Embracing the Yin of Early Winter

As early winter arrives, Lidong, in the language of Chinese medicine, we’re invited to soften into the slow, quiet descent of the season. Winter doesn’t rush. It gathers. It deepens. It teaches us to listen with the whole body.

In the wisdom traditions, this period is a doorway, an invitation to slip beneath the surface of daily doing and touch the quiet, truthful places within. Just as the sap of trees returns to the roots, our own energy is called inward to nourish what is unseen but essential.

This is a time for tending:
• Tending to the Yin, the receptive, restorative aspect of ourselves.
• Tending to inner stillness, where intuition becomes audible.
• Tending to the body, which holds its own ancient intelligence about how to move through the darker months.

And in this turning inward, let us not fear or avoid the fruitful darkness of the shadow season, for it is here that clarity is gestated, old patterns loosen, and the seeds of future growth quietly take root. The darkness is not empty; it is generative.

When we follow nature’s cues by slowing down, conserving warmth, choosing rest over urgency, we return to a more harmonious rhythm. Meditation, gentle movement practices, breathwork, and journaling become not just activities, but ways of aligning with the season’s quiet transformation.

So pause here. Feel into the subtle shift around and within you.

Inquiry
-What is your body yearning for right now?
-Where is it asking you to soften, restore, or listen more closely?
-How can you honor the intuitive knowing that your wise and wonderful body already holds?

Allow the questions to settle into you like seeds placed in winter soil, knowing that in their own time, they will unfurl.