Sluggish...

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I feel sluggish during the Winter months, especially when an unending, all pervasive drizzle makes the short days even shorter and when the temperatures dip below comfort levels. On those days, the temptation is to make a big pot of coffee and curl up on the couch with a book. To simply wait for things to change...

I usually resist that temptation.

Even though there just doesn’t seem to be enough energy to go around ~ there is still work to be done, things that need to be taken care off. There is simply no time to indulge and follow that urge to step back from it all.

Of course there are any number of ways to handle the sluggishness. To get the energy up and moving. To be productive ~ even on those days.
Here are a few:
Make a conscious decision that you will not give in to the sluggishness.
Go for a walk or a run, to get the energy moving.
Change the lights in your house with ‘full spectrum’ lights.

But what if we look at the Winter season, with its short, dark, dreary days from a spiritual, even shamanic perspective?
Then the energy of Winter is an energy of introspection. An energy that invites us to step back from it all, to be with our Selves. An energy that prompts us to take time to allow ourselves to look at our innermost wishes and desires in order to plan how we might manifest these into our lives over the next year.
In other words, the short, dreary, sluggish days serve a purpose!

Of course it wouldn’t work for us to step back from our day to day lives completely ~ to let ourselves go, to hide; to hibernate in a sense throughout the Winter.
Yet, on those day that we do feel ‘sluggish’, rather than pushing on with our busy lives ~ we may want to re-evaluate if that really is our best option. Working with the energy of Winter, we may well do better allowing ourselves time to sit back ~ even to curl up on the couch ~ in order to be with our Selves so that we can become aware of the things we want to achieve over the next year. In order to plan ahead.

If we would do that, we would probably find it easier to keep our ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ ~ after all, we have already put some thought into it, and with any luck we have a plan in place as to how we want to go about bringing our New Year’s Resolutions into our lives permanently...
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