I reckon I was a bear or a tortoise in a former life. As soon as the clocks change, I am only too ready to start hunkering down at home, venturing out as little as possible. As the nights grow longer, I need to be practically shoe horned out of the house after dark and actively seek out cosy time at home.
In all fairness, if we hark back to our earliest ancestors, they would have lived by the rise and set of the sun and would have been bedded down as dusk took hold so there is undoubtedly something deep in our makeup,
We live busier and busier lives. "I'll have to check my diary", "I will see if I can squeeze it in", "I just don't have time", "I can't do everything" are claims we all make and probably quite often and how exhausting is this?
Cheaper travel, booking online, home delivery and worldwide access gives us more to occupy our time than ever before and trying to fit it all in can become stressful and take away from the actual pleasure of what we signed up for in the first place.
Why do so many of us react with horror at the prospect of how quickly Christmas is creeping up on us? Is it because we have so much to do, buy, cook, prepare, host, wrap, polish? Pack that around work, family, Pilates!!, lifting weights!! and all our other responsibilities that the pleasure is almost parked to one side.
As the days shorten, we get less sunlight but rather than adapting like our forefathers, we just plough on and keep going while wondering why we are picking up every passing bug, feeling exhausted and, looking less than our perky best. Perhaps a little part time hibernation to top up the batteries?
In Iceland there is a wonderful tradition called "Jólabókaflóð" or "Christmas book flood". This is a celebration where people exchange books on Christmas Eve then spend the night reading their new books while enjoying hot drinks and chocolate. Now that sounds to me like Heaven on earth!
Why save it for Christmas? Maybe instead of dashing out to do a/b/c, it makes far more sense just now and again, to shut the door, turn off your phone and lie on the sofa with a good book and a hot cuppa or go to bed really early, take your book and hot choc. with you and enjoy a mini hibernation.
As someone who hibernates very well, I can highly recommend it!
Forwarded to me from an online member and a good reminder for us all- "Good posture can be successfully acquitted only when the entire mechanism of the body is under perfect control"
- Joseph Pilates. I bet he would have approved of a little mini hibernation!
