For most of my life, winter has been a season filled with wonderful memories of childhoods spent outside in the snow, building snowmen, sledding with friends, and then cozying up at home drinking hot chocolate.
I loved waking up on a winter morning, eating my breakfast, and watching my street through the living room window. People in thick coats walking to work, children playing, birds on bare branches observing the environment…
Winter has always been magical for me. I was born on a cold November day, in a blizzard so intense my mom wasn’t sure she’d make it to the hospital in time. I guess this is why I always feel at home in winter – but I know this is not everyone’s experience when it comes to the darkest, quietest time of year.
This year, I’d love to help you approach this season with a mindset of calm and ease. I’m sharing 5 simple and intentional winter reset rituals that you can use to ease into winter and make it a little bit cozier and lighter.
1. Cocoon, Hibernate, and Retreat Within
I find it fascinating that my body knows it’s winter, so it naturally craves warmer foods, rest, coziness, and slowness. Nature rests in Winter as well, so why shouldn’t we? Having winter reset rituals that align with your needs can help you have a softer season that will actually feel good on the inside.
In winter, everything in nature retreats within. The trees, the animals, the insects, people, even the sun. Not just because of the cold but because there’s not much to chase after. It’s the season of hibernation when we honor our need for rest in the deepest, most significant ways.
Imagine a cocoon where you feel warm, cozy, and taken care of all winter so you can emerge in spring with your brightest colors, fully renewed and ready for a new season?
You can create a winter ritual around this image: set aside an hour of your day, grab a cozy blanket, your favorite drink, a book or a TV show, or just a soft music playlist and enjoy an uninterrupted rest.
Maybe cocooning looks different for you. Maybe your version includes spending more time at home with your family or going to a mountain cabin for a weekend to reset. Maybe cocooning means being with your thoughts and feelings, restructuring, revising, reflecting, so you can emerge refreshed in the spring.
2. What Are You Ready to Soften?
By nature, winter is harsh. It leaves little space for softness, so we must create it ourselves. Wrap ourselves in soft blankets. Wear softer clothes. Become softer in our rituals. Counterpoint the harshness and bleakness with warmth and light. This is why winter reset rituals are so essential.
So what are you ready to soften in your life this winter? What parts of you need more soft compassion and embrace? Where are you harsh on yourself and others? How can you become a little less rigid and a little more lenient?
I thought I’ve had often is “How can we become soft like the first winter snow?“.
Here are some journaling prompts about inviting more softness into your life this winter:
- Where am I still pushing, even though this season is asking for rest?
- What am I craving more of this winter and how can I provide it for myself?
- What would it mean to live this season from softness instead of urgency?
- How does my body ask for care on darker days and how can I provide it?
- How does the winter season hold me in ways I didn’t expect?
- What is something different I can do this winter to feel better?
- How can I structure my days to support lower energy?
If you need a soft and simple planner with plenty of space for journaling that will help you reset your life in a way that doesn’t rush or overwhelm you, I think you’ll love my 37-page Soft Life Planner.
Click on the image below to get yours today!
3. Winter Reset Rituals of Warmth and Stillness
Winter might be the coldest, darkest time of year but it’s also the softest and coziest. Your warmth and stillness winter reset rituals can include a cozy blanket, hot cocoa, and a winter playlist to help you ease into sleep.
Warmth can come from meaningful conversations with friends and loved ones. It can come from having your pet on your lap, a hug from your child, or a fireplace crackling away in the night. You can create warmth and stillness within by choosing to leave outside the things that don’t give you an inner sense of warmth.
4. Inviting Quiet in the Home
One of my favorite winter reset rituals is to invite quiet into my home. Every day life is full of noise coming from all directions, which also creates noise within. A moment of quiet reflection seems like a luxury these days, but it’s a much-needed luxury.
How do I invite quiet into my home? By not scrolling social media or looking at a screen. By sitting in silence for a few minutes per day. By intentionally engaging my senses with simple activities that don’t require thinking or doing, but being.
You can also invite quiet in your home by creating a nook where you can have quiet time as an adult to either read, pray, listen to soothing music, meditate, write, journal, or just sit with yourself.
5. Light a Candle at Dusk
The Winter Solstice marks the longest night of the year and there’s a phrase I love about it: “It gets lighter from here“. It comforts me to know that each night after the Winter Solstice is shorter and the days become longer. There will be more sunlight, and soon it will be Spring again.
Winters are long, cold, dark, and gloomy, but they can also be festive, snowy, and cozy. There’s nothing more perfect than the winter sun on your skin or the sparkle it creates on fresh snow. So let’s light a candle at dusk, bid farewell to the darkness, and make space for light, rest, and hope.
I Hope These Winter Reset Rituals Will Bring You Light and Calm
Let this winter and the new year be less about chasing and rushing and more about resting and resetting. Take these winter reset rituals as starting points to create your own – that’s the beauty of finding what works for your heart and soul.
If you found this blog post helpful and would like to explore more winter topics, you can find all my seasonal blog posts HERE.
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