Show notes
There’s a shift that happens every year, somewhere between the clocks going back and the first frost. It’s not sudden. It creeps in quietly. I catch myself sighing more often. Feeling a little heavier. My motivation goes a bit hazy, and everything, even the small stuff, starts to feel like a climb. I used to treat it like a glitch. Like something to push through or fix. But I’ve learned over the years that this isn’t failure. It’s winter arriving.Winter gets a bad rap. And yes, it’s hard. Especially if you’re juggling a lot; kids, home education, work, meals, housework, your own mental health. But it doesn’t have to feel like complete survival mode. You don’t have to hustle your way through it. What I’ve found is that the season gets easier when I stop fighting it and start working with it. I’ve learned to let winter be what it is, slower, quieter, darker, and shift the way I move through it accordingly.Why Rhythm Helps More Than RoutineThere’s a lot of pressure in winter to “stay on track,” whatever that means. But personally? I don’t respond well to rigid routines this time of year. They feel brittle. Unforgiving. What I need, what my family needs, is rhythm. Gentle anchors to hold onto when the days start to blur together.For me, that means slow, intentional starts to the day. I light a candle in the kitchen before the kettle’s even boiled. I keep the fairy lights up well past December because the extra light helps more than I can explain. We make time for a walk most afternoons, even if it’s a soggy loop around the block. And I try to get dinner started before the sky goes black at 4 p.m. These aren’t strict rules. They’re soft points of focus… things I return to that help me feel like I’m still rooted, even when my energy dips.Letting Go of Summer EnergyOne of the biggest shifts I’ve made is learning to stop expecting summer-level energy in winter. Because it’s just not realistic; not for me, not for my kids, not for our life. Motivation in winter isn’t the same buzzing, bright momentum. It’s quieter. Slower. And it disappears entirely some days. I used to panic about that. I used to push harder. Now I pause.Winter is the season of compost. Of dormancy. Of everything underneath the surface doing quiet work. Trees drop their leaves. Seeds go still. Nothing blooms, but it doesn’t mean nothing’s happening. We don’t need to constantly produce to prove we’re growing. Sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is rest and tend to what’s already here.Scaling Back to What Really MattersIt’s easy to feel behind in winter, like you should be “doing more” because others are. But I’ve learned that winter is when I need to protect my energy most. I don’t try to keep up. I cut back. I give myself permission to simplify everything. Home education slows down. Our meals become less experimental, more familiar. Our calendar empties out a bit. We focus on what’s essential and let the rest wait.And when I say we slow down, I don’t mean we stop living. I just mean we don’t try to stretch beyond what we have to give. We aim for depth, not breadth. We give ourselves grace. That’s the rhythm that gets us through.Nature Is Still There - Even in the GreyThe hardest part of winter, sometimes, is feeling stuck inside. But getting outside, even for ten minutes, always helps. Always. I never want to go. And I never regret it. Even just standing on the balcony with a cup of tea or walking the dog down the same road I’ve walked all year... it shifts something.Nature’s quieter in winter, but it’s not gone. The bare trees, the cold air, the stubborn little birds that still show up, they remind me that stillness isn’t emptiness. It’s rest. It’s recalibration.Food as Grounding, Not Just FuelThe other thing that holds me together in winter? Food. And not in a performative, Instagrammable way. Just simple, warm, seasonal food that grounds me in the present moment.Porridge. Thick soups. Crumbles. Casseroles. Roasted roots. Meals that warm the kitchen and make the whole flat smell like care. This isn’t just about nourishment. It’s about rhythm. About comfort. About whispering to my nervous system, “You’re okay. You’re safe. You’re held.”Little Joys Are Not OptionalI’ve stopped waiting for the “big” joy. Winter doesn’t hand it out easily. So I look for the small stuff and I let that be enough.These things matter. They’re not silly. They’re survival.If you feel slower, heavier, less focused… that doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means your body is responding to the season. You’re not lazy. You’re not broken. You’re just wintering.And wintering doesn’t mean giving up. It means adapting. It means listening. It means doing what matters and letting that be enough. You don’t need to be full of energy. You don’t need to stay “productive.” You just need to stay rooted.This Is the Season to Loosen Your GripYou don’t have to thrive in winter.You just have to keep going; gently, slowly, at your own pace.That is more than enough.And here’s the truth I come back to again and again: even here, in the dark, you’re still growing.It just looks different.Let it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theslowlivingcollective.substack.com/subscribe