Winter Harmony- Welcome Shannon Kinney-Duh

The Winter Harmony blog series is our gift to our beautiful community to help inspire and support you to live in harmony with winter. Join us and some amazing guest bloggers M-F during the month of January. Click here to see all the Winter Harmony posts in one place.

Get your own Winter Harmony Mandala to bring a little peace and joy to your winter season this year and see what message it has for you.

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“I want you to be everything that's you, deep at the center of your being.”

~ Confucious

Hello beautiful,

Happy winter to you.

This past year I felt a deep urge to simplify and enjoy a more peace-filled holiday season.  So I followed an inner nudging, walked through my fear and put it out there to create a new online experience – and that’s when my e-course Outside In: A Return to Stillness http://www.afreespiritlife.com/outside-in/ was born.

Each day during the month of December, the class participants and I practiced embracing the true gifts of winter – rest, renewal, retreating – by creating a moment of stillness each day.

Becoming more aware of the importance and profound healing effects of stillness  – reminds me that making time to rest and renew helps me reconnect to what truly matters most in life.  I did end up having a holiday that was less about buying and doing, and more about experiencing and being – much more peaceful indeed.

I want to kick-off the new year staying connected to that inner peace.  I’m clearing out and letting go of the things that no longer serve a positive purpose in my life, and making space for new growth and endless possibilities.  And to do this, I know I need to continue embracing the true gifts that winter has to offer. 

For me, winter is about returning home.  It’s a time to be cozy, get quiet and snuggle in.  It’s about reconnecting to earth, to heart and finding solitude.

Life throws a lot at us.  It's quite easy to get knocked off center again and again.  And I'm seeing that part of the practice in living in harmony is learning how to get back there, because it's in this peaceful, present moment space where your pure love, JOY and contentment are always within reach.  Not OUTSIDE...but withIN

So what exactly does it mean to find center?

Your very essence - who you really are - is at your center.  When you find center, it's like going to the place where you feel at home.  It's when you feel most present.  It's when you feel in the flow.  It's where you feel...at peace.

The true gifts of winter teaches us how to go within and return to center amidst the craziness of life.  The more we get quiet and become aware of our center, and recognize what knocks us off, the easier it is to get back there.  It's this reconnection to center that helps us feel at peace, even when the outer world is seemingly moving at lightening speed.

Enjoy this 6-minute video, where I share inspiration on being in harmony with winter by finding stillness, even when you feel you don’t have time for it.

 

Here’s the link: https://vimeo.com/55305205

Your Personal Reflection:

Throughout your day today, notice when you feel most at peace.  Notice when you feel knocked off center.  Think (or write) about ways that help you return to a place of inner peace, even when there is chaos around you. Take a deep breath, smile and know...you matter. You are enough. You are doing enough.  Let go of trying to keep up with everyone out there.  Close your eyes. Embrace the true gifts of winter.  Feel the ground under your feet.  Feel your heart expand and notice what it feels like to find center. For when you do, you surely feel at home.

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Shannon Kinney-Duh is the creator of A Free Spirit Life. She's an artist, writer, yoga teacher, and life mentor.

Shannon's passion is inspiring women to reconnect to their intuition and creativity so they can create a life they truly LOVE.

She feels blessed to be married to an awesome guy and to be the mother to two funny kids. When she's not getting messy with paint or playing in the dirt with her boys, she creates e-courses like "Inside Out: A Creative Adventure of Self-Discovery" and "Outside In: A Return to Stillness." a free spirit life winter harmony 2013 from Shannon Kinney on Vimeo.

You can learn more at www.afreespiritlife.com.