hear and sometimes see in the videos 😂) and it was fun to be able to find small ways to fit in my work and creative projects with them around.
Happy New Moon and Lunar New Year and thanks as always for sharing my work 🙂