Reflections for The Dark Season
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©NICOLE BRATT
Hello, dear one,
Yoga Sutra 1.2 tells us that the ultimate aim of yoga is to quiet the fluctuations of the mind – to reach true clarity. The yogic sages described the disturbances that pull us away from that clarity as the kleshas. They name five of them: ignorance, attachment, aversion, ego, and the fear of death.
Of these, I feel that the fear of death – abhinivesha – is often the least discussed. Most of us feel uncomfortable thinking or talking about death unless we absolutely have to. Yet death is a reality – and a guarantee – of having this opportunity to live. And, if we are paying attention, we meet many endings long before our final one. We leave a job. We move away; others move away. We go through a breakup or a divorce. We finally trade in the well-loved car with all those memories. We part ways with a friend. The vibrant summer garden fades into the bare winter bed. A beloved person or pet dies. Endings are woven into the fabric of living.
This time of year, as we move toward the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, Nature offers us its own reminder. These darkening days guide us into the fallow season – a kind of ending, a kind of completion, a kind of death. With that comes an opportunity to reflect on how we meet these thresholds. After all, winter is also a time for rest and renewal – a reminder that almost all endings create potent space for what will come on the other side.
Restorative yoga, in particular, provides a beautiful container for these reflections. Savasana – translated as “corpse pose” – invites us to practice letting go of the trappings of our daily lives, release striving, yield into stillness, and notice what arises in the space. When we give ourselves the gift of extended rest, we also practice meeting endings with presence rather than resistance.
In this way, both the practice of Restorative yoga and the seasonal turn toward darkness are wise teachers. They remind us of the inevitability of change, of endings, and yes, of death – as well as the opportunity to meet all of it with courage and clarity.
I hope you might enjoy one of my favorite winter poems (below).
Enjoying the sweet darkness,
Nicole
PS. For those of you in the peri/menopause transition, I’m offering a free online yin & Restorative yoga practice this afternoon (details here) at 4pm Pacific.
PPS. My special discounted yoga therapy initial series offer ends this Saturday, Dec 20. Details here!
PPPS. Thanks to student-friend KM for recommending this great, on-topic song after class last week: Amy Ray’s “Fine with the Dark”
Winter’s Cloak
by Joyce Rupp
This year I do not want
the dark to leave me.
I need its wrap
of silent stillness,
its cloak
of long lasting embrace.
Too much light
has pulled me away
from the chamber
of gestation.Let the dawns
come late,
let the sunsets
arrive early,
let the evenings
extend themselves
while I lean into
the abyss of my being.Let me lie in the cave
of my soul,
for too much light
blinds me,
steals the source
of revelation.Let me seek solace
in the empty places
of winter’s passage,
those vast dark nights
that never fail to shelter me.