Why January is for letting go, not fixing.

Are you in time and mood for your "New Year's Resolutions"? We are told everywhere, it is a month for "fresh starts," "new habits," and "fixing" the things about ourselves we find problematic. Of course there is some changing energy around the New Year, but we are nearly pushed to act as if it is Spring—to sprout, to grow, to be active—when everything in the natural world is doing the exact opposite.

Outside, the earth is in deep midwinter. Right now things are even covered in ice and snow. It is quiet and cold. The sap has retreated to the roots, the seeds are encased in frozen soil, and the landscape is still. In the natural world, January is not a time of "starting"—it is a time of resolution.

The lost meaning of "resolution"

We often use the word resolution to mean a firm, hard decision. A "fix" to a personal issue. Or politically, to draw a line in the sand. But this is a fairly new use of the word and especially the “New Years Resolutions”, which fits quite well into the 19th century industrialization area and both the mechanical and extraction mindset, where we fix things and plunder for success.

Originally the word comes from the Latin resolvere, which means "to loosen, to undo, or to unfasten."

In its original sense, to "resolve" something, wasn't to harden your will against it. To push into discipline, to get your body in shape. Quite contrary it was to allow it to dissolve, to let go.

Winter is the season of resolvere. It is the time when the hard, rigid structures of the previous year are in the quiet cold until they finally dissolve. 

In the same manner can we let our hard structures —the tension in our shoulders, the fixation on our goals, the "armoring" we built to survive—sit and ease.

Moving from "fixing" to "allowing"

When we try to "fix" a personal problem in January with a New Year Resolution, we are fighting the season and the natural flow. We are trying to force growth into a frozen field.

Somatic resolving is different. It is the act of allowing to be what is. It is undoing the fixation on who you "should" be. It is loosening the chronic tension you’ve carried as armor. It is dissolving the belief that your worth is tied to your productivity.

When we stop "doing," we create space for listening and for dreaming. In the quiet of winter, the system isn't "lazy"—it is processing, composting, and preparing. But this preparation cannot be rushed. It requires us to sit with “resolve”, unfastening and trusting the dark.

The warmth of attention as a practice for winter

You probably know the saying where attention goes, energy flows. Let your attention rest warmly on your rigid, tense structures and dissolve them into a more fluid state.

Notice where you are currently "resolving" to be different. Feel the tension that "decision" creates in your body, maybe your jaw or your chest.

Instead of pushing for change, just sit with that hardness. Imagine it is a winter's day, and you are just the quiet, pale, warming sun shining on this “problem”

As you sit and breathe, ask yourself: What would happen if I just let this go? What if I didn't need to fix this, but only to let it be and dissolve?

Allow or inquire what comes with the response. May it be emotions, allow. If its thoughts or the critic, inquire - what is it not allowing?

Try to spend this time now unfastening, letting go and easing up, instead of new resolutions. No new versions of you. No "better" selves. Just the slow, quiet process of returning to your natural state.

The wisdom of the change of the seasons

We celebrate birthdays, trees have growth rings. Those are markers for changes.
Out of a year of exploring the seasons, journaling and gathering in community and marking the changes of the seasons together with Shalabiya, a little book was born:
Growth Ring - your guide to living with the seasons.
Here you are encouraged to explore how our lives, much like the trees, are marked by seasons. Every year adds a new "ring" to our being.

In the cycle of the year, winter is the season of rest and dreaming. It is not the time to "do"—that energy belongs to the Spring. Winter is the time to allow the old structures to resolve so that we can return to an open state of possibility, the dreaming and creativity of what may be.

If you are interested inGrowth Ring, purchase it here. It is an invitation to live with the year, rather than against it. A guide for journaling and self-reflection that mirrors the rhythm of the seasons.