On Dealing With Regret, Emotional Rebirth and Seasonal Cleansing
Today’s article is a bit different from what I’ve typically written on Welluvia. In the last few weeks, I’ve felt the bouts of winter take its toll on both my mental, physical and spiritual health. The past 12 months have been huge for me, especially with my journey with Welluvia, I have come to access so much knowledge and awareness of myself and the world around me. Going into winter, I felt like I had everything covered— I knew how to avoid typical seasonal shifts I had become accustomed to, but still, something in the past few weeks happened that I hadn’t prepared for.
I slipped into some old routines that ultimately I knew didn’t serve me but had reared its ugly head like they had in the past. New habits take a while to form, and breaking old habits take even longer to kick. The more I fell into the old routine, the more I found myself disconnecting from the things I knew were best for me, and ultimately felt like I was on auto-pilot and disconnected from my choices. These occurrences led me to feel a lot of guilt and regret, and that’s what I wanted to discuss today.
Dealing With Regret
We’ve all been there - made a decision that we’ve regretted later, or had something happen to us that we wish we dealt with differently. It’s a fact of life, everything has a consequence and we can either analyse it and move on, or let it fester and take us to the darkest parts of our mind. Given what we know about winter in Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is easier to allow ourselves to get too into our head, and stew on past mistakes or actions in this season.
I was listening to a podcast recently about the life-cycle of regret and found that it helped me deal with my emotions a lot better as I was able to by perceive my thoughts through a different lens. If we look at those who are in their darkest corners of life who then can emerge like a phoenix— brighter and stronger than ever, we can take the same approach when focusing on our past and our regrets. Rather than focusing on what we could’ve done, we can look at how that event or occurrence changed us, or what we learnt from it. Life is and will always be a constant forwards and backwards with these sorts of thoughts, but aiming to allow ourselves the forgiveness and non-judgment is what’s most important. In the podcast, the analogy between regret and our breath was fascinating to me. The inhalation of the breath represents aIl the emotion and experience and knowledge we gained, and allows us to see it for what it really is. Conversely, the out-breath allows all of the hurt and darkness that regret holds to be pushed out of our body. Let the breath in be the soap, and the breath out the water that cleanses these negative feelings from your body.
The Power of Seasonal Shifts
Winter, the season of depression and fear, can be challenging for us to navigate. Plants and flowers are dying off around us, the days are shorter, and we’re surrounded by cold and sombreness. It’s easy for us to slip into the darkest partitions of our minds. Then a seasonal shift occurs, and the light starts to shine in through the cracks, bringing a sense of optimism and hope. I noticed this seasonal shift beginning to emerge about a week and a half ago. It was a sunny day, but something felt different in the air. My acupuncturist also told me that it was now time to start focusing on keeping my liver energy healthy, as Spring is aligned with the Liver and Gall-Bladder. In the last few weeks of winter, we can spend this time to rest and recharge and finish off our introspective time. If we don’t spend the time now to properly rest and forgive ourselves for things we are stewing on, by the time spring comes, our bodies will be like highly-strung pressure cookers ready to explode. I’ll discuss more about that in Welluvia’s Spring Guide which will be out in a few weeks.
Into Spring, and Out of the Dark
Spring is a season representing time to push forward, move on and cleanse. Another analogy I read about recently linked the flower bulb we planted in autumn to the obstacles we go through life. The more obstacles and hurdles a sprout needs to go through to bloom above the surface, the stronger it makes the flower. We can look at the seasonal changes of the year as a constant rebirth and death, just like life and our breath. Every time we breathe in, we are reborn and given a new chance for our future of what we want to do. We let go of the things that have held us back. Then we breathe out, and we die again. Each breath and each moment is a chance to start new, as in the grand tapestry of things, there is no judgment, and everything relies on what we make of it.
I hope today’s article helps someone else out there who might be dealing with struggles that are similar.
Looking forward to spring!
With wellness,
Aleksandar
