Sarah 0:09
Hey y'all welcome back Sarah here, maybe you can hear that I'm out walking on the trails here by my house, and there is an ice rink that just got its ice put in for the first time this year, and there's people out skating and playing hockey on it already. It's amazing. I love it. What a marker of seasonal transition. When the ice rinks come in and it's cold enough to to keep them up for the winter, it's perfect, really, because we're the topic I wanted to bring to this episode is about the somatics of winter and somatic approaches to supporting ourselves through the winter season. So I love that it started out with my delight in the fact that the ice rink is back in that's very exciting. Yeah. And, like, supports, one of the kind of, one of the pillars of how I've been imagining this concept, how do we support ourselves for our nervous systems in the winter, and one of the pillars is play. And there you go. There's some play for those of us that like to be on ice, at least. That's that's a good one before. So before I get too deep into this topic, I want to make a little space for announcements. So the first one is that the if you're listening to this in real time, that when this episode comes out, we have kept the door just kind of like cracked open to the winter healing circle, because we've only had one call, and there are still some spots left. And so if you've been like lurking around and considering it, or if something else has come up in the last like week or so, that makes you think that might be a space you want to dive into, reach out and yeah, we have space for you. The we're going to close the doors completely on Monday of next week, I think that's the 24th but the Monday before us thanksgiving, that's when we have our second call, and then the second announcement is that we kind of on theme with what I'm talking about today, the hot for winter aspect of, like, what I'm doing inside of ski babes and like, Particularly with a the 21 day hot for winter practice series that's all coming up pretty soon too. So we've been doing the first iteration of hot for winter inside of the current round of ski babes with live workouts with a somatic nervous system lens, and then inside of this next round, the midwinter session, which starts on the first of December, that's going to have included this hot for winter practice series, and I'm building out the curriculum for it now. And it's really exciting. It's it's really fun and useful for me too, to be like really intentionally thinking about, what are the practices that help us stay engaged, enjoy ourselves in the winter, support our nervous systems. Receive the benefit and the nourishment of the winter season, and just like have a have a good time in the winter, instead of feeling like it's, I don't know, sometimes it feels like it's like kind of an externally oppressive experience that we're we can feel kind of brought down by and so that's what, that's what we're trying to do inside of hot for winter is, is like, put some practice and some effort behind doing the things that help us support ourselves in the winter season. And so I'm going to talk a little bit about, like, the framework that I'm thinking about for that here, and so you can get a sense for what we're what we're doing, and how I'm approaching it. And then that series is going to start on the first so you can either get that through jumping into the ski babes midwinter round, or you can buy it separately, and the price is the same either way. So if you want the work outside or not, yeah, you can find your way in, and we'll put all those links in the show notes. And, yeah, I should also mention that we're going to have a holiday sale on all of those things, starting on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, which is women led Wednesday, and going through the Thanksgiving weekend and indigenous peoples Day holiday weekend, so that if you want to take advantage of a holiday sale, first time we've done this, but we're going to offer $20 off your ski babes membership or your hot for winter purchase, either direction you go there and yeah, it feels really fun to be able to, like, offer a holiday sale and maybe like, entice more people into This hot for winter experience that I'm really enjoying. It's been really supportive for me already to be like in the work of building it and putting it together. And I expect that when we're in the practice of working through the practices and sharing what we're noticing and kind of engaging with it, that that will be a like it will have this momentum collectively. And so yeah, I can, I can kind of feel the potential for that, and the excitement for having a expansive group of folks in there to share the experience with together. So yeah, come on in, whether it's through the holiday sale or before or after it. And yeah. And then let's like, let's talk here about what I'm what I mean here by winter, supporting your nervous system in the winter and the somatics of navigating a winter season. And I, you know, I'm doing this through the lens of somebody who lives in south central Alaska. I was born and raised here. We have a pretty extreme version of winter, depending on who you ask, because we're in the I'm in the southern part of Alaska, and there's a whole huge state, and of people who live in Alaska, further north than me, that have even more extreme experiences of what winter means. And of course, that's true around the globe as well. So my my experience of this is intense in some ways, and also relatively chill compared to some folks who live in Fairbanks or ukiavic Way up north, and don't have any sun at all after like, around this time of year and through, I think it's like middle of February, when they get the sun back. So there's, yeah, winter is really something. That's one thing I would just want to name for us, that the changes in the temperature, the cold and the changes in the light with the darkness, is our two really big factors environmentally, that for sure, influence our bodies, our nervous systems, our animal bodies, right? Because, like we are, we are human animals that are influenced by the environment that we are a part of, whether we're conscious of it or not. And I know as like a young person, I wasn't so aware of the way I was impacted by winter, and it's become something that I'm just more and more conscious of, the more I start paying attention to my body and what it is influenced by and so that for me, that's been really helpful. In some ways, it feels like increased sensitivity. But I actually think of it more as
Sarah 9:47
like a heightened awareness of the things that I've always been sensitive to but maybe wasn't consciously aware of, and they were probably impacting my body below the level of conscious. Just awareness. And then I was like, reaping the impacts of them consciously. And then now, as I've done like been in this work, and I'm inviting us all to be in this work of bringing these way, these experiences of our somatic self out of the realm of conscious of unconscious awareness that things that are just impacting the body that we don't recognize and and surfacing them so that we can be more consciously aware of how they impact us and from that place, then what kind of supports we might need to help navigate that, help support our system. So one thing, let's see, I want to speak a little bit to the way that, like these combined aspects of winter, the darkness and the cold, can impact a body in a way that has kind of similar qualities. It's like it's the parasympathetic time of the year, which is the branch of the nervous system that is about down regulation and coming into rest and digest, backside of the nerve of the activation wave and on that nervous system, on that branch of the nervous system is also where the freeze response comes in, so that that parasympathetic branch, like when it's in, when it's feeling safe, when it's in Safety, it is rest and digest and chill out and and recover and take care of ourselves and be nourished and rejuvenate and integrate when it is in threat, under threat, perceiving that There's threat, whether it's real or imagined or just a just like something the body is responding to. That's when the freeze response comes in, and so that it ends up being more like shut down, procrastination can be like depression, stuckness, lack of energy. All of that kind of quality is inside of the parasympathetic nervous system under threat. And because we have, we each have our nervous system predispositions based on, you know, what we've been through, and what a nervous system has learned that works, and family patterns and whole bunch of things. People who have a Freezy type of nervous system, like a nervous system that that reaches for free, is when, when there's something that it like a when it perceives a threat, and that's, again, that's like, not conscious, that's the body being like, I got this. I know what to do. I know this works. Like, let's just so it maybe throws freeze on as a solution. The those types of nervous systems, winter can be pretty impactful for them, because if the nervous system is already predisposed toward that parasympathetic freeze, then the qualities of the environment like darkness, slowing down cold temperatures. All of these things can kind of act as the as the impetus for the nervous system to move toward that freeze. Sometimes those types of nervous systems, what, what they what they don't have access to, is that experience of parasympathetic under safety. So they kind of skip over, like, any time we start to, like, slow down or get some rest, or when, when it's like dark out early, or when the environment is uncomfortably cold, instead of moving into like a resting state, the nervous system might be like, it kind of jumps over into freeze instead. So. It might be this just, you know, these are just some, like, general patterns that I'm offering in case they resonate and, like, bring some awareness to something that you might relate to inside of the winter season, especially for people who, like, have navigated seasonal affective disorder, have that kind of sense that even if it like anywhere on that continuum, you know, some people have that on the diagnosable level, or some people have it on a, you know, somewhere else on on a continuum of intensity. There might be, there just might be something relevant here for understanding that through the nervous system, freeze response patterning. And so as part of that we we might start like one of the ways to support that might be helping bridge the gap over into coming into more relationship with the parasympathetic response in safety. So that would be like helping the nervous system feel more able to access the resting state and feel the good parts about it. Okay, I want to pause because I'm walking past a really beautiful place in the field, and the light is catching these trees in a really beautiful way. So let's just notice how amazing that looks taking pictures for you, and it gives me a good opportunity to slow myself down too, and the sun here, that is not around very often, but when it is like right now, I can feel it warm on my skin. Feels really nice, and it's just really beautiful out, sunny, snowy day.
Sarah 17:26
You know, this is so one of the practices. This is one of the first practices that I will be teaching inside of hot for winter, and I want to offer it to you here as well, because it's just, I find it really useful, and especially if you're somewhere where it's kind of chilly out, and that might, you know that's any definition of that word will work for this practice. If it's just cold in the evenings and you have to put a sweater on, or maybe you're somewhere where it's the temperatures are dropping into single digits or below, any type of cold will work for this practice. And it's a practice of so if you are out in the cold, whether if it's right now, you could practice with me or if you just want to, like, listen to what I'm describing here and take this practice with you for the next time that you're out in cold temperatures. The what we're doing here is taking time to notice what happens when you step out into the cold and and really like specifically noticing the body response. So is there a like in a gripping is there an accumulation of tension that shows up? Sometimes it's like a catch in your breath. Sometimes it's like an overall bracing kind of feeling, like pulling in, constricting, probably pretty subtly, but like a bit of like gripping toward the center line, maybe shoulders come up. So if you can notice that, or any version of that, that's part of what happens in your body when you step out into cold. The next part of this exercise is to just feel into a little bit of support. However, however, works for you to do that might be feeling your feet on the ground. Around or looking around and orienting a little bit. Maybe it's noticing the resource, if you're wearing something warm or cozy, and then we want to see if that bracing that showed up, or whatever tension that might have happened inside the body, with the practice of moving into cold, if, as you notice it, and then also notice some support that's around, if that's possible, for that bracing to soften. I think of it as softening into the cold and it off. It often has a quality, or like a feeling, of actually letting some of the cold in, letting your tissue be impacted by some of that cold, instead of bracing and protecting against it. What might it feel like to soften and allow for some of that cold to be felt.
Sarah 21:39
Yeah, and that's the practice. So you might notice, as you play with that, that there, you know, there might be a shift of some sort there, for me, there's often actually a feeling of more warmth that comes when I'm not actually, like gripping muscularly or tissue wise, against the cold, and then it's like, with more softness in the body. It feels like, for me, the like the way it feels, which, of course, you know what's important is what you notice in your body and what it feels like to you. But for you know, if it helps to hear my sense of it. It feels like if my body is softer, the blood flow can circulate easier, and then that actually helps circulate warmth. So I might the skin might feel colder because it's being impacted a little bit more by the actual temperature of the air, but the ability to circulate heat and stay warm on the inside feels more available, and it's also feels more pleasant, less stressful, because of that letting go of that subtle bracing. Okay, so play with that. Let me know what you notice. And, yeah, leave some comments, please, because I would love to hear how what happens as you play with that practice. I have, like, way before I knew anything about somatics, when I was in my 20s and living in Columbia. And you know, Columbia is really close to the equator. I was up in the mountains in Bogota at like, 9000 feet. So they had temperatures kind of year round in the like, Fahrenheit, 50s, 60s, 70s, kind of temps. And it would get kind of chilly at night, and they didn't, they don't have, like, they don't have a lot of heat because of that, like, stable temperature, so, so it would, it would feel cold at night. And there were a bunch of like, practices that they had around dealing with a cold, which for me is, like, an Alaskan who was, you know, I had, like, just a really different experience growing up of cold. So I found it really funny to hear about how there were, like, all these strategies for dealing with the kind of cold that they were experiencing in in Colombia, like there were some, like, pretty strong cultural expectations. I remember around not leaving the house with wet hair, which, you know, we have that in the US, in some places too, as a kind of an old wives tale. But I definitely have left the caps with cold with wet hair in freezing cold temperatures, and had my hair freeze, and that was definitely not going to happen in Colombia. So that was funny to hear, but I remember pretty often I was playing a lot of rugby at the time. And we would be in the evenings after practice, after being like, sweaty and working really hard, and then cooling down and and people would talk about how cold they were. And I remember, like, teaching this practice to them and just being like, what is it like? You don't have to, like, like, grip or resist into the cold, you can just soften and allow it in and it feels better. So this is something I've been playing with for a long time, and it's fun to share with you. There is, you know, this does help me segue now into because I want to talk about the like, the legitimacy of the way that winter can land on our nervous systems. And, you know, the reality is that things like cold temperatures and, to some extent, darkness, because it's like harder to orient and to see our environment. But those, both of these things, they have a potential and a real, legitimate reason for the nervous system to read them as potential threats like the cold, really, if you are if you don't have the right gear, if you're out in it too long, it can lead to like real, actual risk. And I think you know that some of what our bodies are navigating, whether we're conscious of it or not, when we're outside in cold temperatures, there's this, like, again, this like, existential question that the body's asking about is like, Am I safe? And is this cold? Is this environment something that's survivable? So just the fact that the body has to be questioning like that inside of the winter season there like there's that extra layer of vigilance, and honestly, there's this extra layer of work that has to happen too, right? You got to get all the layers, got to scrape the car and shovel the driveway, and there, just like is some extra workload involved with winter. And when I'm talking with people who are maybe wanting to be involved with winter sports and or just getting geared up for skiing or ice skating, things that we like to do outside in the winter. You know, one of the things that the we we want to help the nervous system have time to do is to build up trust in the in the clothes, in the in the gear that you have, it to keep you warm, you need to have enough like lived experience. Your body needs to have enough opportunities to be out in the cold, with the protection, with the resources of the clothing that you're wearing, and actually see that and feel that the resources of the puffy layers or whatever are actually functionally keeping me comfortable and safe, so that you have to, like we Really the body has to test out these realities and see like, can I? Can I stay in my like, zone of tolerance, my zone of comfort, physically, when I'm out in these winter conditions, I Yeah, so just really wanting to, like, legitimize for the body the way that, like, it's that it's asking these questions and that there are these extra challenges that it has to contend with in the winter. So if we you know the thing we get for for doing that, for figuring all that out, and helping the body figure out how to be in the winter, in the cold, in the darkness, in a way that keeps it tethered to the safety side of that Nervous System continuum. That's where we start to figure out like, or start to build these practices around what it means to be hot for winter and be actually like instead of burdened by it, be excited about it and find the gifts in it. Because. Winter really does have its own gifts. Here in Alaska, it's often beauty, the beauty of the Winter Light, those like pastel colors, because the sun doesn't ever get that high, the beauty of the snow and maybe the places that you're able to go in the winter because of the frozen ground. There's the beauty. There's the this aspect of play that we can access in the winter that's so unique because of the slippery surfaces that are all around. Of course, there's like a potential challenge inside of the nervous system with the slipperiness too. That's like a potential threat, but there is also this potential for ice skating, for skiing, for fat biking, for really nice walks on the winter trails, snowball fights and my neighbors just invented a game, because we have a bunch of plowed up chunks of ice and snow right now, and we're so we're meeting in the street these days to play ice ball. And, yeah, so, you know, winter has this potential for play as well, and then. So those are two pillars, the beauty and the play aspect. And then
Sarah 31:37
these other the other ones. So for sure. I'm building out this framework to bring into hot for winter, but I want to offer it to you here in to like, take off into your life and and see where these different pillars go for you too, if you you know whether or not you go and join us for the 21 days of hot for winter practice. I think these, these concepts, are simple enough that you'll you'll get what I'm talking about as I bring them forward, and then what I'm hoping for in the like guided practice is to add a little bit of, like, accountability and community around it, and some intentionality to the to the practice of being with them on a regular basis this December. But you know, you can take them and run with them here too. So we've got beauty and play, and then I want to bring creativity in, because I think of creativity as a way that we when, when the when the nervous system is feeling that like slide down the parasympathetic branch, and especially If it's feeling like it's going toward that Freezy direction. When it's like feeling less safe, there can be kind of a vortex, gravity, gravitational pull, kind of experience that happens with that. And one of the ways to bump out of that vortex is to access some kind of creativity. And I think of creativity really broadly, adventures as art, play as art. And this winter, I'm particularly interested in developing a creative practice, or like some kind of hobby that isn't, like a physically movement based one, it feels it's, you know, Ben's just feeling more and more important for me personally, and I'm, you know, if this is resonating for you, I I'm offering it as part of what we're doing here together. But there, it feels so important to be building out hobbies and creative outlets that don't require us to be able to like, move our bodies. I want to, I want to like I love moving and love being outside. It's such a resource. And I have this awareness of the way that that's a ephemeral thing, and it's not something we always have energy for or access for to. There's sickness and there's injury and there's aging, and like for many reasons, we may or may not always have access to movement based tools. So I will be taking on one of these pillars. As accessing a creative practice of some sort, and for me, I'm choosing that to be non movement based. So it wouldn't have to be a dog passing by. Maybe you heard it grunt. I
Sarah 35:31
Okay, so I've got a couple more pillars for you, and these last couple are on the side of the continuum that are more like that parasympathetic nervous system in safety side of things. And one of them I want to focus on is nourishment. So we're going to be playing with different ways to help the nervous system in the body come into relationship with things that feel nourishing. If you've been here on the podcast or been studying with me before, you know, you'll you'll notice, like a lot of these things are falling into the category that I would call resourcing. That's like the beauty, beauty side of things. And here, inside of nourishment, we're doing a lot of resourcing as well. But there really is so much potential for receiving nourishment inside of the winter season. The whole idea of Hig, cozy, warm sweaters and sitting by the fire and drinking tea or having soup like there's so much that's all that like nourishing quality inside of the season, and, and, oh my gosh. I mean, it's really nice, right? It's why we love sweater weather. And when soup season comes back around, it feels great. So we're going to bring some practices around, in around nourishment and being in the practice of finding things that nourish us and the somatics of noticing when your body is feeling nourishment, what happens opening up our ability to receive some of that nourishment. And finally, I wanted to have a pillar here around we could call it rest, but I think for me, it's really I'm enjoying calling it hibernation these days, because of the way hibernation is An aspect of winter that animals do and that there, you know, there might be something inside of us that hungers for the something, something like that this time of year. So this, this pillar, is where we get to explore what it means to rest. And, you know, we all have different relationships with with rest, but we're going to see what it means to deep, like, explore that a little bit, deepen into it and, yeah, learn what type of rest is what your nervous system needs. And there's lots of different types of rest. Some of them are very passive and like actually like hibernating, reducing stimulus and pulling away. And some of them are a little bit more active, more creative, yeah, so you might be familiar with the idea of the seven types of rest, so we'll be pulling from that body of work when we explore this hibernation pillar. So and maybe you have an idea now already. Maybe there's one of these already that's grabbing, like the sense that these different pillars, they each have like a different quality, they're each almost like a different sort of medicine, or different an anecdote for a different type of experience. My idea inside of hot for winter is to explore each of them each week. So we'll have different practices each week for these different pillars, and you'll be able to then sort out. Which of them you need each day, with the idea that you might get through them all in the week, or maybe you'll likely really lean on one and repeat it. Yeah. So there they are. Creativity, play, beauty, nourishment and hibernation, all with a somatic lens. I'll be having a like a foundational somatic practice each week as well, and this is what I'm proposing as a way to help support our nervous system practices that help us connect to ourselves and to the way that winter can be a generative experience for us, rather than something that We have to suffer through or escape from here, I think, with with the the way, like we can, if we can add in enough support for our system and, like, attuned support so it's like the kind of support that your body is needing and wanting, then what I what I imagine is happening is that the nervous system capacity can expand a little bit, can bump out, and then the experience of winter can we can, like, soften into it a little bit more, just like the somatic practice from Today, and then that just might change the way the experience lands, hopefully in a more expansive kind of way, so we're able to be nourished and receive the gifts of winter and stay connected with our play and the beauty of the experience. And, you know, just like, like a caterpillar cocoon kind of cycle, or even a menstrual cycle, like, after you move through the winter phase, after you move through the menstrual cycle, you come out the other side in and you're different. So that's, you know, I see these practices and this, this way of trying to support ourselves well through the winter season, as a way of helping support the system as it moves internally through the winter process and whatever that brings up for it, and then allow whatever transformation wants to happen to move through and allow ourselves to be transformed. And then we'll just see where we are in the spring. It's exciting. Okay. Thank you for being here. Let me know if anything from this episode resonated. I love hearing back from you, whether it's comments on the episodes or messages on Instagram. Thanks for being here on this winter oriented journey with me today. Take really good care of yourself, and I'll see you next time you.
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