Celebrating the Return of Light: Winter Solstice Traditions

In this episode of the Spiritual Mamas podcast, hosts Aericka and Kim explore the significance of the Winter Solstice, discussing its historical roots, modern celebrations, and personal reflections. They delve into various traditions from around the world, emphasizing the themes of renewal, reflection, and setting intentions for the new year. The conversation encourages listeners to embrace the solstice as a time for personal growth and connection with nature, while also sharing ideas for creating new traditions.

takeaways

• The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Celebrations of the Winter Solstice can be traced back to ancient cultures, including the Druids.
• Modern traditions often include lighting a Yule log to symbolize warmth and light.
• Global perspectives on the Winter Solstice highlight diverse cultural practices and beliefs.
• The solstice is a time for reflection, renewal, and setting intentions for the new year.
• Incorporating nature into celebrations can enhance the spiritual experience.
• Sharing meals and stories can create meaningful connections during the solstice.
• Practicing forgiveness and letting go of the past is essential for personal growth.
• The solstice can be a time to celebrate the return of light and warmth.
• Creating new traditions can help individuals find joy and meaning during the winter months.

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Transcript

Aericka Khongdy (00:01)
Hello. I'm Aericka and I'm Kim and this is Spiritual Mamas podcast. Welcome back. And if you're new here, welcome. Thank you for joining us. So how are you? How was your week? It was, it happened. It happened. It was a thing. Yup. I made it through. I'm here.

I was telling you before, I don't really remember much from this week. So I don't know that that's a bad thing or a good thing or whatever thing, but here we are. It's a thing. Yeah. Well, I am just discombobulated this week because I just got back from vacation in Arizona and we also went to like the Vegas and there's two different time zones within that thing.

And then came back. So I just came back on Monday and I'm just like jet lagged and confused and off my game. So it's been kind of a long week because of that. But I am proud of myself though. While we were on vacation the whole week, 90 % of the time I did do my meditations in the morning. Okay. Which is awesome.

I didn't do my affirmation as much because it's just kind of weird saying them out loud and my husband standing there. It's just, cause like, I am brave. I am strong. You know, it just sounds a little weird. so I didn't do that as much, but I think it made up for it because we were in nature so much. they think it kind of made up for it, but yeah. Yeah. I think that that would be like a good swap. You spent a lot of time in nature. So.

as we know, natural vibration razor. Absolutely. And I just have to say that if you live in Arizona or like the Southwest, I am thoroughly jealous. He's absolutely beautiful out there. And two, do you need a roommate? Cause like I could live out, I can be your roommate. I cook ish, I clean ish, like I'll pay some bills. Like look me up.

I'm sure that you could figure out like a good plan to trade some services, cleaning, cooking. I think so. So, hit me up if you live in the Southwest. All right. Well, today we're going to be talking about the Winter Solstice Yes, I'm super excited. So as we record this,

It is the day before the winter solstice. But by the time this comes out, it'll be slightly after the winter solstice, but all still applicable. I was thinking about this and it's really interesting because when I was young and I learned like, winter solstice, summer solstice, equinoxes, I would always remember like, that's coming up or that's that day. But I never really like understood what that, what they meant other than like it's the start of winter.

Right, yeah, it's the first day of winter. So getting into this and doing some more research on it, it was like, oh, OK, this is really making sense. It all aligns really well. And I'm excited to talk about it today. So this might be a stupid question. But so we're in North America, like northern hemisphere. So it's winter solstice for us. Is it summer solstice in the southern hemisphere? Yes, it is. And does it coincide directly? Yes, it does. Interesting.

That is one of the things that I was going to talk about. So in the Northern Hemisphere, because it's our winter, we have our winter solstice. It is the shortest day of daylight for us, which naturally means that in the Southern Hemisphere, is the longest day of daylight. So that is their summer solstice. That's really cool. Yeah. So on the same day, they are also celebrating in other ways.

so for people that acknowledge that, but, just to break it down a little bit, the word solstice comes from Latin words, sol meaning sun and sestere meaning to stand still. And this refers to the angle of the sun's rays appearing as though they stand still the days before and after like the day or two before the day or two after the solstice. The sun doesn't seem like it is.

any higher or lower at noontime. Okay. Which is why it looks like it's standing still. Oh, that's kind of cool. I never noticed that before. Yeah. I never noticed that. But now I feel like I need to go look at that. Although today is really crappy out. Yeah. Today is not a day for that. It's snowing slash raining. I'm not really sure. Yes. Pissipatating. But if you do find yourself on somewhere where

you know, it's sunny and the solstice, can stand outside at noontime and your shadow will not be moving from day to day. Whereas other times of the year, it moves more because, because of the way that we are angled. So the earth's tilt is not as great. That's really cool. Did, you might get to this, but did the people back in the day, they

kind of understand why that was happening, like because of the tilt of the or they just were like, knew it was happening and it was a thing? They knew it was happening. I don't know if they understood. I didn't really see anything about that. So I'm not really sure if they understood like the Earth is on a tilt. But they definitely knew it was happening. And to an extent, I mean, for so long, people told time that way, right? can tell where the sun is in the sky and you know, how high it is, tells you what time of day it is or what time of year and blah, blah, blah.

and so we find that in some cultures and a lot of cultures, like way back at the day, they would build structures for this specifically. so I'll talk a little bit about that, but, the, let's see, the Albin Arthin, I'm not sure if I'm saying that correctly, but this is one of the ways that one of

probably one of the oldest celebrations that we could find on record for celebrating the winter solstice. So the winter solstice marks the first day of winter in the Northern hemisphere. It's the shortest day of daylight and it is also the time that means if today is the shortest day, it's only going to get longer from here. So we're going to have more days of sunlight. So while it is the start of winter and you get into the dead of winter, everything is like,

gone, you also recognize that that cycle is starting to turn. Things will start to come back to life. And that can be a time of renewal, it could be a time of celebration, it could be a time of reflection for a lot of people. So the albin arthen, which is a Welsh word for light of winter, it's thought to be one of the oldest festivals for the winter solstice.

It is a Druid tradition, but it was practiced universally. So although it was started by the Druid people, people all over the world, and to this day, people all over the world still practice this tradition. When was this like, like BC? this like? Yes. Yeah. Okay, cool. I don't have the exact date in front of me, but maybe if I click this link, it'll tell me because I saved all my links here.

to make it easier to put into the notes. Yeah. We're learning. So the belief that they had is that the old son dies on this day and the new son is born on the following day. I love that. And that new son revives Earth's aura and gives new life to spirits and souls, souls of the dead. So that's beautiful. But it's kind of weird because like,

because we're just at the end of December, normally you're in the middle, not even the middle of winter, you've got January, which is really nasty for us, and February's really nasty for us. So it's almost like the opposite thinking, like what you're seeing almost. mean, yes, you're seeing that the days are getting longer, but the climate and the feel gets worse, I guess. mean, guess from, on who's perspective, but yeah. Yeah, and it definitely...

depends on where you're at. So we're in New England. We can get pretty nasty winters. Obviously, the higher north you go, worse it gets. But even if you're going down to Florida, Miami, or going into the Caribbean, and you're still above the equator in the Northern Hemisphere, you're much more mild. So you may not experience that as much.

But regardless, at least here, where we experience the winter, we can see that people will do certain things in the winter to try and keep that energy going. It's like, okay, we need to prepare ourselves to get through the winter to get to the other side. You know that spring is coming, but what are we going to do to get there? So one of the things that was celebrated in this

this tradition, this Elven earthen, is in Newgrange. Newgrange is a structure in Ireland. And it is, as far as what I saw and the research, one of the oldest structures. It's older than Stonehenge. It's older than the pyramids of Giza. And it was very important to the festival. It is almost like a temple, church type thing.

The way that the structure was built, there is a window at the top and on the winter solstice, when the sun is at that point, that midday point, it comes directly through the window and shines across the entire building. And at the end there is a stone and on that stone there is three, a three fold spiral carved on the stone. And so the light.

hits that carving right as the winter solstice is at its peak. And that really just highlights how much people were understanding like, OK, we know that this is going to happen. Let's build this structure in this way. That sounds beautiful. Yeah. It sounds amazing. Yeah. so it's got like a three, so kind of like a spiral at the end. Yep. It's a threefold spiral. Nice.

The idea that they had is that the sun god has inserted his rays of light into the womb of Mother Earth, bringing about new life in the spring. my gosh, like this is beautiful. I've said it like three times, I know, but like it really is. Which for me, I am not a winter person. So like me, I'm loving this. Just keep going, just keep going. I don't disagree with you. I feel like I hate winter and I'm born in the winter and I can't stand it. Yeah.

But I have always found excitement for the winter solstice. And like I said, when I was younger, I didn't know what it meant. I was just excited that it was like, OK, it's the start of winter, but that also means the days are going to get longer. Like, we're going to get more sunlight. Things are going to turn around. So that was just something instinctual. And now as I'm reading about it, I'm like, my god. Like, yeah, this makes perfect sense. Yeah, this is really cool. This is something to look forward to. Yes, yeah. So you get that excitement going. So to this day, people will still go to this structure for the winter solstice and celebrate around it.

experiencing, you know, the sun coming down, everything being lit up. And then there's other things that they do in combination with that, and I'll get into some of them. the festival of Yule or a feast of Yule and Yule in itself is, it can be its own separate thing, but it's often connected with the winter solstice. So they would do a Yule log tradition at this time.

Houses would be decorated with evergreen branches, a reminder that nature will be green again. And in some Irish traditions, the greenery decorations were a symbol of a place to rest for nature's spirits that were fleeing from the cold and darkness. yeah. But again, beautiful. It's like that recognition that this is a hard time for all,

for spirits, even for those that have passed. allowing them space to rest, their cold, their, you know, it's dark, it's dreary, allowing them a space to rejuvenate the spirit of Albin Arthin is new and it leaves the past behind being open to what's coming. Okay. Thanks. So I thought that was really interesting. had never understood that before. So they, they put the log.

outside or that is inside. So the Yule log tradition. The Yule log has to be something that is either gifted to you or something that is on your property already. You can't go out and buy it. You take this log and it's supposed to be a pretty hearty log. And in different cultures, they may celebrate it differently. And I'll talk about a couple of them. But here, the idea was you bring this log into your hearth. You light the log.

And you keep it lit for 12 days, so into the new year. Okay. And then what you do with that afterwards depends on your culture, depends on your traditions. So in some places they would let that fire go out and then save the log for the following year to use, you know, the next log they're going to bring in for the new log, they would use this log that's already been burned.

to start that fire. it's like a connection. Other times they burn it down completely till it's gone. And then with the ashes, they use that fertilizer or they use it to get back to the earth in some way. Sometimes those ashes were put underneath their beds to protect from spirits and things. In some places, the Feast of Yule

involves lighting the fire. And that was in honor of the god Thor. So depending again on your culture, your traditions, your backgrounds. It's like more the Viking, the Nordic. Yes. And the idea of lighting this log, it's, we've talked about the importance of like fire and how that can be cleansing and how it can be rejuvenating. So the symbol of lighting this log and keeping it lit.

was for heat to represent light and the sun, sun returning, life giving properties and things like that. The log itself was sometimes kept for good luck. Like I said, used as kindling in the following years, burned to ash, used in fertilizer. So this log is supposed to not, well, again, depending on the...

culture not go out. You're not supposed to let it go out. It's supposed to light until either a designated time where you turn it off or it burned to ash. I that's not a big log. Yeah, I was thinking envisioning, I'm like, I don't think my fireplace can hold something that's going to burn that long. No. I don't know that that's... I don't know that I've ever seen fire pit. Well, but you think about like... Yeah, but back then, like they had much larger fire.

pits and or not even inside like it could be just outside or something. Yeah. Yeah. They were made much, much bigger back then. I have a fireplace now and it's a coal burning fireplace. Like I couldn't put a log in it even if I wanted to. So yeah, we have wood, but it's not that big. Yeah. I have seen where people like will do like just put it on their TV or something. They like have like a fake one that's like just constantly kind of going. I could see that like

putting that into something, I think that'd be cool. I could do that? Yeah. I think there's lots of these traditions that like they may have started out this way, but because of time and logistics and all of that, they could shift, but you're still carrying that same energy. You're still wanting that same outcome. saw a video too, maybe it was today, of somebody like taking their Yule log. So they, it was a real log that they brought into their home.

But for whatever reason, I don't know why they decided to do it this way, but they just drilled 12 holes into it. And so they put 12 candles. Oh, that's a good idea. And idea was just to light a candle every day. Oh, like kind of like a menorah. Yeah. That's cool. That's a good idea too. Yeah. So I mean, think this, and I'll get to like things that you can do now to recognize or celebrate the winter solstice, but this is,

one of the ideas that I was taking away from all of this is like, you do what works for you. And I know we've talked about that before. You know, it doesn't have to look specific type of way. So yeah, it's like the intention. Absolutely. One of the things that I wanted to do when doing some of this research was like to look outside of what we traditionally think of as like pagan cultures or, you know, I just wanted to see what other people were doing.

I don't know why this was interesting to me, but it was. The winter solstice is celebrated around the world. So in China, they have a tradition called, oh gosh, I'm going to mispronounce this and I apologize so much right now. Dongzi. I think that's it. D-O-N-G-Z-H-I. Oh yeah, I'll go with it. So the belief is that

The yang energy, which is that muscular positive energy, would grow stronger after the winter solstice. And so this was a time that the family celebrated together. These celebrations would be 15 days long. They would be referring to like the extreme of winter or winter's arrival. Your family gathers together. They would worship their ancestors. They would have a feast. They would have a...

feast of foods that represent reunion and prosperity and warmth. things like, depending on where, you know, in the area you are, you may be having something like glutinous rice balls. You might be having porridge. You might be having dumplings all different types of food. and I'm sure we'll get to this at some point in all of this, but you know, for,

Chinese culture, yin and yang are a symbol of harmony and balance. So the idea was that when the days are short, there is insufficient yang energy. So you have to have yang foods, which are warmer foods. And they were consumed to counteract the yin energy. Makes sense. Other places like Afghanistan and Uzbekistan have something called yalda.

Again, I'm sorry if I mispronounced that, Y-A-L-D-A. And they do this celebration during the winter solstice. The idea is of rebirth. And they would do things like gathering around with loved ones, we've talked about, eating and drinking together, having a feast. But something that I saw in their traditions that was a little bit different is that it was very intentional for them to

tell stories and like read poetry throughout the night of the winter solstice. So they stay up together and welcome in the new sun by doing that. And then some of the foods that they would eat would be more like watermelons, pomegranates, things that might be more red in color in order to symbolize the dawn of a new life. okay. Interesting. Yeah. Very cool.

I like the poetry and like reading. Yes. That sounds so nice. Yes. I loved that idea. was like, goodness. I mean, I also think that at a time when things were

so much different and less technology-filled. Your options might have been limited in what you could do, but doing something like that and sharing something like that could be so beautiful. Well, it reminds me, so in the Catholic Church for Christmas the night before Christmas Eve, they often do a midnight mass. Yeah. A lot of cultures will also then stay up after midnight mass and open

presents and have a big meal, depending on like kind of what your ethnicity is. Yeah. And like my parent, my dad's side used to do that. They would go to mid-at-mass and then stay up all night, have a big meal, open up their presents. And then like the rest of the day was just kind of chilling. So it's kind of, mean, that almost sounds like that type of thing. I've heard a lot of anecdotes or opinions that some of these like

Christian traditions are.

are their own variations of winter solstice, of yule, of pagan traditions. Yeah, they are. So I wouldn't doubt that there's definitely something to that. One of the other ways that I found, so we talked about like, Druid culture, what they've done in Ireland and China, Central Asian countries, one of the other

traditions that I found was, and again, I apologize for my pronunciation. So y'all S-O-Y-A-L. Okay. It's a Hopi Native American ceremony. Okay, yeah. That's celebrated during the winter solstice. It can last up to 16 days. It's marked by gift giving, dancing, and storytelling. Okay. And one of the beliefs that they held is that protective spirits

would bring the sun back from its long somewhere. the idea there is, you know, honoring those spirits that are bringing back the sun.

I just love this. I keep saying that, but like I'm just kind of blown away. And I really want to do something now. Like I want to incorporate something because I've never kind of really looked at winter solstice. I mean, I know it is a thing and like, you know, the longer days, but never really did anything about it. so my kids are a lot older now and my daughter is

married and his family, my son-in-law's family, has a lot of traditions and so they spend a lot of time with his family. my youngest is 16, so the last couple of years I've been kind of like, well, Christmas kind of sucks. We don't have any traditions. We don't have anything. And it's really been bumming me out. So maybe.

I need to start doing like a winter solstice thing and that be our tradition because, and the other thing she was like, for me as a kid, Christmas was very wrapped around religion. We would have several church services that we would go to like Christmas Eve, Christmas, which are beautiful. And like that was really kind of part of my thought process on Christmas. And again, not having that with my own kids.

It kind of made it almost cheap because all we're doing is doing presents. And I know that Winter Solstice is not Christmas, but it's very, very close. And I know that it's very much wrapped up in that. And it's making me kind of have a more positive spin on winter. Like, oh, this rebirth and the spirits are bringing back the sun. It just makes it.

That makes it so great. I agree with you. I think it's something that like when looking at it from this perspective, it can really highlight the energy that you need to get through the winter and to also keep that perspective in mind. Like, yeah, I hate winter and winter sucks but it doesn't have to. It doesn't have to be this terrible thing that is just happening.

It's something that I could actually enjoy, especially if doing something like this. And honestly, mean, you have to have some sort of winner. Even in the hottest climates, it's still, there is a deadening period. There is that period where things aren't as vibrant. Yeah. And you need that in order for kind of the cycles of nature needs to happen. Like some things need to go dormant so that they can be better when, you know, rebirthed.

in the spring and stuff like that. I mean, it is absolutely necessary thing. Yeah, because if you're vibrant all the time, it isn't I don't think that's sustainable even in nature. so yeah, absolutely. And I think the idea of like highlighting and this is something that I came across too is like something like, you know, pulling in the grains into the home like evergreens, evergreens don't die quote unquote in the winter.

But even they become less active and it's like, okay, it's a reminder of what is to come and a reminder that things will come back to life. Hello, I have a real Christmas tree. Every year I bring a tree. Yeah. this is what I'm doing. Awesome. Yeah. But I, and this is like kind of an aside, my own personal ideas on like Christmas, not my favorite.

It's just not. Winter's not my favorite. Christmas isn't my favorite. There's always a lot of stress associated with that. There's always a lot of responsibility. There's always a lot of expectation. There's always a lot of running around. I don't want any those things. Yeah, me neither. If I could just enjoy time with the people that I care about, that would be so much better. Yeah. But it's hard for me to enjoy that time without having some sort of expectation.

I have a very large family. I have a lot of children, young children that I need to like get gifts for and so to make it special for them. And I enjoy making it special for them, but it's a lot of responsibility. Yeah. I feel like a lot of people feel that way. especially over the last several years where we go from Halloween to Christmas, like there is no in between anymore, like commercially.

I feel like it's just ramped up that stress level for people. And it's taken away the magic and yeah, for the kids, but there's no magic for the adults and there's no, I don't know. I mean, yeah, if you have little kids, it's fun for them and it's fun to see them do it, but by the time you get to Christmas, you're so tired and stressed out and people get sick because of it. So. Yeah. Yeah.

I was thinking about this because I was like, if I could just have like, I would love to just have a meal that doesn't have to be anything intensive, that doesn't have to be anything that's like time consuming. But if I had a meal with like the people that I care about and just, just chit chat, let's hang out. Yeah. Let's play a game. know, something like that would be amazing. Yeah.

So was thinking about like, what are some ways that you can take some of these ideas and traditions and bring them into 2024? So definitely decorating with nature. This is something that a lot of people do anyway. If you have plants in your house, if you have a real Christmas tree, these are things that happen anyway. But in some other ways, being very intentional about which things you're bringing in. If you're bringing in something new like.

we've talked about this before, I have a lot of plants in my house, but I don't bring in new plants, you know, during this time of year. It's, you know, things are like not thriving right now. Right. But doing things like holly, pinecones, evergreens, that sort of stuff can represent the cycle of nature's return, sun, life, the cycles, all of that.

I've been seeing a lot of videos of like people making garlands of dried orange or lemon. Yeah. and I wasn't really sure. I mean, they're pretty, but I wasn't really sure like, what was the purpose of that? But I think it ties into like the return of the sun and warmth because of the color scheme of it. So also being intentional with that. What are the colors of the things that I'm bringing into the home? What are the things that I'm using that are organic, that are live?

I absolutely love the idea of sharing a meal. think that's something that maybe I would like to start. yeah, I've been thinking about that as well. Yeah. I think that would be a really cool idea because, and because it is slightly separated from Christmas. Christmas Eve, we run around. Christmas day, we run around. We're eating lots of food with lots of people, but we're not really just sitting and sharing.

together and then there's the presence and then there's, you know, I've got to go to this place, I've to go to this place. Like there's no, yeah, exactly. Not just like chilling with friends and family. Right. Most people don't. Yeah. Yeah, we definitely don't. So if I could do like, hey, winter solstice, which is a couple days before, and if everybody could just pause for a moment, come over and let's just have a meal. I really want to make that a thing.

I already mentioned that I don't have a fireplace that I can put like wood into, but lighting a fire, starting a fire at this time of year. mean, today's definitely not the day to do that. It's gross outside, but. Or even like candles, like have specific candles that you bought specifically for that time or, or if they're not bought, then they're from year to year, you know, that sort of thing would be kind of cool. Like have like a.

Mm-hmm. Set of. Cool. Yeah. Candles. So that was my thought. And I don't know if you've seen it before. There's that red candle over there. That was gifted to me. It is carved. There's like, it's shaped like an egg. It has carvings of flowers on it. It was gifted to me by a friend who was working with students who

have different disabilities and like the students made it. wow. Yeah. And it's very pretty. And I was like, that would be like the perfect thing for me to do. It's red. Yep. It has egg shape, which is usually life. Yes. And it has got flowers on it. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. I was like, my god. So that's what I'm going to use it for. There you go. So yeah, finding ways to like light fires to represent all of those things could be really helpful.

So we did an exercise before we got on. And this exercise is part of like a practice of yule and celebrated yule. So the 12 or 13 days of yule are from the winter solstice to the new year. And I think it makes sense for you to start to think about what are the things that I want to give birth to or have come to fruition in my life in the coming year. So we did this and I think I'm going to do this.

moving forward, but taking out a piece of paper, writing down 13 goals that you have for yourself in the new year, and then separating each goal, folding them up and putting them into a jar. And then every day for those 13 days, you will pick one out. You won't look at it. You'll burn it, give it up to the universe, putting your intentions in there, of course. And then on the 13th day, which would be the first,

you will have one left, that one you will open, and that is up to you to make come true for yourself that year. I'm excited about this. This is a cool concept and thought, it's almost, it's not scary, that's not the right word, but it's almost like, okay, what, in just a bit, guess, what's gonna be left? You know what I mean? It's like, which one is gonna be left? is that the universe that's gonna make it that one left or you know what?

I'm excited about it. Yeah, me too. I had those same thoughts and I was also like as I was writing down my goals, I'm like, I want to be, you know, realistic, but I also don't want to box myself in like I normally do. I don't want to limit myself. So I put some goals on there that were like, hey, that's a little scary. But you know what? I want to make it happen. So if I get one of those left, there you go. It'll be a challenge. It will. And just

the process of trying, know? Yeah, know, putting it into the universe, putting your thought process into it, as we've talked before, can make a lot of things come to fruition. absolutely. When you start to shift your mindset into, you know, focusing on those things and really considering like, what do I need to do? What can I do? What maybe do I need to ask for in order to make these things happen? Yeah. So I think that that one is,

a good one. I'm glad that we started that. Yeah, we'll have to like report back. Yeah. Yeah. And I definitely, I feel like we should have like listeners do this and yes, you know, us know what happened. Yeah. So, um, okay. So two notes about that real quick. The winter solstice is not always on the 21st. Sometimes it's on the 22nd, right? Because it depends on, you know, the earth tilt and all that stuff.

it might be 12 goals that you write down. It might be 13 goals that you write down. We wrote down 13 goals and we're starting today and today is the day before the winter solstice officially begins. But that will get us to the first. Yeah, so this is gonna come out after, so I guess you could still just do whatever when you listen to this. Yes. You if you listen to it before the first of the year, you know, start from there.

Yeah, I was going to say again with making it your own do what feels right. If you're listening to this on the 26th, then you can just limit yourself to that many or just write down that many or I'm thinking like if it was me and I was listening to this after and I wanted the whole thing, I'd probably still do the 13, but I'd probably burn them like one every hour. there you go. To catch me up. Like catch you up. Yeah. There you go. But you know,

whatever makes sense, whatever feels right. But I think that that would be a really cool thing for everybody to get into. It gets you starting to think about reflecting on where I come from and what I've done and what I want to do. It's a good, yeah, it's just all around to get into. I'm thinking some of mine were a little bit broad. I don't know that's a good thing or a bad thing.

then maybe having to use mindfullness to figure out how to make it, you know, work. Yeah, I put some on mine that were broad and I put some on mine that were very specific. So I think if I end up with something that's a little bit broader, then I will have to come up with a plan. How am I going to break it down to make it more specific? But, Yeah. So I think this is, you know, a lot of fun ways to

celebrate, to bring in good energy, to revitalize, to reflect. We've talked in the past about journaling and I'm sure that incorporating that specifically around the winter solstice can be helpful. Gaining insight, developing yourself, growth, what are your plans, what are you doing moving forward, what things do you want to change? I mentioned this

idea that it's not just about, I mean, the theme is definitely about like bringing in the new, but also letting go of the past. Things that don't serve you, people that don't serve you, experiences that maybe are dragging you down or that you're holding on to. If there's a way of letting those go, now's the time. Yeah, well, because you said it was like kind of a time of rebirth.

You don't want to keep carrying that into the next life quote unquote. know, kind of. Yeah. Time to practice forgiveness. Practicing forgiveness, letting go of old paradigms. Absolutely. I think all of that can be practiced now. So bringing in what speaks to you, what you want to start now, it'll be a good time to do it.

Yeah. Very exciting. I love it. Love all of it. And it's really changed my thought process around winter and which is good. It's awesome. Yes. Another way to raise your vibration. And just like help your overall like mental health because so many people have like sad like the seasonal affective disorder. Right. Yes. Seasonal affective disorder. Because of like the poor light and it's cold and you're not as active and stuff like that. So keeping this as like a

in like your thought process and your mind as a positive thing, I think could be really beneficial for people. And it doesn't have be something that is, you know, that is requiring a lot of you. Yeah, I know. So it makes it a little bit easier to engage with. Yeah, absolutely. Well, that's what I got on the Winter Solstice. Beautiful. Love it. Awesome stuff. I do want to say

that we have an Instagram now. Yeah, we do. It's at, what is it? It's at spiritual underscore mamas underscore AK. Okay. On Instagram. And you can message with us, you can follow us, you can, you know, give us comments, us ideas. Let us know if you did this, like when your soul does anything for it, what your thought process on it. And you can also text us on Buzzsprout.

Yeah. And you can follow us on Spotify, on Apple, on YouTube. You can comment on all those things. So just like, you know, engage with us. We want to know what's going on. Yeah. I absolutely want to hear from people. I want to know what they are doing, what they're thinking, how their own spiritual journeys are going, what works, what doesn't. Maybe some perspectives or ideas or thoughts that, you know,

we haven't yet touched on or we don't know about. Yeah. Here we go. And we're going to be doing Monday affirmations, Monday morning affirmations. So I'll be putting out some affirmations to do just quick ones that you can do and see if it helps you. Absolutely. All right. Well, I think that's good. So, so follow us everywhere, leave us comments and we'll talk to you soon. Yep. Happy Solstice.