Winter Your Soul: When quiet calls

We are a society of action. Constant movement is rewarded - expected even - and staying still is considered stagnation or laziness. So what if stillness is exactly what your journey is calling for?

The natural world moves in a series of rhythms...seasons, hours, stages of life. This is not new information.

The world we've created, though, looks nothing like that. It can easily be a 24/7, fast-paced, one-day-delivery race to see who can die with the most toys. Vacation days, if you're lucky enough to get them, often have to double as sick days (not exactly relaxing). Overtime is simply expected in many industries. The push is on for something newer, faster, better...all the time moving moving moving.

So we feel productive. We feel accomplished. But are we? Are we really?

One of the many messages that comes through tarot and during intuitive counseling is that procrastination often masquerades as productivity. When you're always moving, always engaged, you truly feel like you're getting something done. But what's happening instead is you're distracting yourself from what really needs to be worked on.

We take this mindset into our spiritual and emotional development, as well. Time to meditate? Forget it! Read a book? Have you seen my inbox? A nature walk? I have a report due in three days!

So many of us work hard to keep up this frantic pace, because if we're left for a moment alone with our thoughts, we fear we'll be overwhelmed by them. And this is entirely true. We will. We need to be.

It is imperative that we get still, get silent, and get real with ourselves.

This can feel extremely unnatural, and often produces large amounts of anxiety at the beginning of the process. What I hear most often is, "I don't have the time!" Yes, you do, if you want it. That's the hardest part of this whole endeavor to swallow, because it forces you to reevaluate your priorities.

For instance, one of my priorities is that I work with the cards every day in some fashion to stay connected to the intricacies of tarot reading. Sometimes this means I only get to throw spreads at 6am before the house wakes up or at 11pm when it starts quieting down. So in that moment, I am choosing to stick with my priority instead of reading an article or playing on my phone. Life is all about choices - some are made for you, but the vast majority you control.

The other side of this difficult coin is that when we are not actively pursuing something, chasing after something, we begin to question where our worth really lies. Is it in your sales goal? Is it in that promotion? The fact you booked more parties than your competitor this month?

This is what the fear always comes down to...if I don't do "X", then who am I? If I don't keep going nonstop, what am I adding to the world? How will I ever be successful? What's the point?

The point - of everything, by the way - is to learn, and to love. The rest is just a bonus. When we get quiet and are able to sit with our true selves in the stillness, we are learning the invaluable process of 'wintering our souls'.

Just as the seasons leave room for dormancy and internal, hidden work, so must we. Action is not always necessary, nor advised. Sometimes it can even be counterproductive.

Letting go of the idea we must always be moving to be worthy of our goals, and learning to sit and wait when that is called for produces an immense gift of self-discovery. We make space for new ideas and new realizations to germinate, wrapping ourselves around them to keep them safe as they grow in the silence. Our sacred secrets, held close to our hearts, until the time comes for them to be revealed.

So find your solitude, make the space, let the tough emotional work come...then watch as your life blooms around you.

All things in their time, and

All love fellow travelers.

JA