Slow down. Winter has questions for you.
A journaling reset for the space between years you won't want to skip.
“I do not plan to start anew in January.
That is for Spring.
This is the night, in the dead of winter, where I pare back the excess to reach the bones of my life, so when I am reborn, it is as only my most essential nature.”
— David Gate
It’s the longest night of the year, and the calendar is about to turn.
We are standing at the edge of something. The year is loosening its grip.
Time doesn’t move neatly or obediently yet we let numbers carry weight.
Dates suggest order, renewal, and forward motion. Tick tock.
But time spirals. It circles back to places we thought we’d left behind.
Look outside.
Nothing shifts in nature between 12/31 and 1/1. Energy stays close to the core, tucked in, conserving itself. Winter tightens; darkness endures. Cold pulls heat inward, away from skin and toward bone. The nervous system asks begs for less.
The year ends, but the season continues.
Today marks the solstice. The shortest day; the longest stretch of night. Darkness peaks before light returns like the slowest smile you’ve ever seen.
The trees stand bare. Leaves have already returned to soil, feeding what comes next. Roots deepen. Animals retreat to dens and allow the pause. Yet we rush toward declarations of renewal in the middle of nature’s contraction.
What are we running from when we refuse to pause?
I am not suggesting we ignore January 1. Collective change carries momentum. You can feel it whether you want to or not. If we are going to work with this moment, we do it winter’s way.
Enough of the usual rush: urgency that overlooks what your body survived, resolutions borrowed from someone else’s ideals, goals that clash with your nervous system, and protocols piling up and promising transformations you have no capacity to inhabit.… none of that.
Instead: reflect excavate deeply, release to make space, and root vision in what your body can step into ~ then spiral upward… you’ll feel the difference.
Winter teaches that power lives in the pause.
Beginnings grow from endings that have been properly witnessed.
We’re going to do that, together.
Water Holds What Summer Obscures
In East Asian Medicine, winter corresponds to the Water element. Water governs depth, introspection, will, and the intelligence stored in bones and kidneys. Water carries the questions you have postponed. Its gift is pattern recognition, which aligns with winter’s request to notice what summer in its vibrance reflected out and away.
Energy moves inward in winter, storing where it matters, and the season asks you to do the same.
Most January goals are detached from context + not rooted. They aim toward an imagined future self while bypassing the signals your nervous system has been sending all year.
Your body speaks in patterns.
Think about the energy crashes that arrive like clockwork during certain phases of your cycle…a puffy face that appears every morning after you've pushed through stress too long… digestion that knots every time seasons shift or you travel… sleep that fragments when you ignore what needs tending… the pressure behind your eyes after weeks of saying yes when your body signaled no.
"I say yes when I mean no and the wrinkle grows." —Naomi Shihab Nye
These repeat. You notice (maybe forget) then wonder why it keeps happening.
Pattern recognition changes what becomes possible.
You can choose differently only after you see what’s been repeating. (I wrote about this process in my essay here.)
P.S. If this resonates and you want the complete protocol, workbook (it’s beautiful! 💙), and support in The Reset Room, I’d love to have you. For the next few days, I’m offering 40% off the yearly plan. It’s the best way to move through this work together and lovingly support what I’m building here. Join the inner circle with 40% off annual forever, here.
The Brain, Default, and Transformation
Let’s get right to the heart brain of the matter…
Your brain holds a fixed sense of self and will sabotage attempts to become anyone beyond it ~ even the life you want.
Your Default Mode Network (DMN) keeps you stuck, and your Reticular Activating System (RAS) filters reality to confirm it, while your amygdala sees growth as threat.
Willpower collapses because the nervous system reads change as instability.
Transformation requires a different entry point.
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.” — Carl Jung
Writing Rewrites the Brain
I can’t tell you how transformative a regular journaling practice has been for my patients.
Writing alters how the brain organizes identity and possibility. Each movement of the hand engages neuroplastic change.
Winter’s questions invite a specific posture: slow down. Witness the year fully. Observe without correcting. Name patterns you did not consciously choose. Release what has finished its work. Notice what sustained you when everything else depleted you. Sense what wants to take form next. Build structures that support those patterns.
Engaging these questions releases remedies.
“Writing is medicine. It is an appropriate antidote to injury. It is an appropriate companion for any difficult change.” — Julia Cameron
The act of writing slows you down and warms you up in the best way. Your hand moves slower than racing thoughts, letting the voice in your head settle. Patterns reveal themselves when you give them room on the page.
🌀 With that, I’m excited to share this with you, and those who’ve attended my seasonal retreats and workshops can attest to its transformative power.
The S.P.I.R.A.L. Framework
This work lives inside a framework I have taught for years at points of transition.
S.P.I.R.A.L. supports recalibration during moments when life asks for reorientation. It applies at any time, though winter offers the conditions to engage it thoroughly.
The Winter Reset brings this method into the space between years.
SEEK / SOFTEN: Explore the past year with accuracy and compassion. (RAS, pattern detection, fitrah)
PURGE: Release what weighs the system down and return it to soil. (Emotional pruning, tazkiyyah, Positive Disintegration)
IMAGINE: Sense a future beyond default conditioning. (Psychocybernetics, tafakkur, designed self)
ROOT / ACT: Translate vision into practices that hold under pressure. (Habit formation, yang mobilization, niyyah)
LOOP: Return quarterly to adjust and spiral forward. (Feedback cycles, muhasabah)
🌀 The Winter Reset holds the SPIRAL framework: pattern recognition, release, visioning, and integration. It weaves neuroscience, ancient wisdom, and embodied rituals with seasonal planning for the year ahead. Inside The Reset Room, you'll find the complete protocol with worksheets you can return to quarterly. We'll be doing this together seasonally. Come.
An Invitation: 40% off yearly is only available for a few more days. You’re locking in a rate that won’t increase, even as I add seasonal workshops, live practices, and deeper protocols throughout 2026 and beyond. Plus, you’re supporting the work that makes all of this possible (so appreciated!). I keep the free tier generous. The inner circle gets even more. I’d love to welcome you now.
My Own Winter Practice
I'm taking the next couple of weeks to hibernate. School is out. Loved ones are near. I am going to do my best to practice the slower rhythm winter requires. Setting these boundaries is hard, especially as someone with a lot of fire (and earth that helps), but necessary.
I’ll pop into The Reset Room occasionally, but mostly I’m cocooning. When we meet again in the new year (still winter, still plenty of time to burrow deeper), I’ll bring renewed energy for essays and reminders that help us move through the seasons wisely.
I wish you a spacious close to the year.
Whether you move through this alone or alongside others, give yourself the time to reflect.
Winter carries wisdom that January often rushes past. We stand with one year behind us and another forming ahead.
What happens here shapes what follows.
Stay with the darkness long enough for patterns to reveal themselves before choosing what comes next. Intention is everything.
P.S. If you engage even a portion of this practice, I would love to hear what you notice. Share inside The Reset Room or in the comments. Two hours with winter's questions can clarify what months of resolution-setting cannot.
Thank you for supporting my work.
What’s included below:
🔹 The complete Winter Reset ft. the SPIRAL protocol
🔹 A beautifully designed Winter Reset Workbook (PDF)
🔹 Guided integration practices + 🌀 throughout 2026, members will receive Seasonal Resets with focused practices that keep you aligned with your vision without repeating the full protocol each time.
I've been pouring into this workbook, and I hope you fill it up as a tool to elevate your year ahead
“If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.” ― Richard Buckminster Fuller
I’ll be in The Reset Room over the next couple of weeks as I move through this alongside you. Slow, deep work like warming honey. The more you settle in, the more it flows… and it will shift something in you.
A candle flickers while the house sleeps; your hand on the journal, noticing what actually matters. 🕯️
