Winter: A Time to Regenerate and Reflect
This past week the Pacific Northwest was hit was a big snowstorm. As the roads filled in with snow people retreated to their homes. Schools closed, classes were cancelled, and a quiet calm descended over the city. Walking Fynnie in the woods I was filled with this sense of peace. The snow blanketed the ground and my emotions. Everywhere there was stillness. It was as if mother nature was saying “Shhhhhhhhhh. It’s okay, there is peace in the present. There is calm within.” All I saw was a stark winter landscape. Canada in February. Everything was frozen and still.
This is what winter is a Yin within Yin time. A time for quiet and stillness. A time to rest. The days are shorter, colder and darker. This is not a time for expansion but a time to regenerate and reflect.
Help! The News is Stressing Me Out
While nature was calling for stillness, Donald Trump was busy wreaking havoc. First with the 25% tariffs and then his round up of undocumented immigrants and their children, withdrawing from the WHO and the Paris Climate agreement, developing the Gaza strip, banning basically anyone who isn’t a white male on government websites — at least those that still existed — and then there was Mr. Musk running amok with his programming minions. And while you could argue, trade tariffs aside, this is all happening south of the border, it was really hard to disconnect from the constant headlines, each one more shocking than the last. I was gripped to my phone and its newsfeeds trying to stay on top of what was happening next. With each announcement I felt myself becoming more and more anxious by the minute. “Where is this going? When is it going to end, how much more can he do and to whom? How is Canada going to survive when no one in the US is willing or capable of stopping him? Why is no one trying to stop him? How can Republicans continue to support him, don’t they see the impact he is going to have on their way of life. Am I the only one seeing this?”
The World Seems to Be Holding Its Breath
And with each headline I felt myself becoming more dysregulated, more anxious, and less confident in my future. I was needing peace — really safety — while the world seemed to be holding its collective breath. And I wasn’t alone.
An Uptick in Anxiety and Insomnia
Last week, patient after patient after patient came in all expressing the same anxiousness and anxiety. They spoke of insomnia, tension in their neck and shoulders, their fear. They knew they should not be looking at their phones, but they couldn’t help it. And as their fear rose their world got smaller. Instead of turning off their devices and going outside and taking in the stillness, we turned to our devices, addicted, glued to the next attention-grabbing headline — of which there were no shortage to choose from. All patients could talk about was what was happening outside of them completely beyond their control.
Trauma Leads to Dysregulation
When someone has experienced trauma, odds are high they are living unconsciously in an already dysregulated state. When you add more chaos and uncertainty their responses are going to be even more extreme. They won’t be able to “calm down” until they feel safe again.
Existing Health Issues Worsen
Their health issues — insomnia, IBS, migraines, body pains and aches, painful periods — will all get worse the more anxious they feel. Odds are pretty high if they have any kind of autoimmune disorders, they will become worse. You cannot not separate your physical from your emotional.
You are what you think and believe. And what you consume — whether it’s food or news feeds — will directly impact your physical and emotional well-being.
The Antidote
You can walk quietly in nature, or you can doom-scroll until 2 am. Walking in nature will lower your cortisol levels while doom scrolling will trigger your fight flight response and flood your body with cortisone, causing more anxiety and depression.
I’m Dr. Julie Nelson and that’s my view from the clinic.
