Light Ahead: A Winter Solstice Meditation

Winter often brings to mind thoughts of cold and dark. It comes with snow, storms, and long, dark nights. But Winter also brings Winter Solstice, when the shortening days turn a corner and begin getting longer instead. This Winter Solstice meditation focuses on the fact that no matter how cold January and February get, the light is growing and the warm days are on their way back.

After all, it can be all too easy to focus on the things that are less than ideal. Life has plenty of ice and snow in its stressors and deadlines. There is so much to notice that is hard and dreary that sometimes we need a reminder to look for the light.

Nevertheless, the light is still there. All we need to do to find it is to spend a little time looking, a little time noticing. That is the goal of this Winter Solstice meditation; to look and to notice where the light is present and perhaps even growing in your life.

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Winter Solstice Meditation

A quick word on meditating. Minds wander–they just do. If you find your mind wandering in this meditation, try not to beat yourself up about it.

Meditation is hard because it makes your brain slow down and focus. Brains do not like slowing down and focusing, they like noticing every single thing so that they can try to protect you from anything bad that might happen. But just like you need to sleep sometimes, brains need to slow down sometimes, even if they are not very good at it.

So, when you find your mind wandering in this Winter Solstice meditation (because it almost definitely will), just notice that your thoughts have wandered and bring them back to the meditation at hand. The more you meditate, the better you will become at refocusing your thoughts and the easier it will be.

Prepare for Your Winter Solstice Meditation

To help limit all the ways your mind might wander, it is helpful to find as quiet and peaceful a place as you can to meditate. This might be in your bedroom, your bathroom, or even a vehicle. It does not have to be completely quiet, it just helps if it is not in a common area where you might be disturbed or distracted.

Once you have found your spot, sit or lie down if you can. Try not to cross your arms or your legs, so that they won’t fall asleep and distract you later. If possible, read through this meditation and then close your eyes so that you can practice it without being visually distracted too.

Of course, these are all suggestions. If the only opportunity you have to meditate is while standing up in a crowded room, then by all means do. The best way to make meditation helpful is to do it, whatever the circumstances available to you.

Begin Your Winter Solstice Meditation

Take a deep breath in, noticing the way the air flows into you as you do, how your lungs expand, and then let it go, noticing the relief of the movement. Continue breathing and take a moment to experience some gratitude for yourself. You have chosen to show up for yourself today by taking this time to meditate. Well done.

As you continue to breathe, in and out, add the sensation of warmth to your gratitude. However cold or blustery the weather might be, you can experience warmth. You can experience comfort.

Imagine that you are in a safe and comfortable place, a place with a window where you can look outside. As you look outside, imagine a winter landscape. Perhaps there are trees, barren of leaves, or icicles dripping down from above. Perhaps there is snow or even ice.

Create a winter landscape to gaze out on, reminding yourself as you do that you are inside. You are warm. You are safe. Exist, for a moment, in this space, looking out at the winter landscape you have created.

Deepen

Winter often exists in shades of blue and white, gray and black. Notice the colors in the landscape you have created. How bright is the snow? Are the shadows gray, black, or blue against the snow?

Notice how there are places where the snow is still wet or frozen, where it is smooth and glassy enough to catch the light. There must be light, after all, for there to be shadows. Take a moment to visualize where the light is coming from.

Perhaps it is a lampost, like the one that lights the way outside of the wardrobe in Narnia. Or maybe there is a lantern or a porchlight right outside your door. It could be from the moon or the stars, or it could be coming from the window you are standing in, from the light all around you as it softly emanates into the world outside.

Whatever the light source, take a moment to notice it. To notice that there is light, that you can see it, that it is part of this landscape that you have created.

Internalize

Just as there are shadows and light in the landscape you have imagined, there are shadows and light within yourself. Sometimes the light shines brightly, sometimes the shadows take up almost all of the space. This is not because there is something wrong with you, but rather because life can be so very heavy and dark from time to time.

If your winter landscape represented the balance of light and shadow that currently exists inside you, how would it change? Would there be more shadow? More light?

Take a moment to adjust your landscape according to your internal balance, and as you do so, be careful to maintain your light source. Even if there are a lot of shadows around and within you, visualize a light.

What are the sources of light in your life? Your family? A pet? Friends? Perhaps you love to create, or you have a gift for organization and problem-solving. Maybe your light is that you continue to survive, to persevere, even though life makes that so difficult from time to time.

Take a moment and identify the source of light within you. Whether it’s the faint glow of an ember or the brilliant chaos of a bonfire, the light is there. Imagine that light spreading through you, encompassing you entirely from head to toe.

Your life has shadows in it, as all lives do, and yet there is still light in you.

End

Take another deep breath, in and out, and return your attention to your winter landscape. Allow it to brighten and lighten, for the shadows to ease and lift. Dark days mean light days are coming, as they always do.

Winter does not last forever and neither does the night. The day is coming, and until it arrives, you have the light within you to help guide your way.

As you take another breath, slowly let your awareness increase to notice the sounds in the world around you and the way that your body feels after the stillness of this meditation.

Open your eyes and notice the colors, light, and shadows, in the world around you. As you continue to breathe, resolve yourself to carry your light with you into your day or night, wherever you are. Remember that it is always with you and that you can return to this meditation whenever you would like if you need some help visualizing it again.