Continuous Hibernation

Or: what's wrong with New Year's resolutions

Hello and welcome to rewilding philosophy.

I have shared last week that I feel unable to create anything. Somehow thoughts won’t get coherent enough to form something interesting. I heard back from many people that they share a similar feeling and it got me thinking: It's January, and while the world buzzes about New Year’s resolutions and "New Year, New Me," many of us might find ourselves feeling quite different: fatigue, lack of energy, sleepiness.

And perhaps that's exactly as it should be.

While our performance-driven society uses words like unenergetic or unmotivated, maybe we are just in sync with the more-than-human world.

The Grand Misconception of January

In the Northern hemisphere, January means that the more-than-life is in a phase of rest and regeneration. Yet, we pressure ourselves to make new resolutions, like exercising more, working less, or finally learning a new language. Instead, we could use this time to pause, sit, and truly feel: What do I really need for a powerful year?

Our bodies and minds follow natural rhythms. In winter, our bodies produce more melatonin; we need more sleep, our metabolism slows down. This isn’t a design flaw, but a sign: Now is not necessarily the best time for increased performance.

Philosophical health also means treating ourselves with some kindness and knowing our bodymind-entangled-with-the-whole-universe-self well-enough to respond to its/our needs.

Henry David Thoreau famously said

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

I have always wondered how to “live deliberately” without going off into the woods to scavenge my food (though if I knew how to, I’d love that) or abandoning my social life. How can I slow down, simplify, and live deliberately right in the middle of the chaos of the noisy, fast-paced, urban, digital world?

“People try to get away from it all—to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish that you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like. By going within. Nowhere you can go is more peaceful—more free of interruptions—than your own soul.” Marcus Aurelius

Silence, rest, sitting (and lying) still is not just a state of tranquility, but it can also be an invitation to understand ourselves better.

What if January isn't meant for fresh starts?

What if the best beginning to the year is a conscious pause to listen to our inner voice? What if we allow ourselves to be in tune with our body, mind, heart, and Mitwelt? And what if from this self-compassion, emerges what we actually need for a fresh start, that which we can’t name yet and that which we don’t know yet and that which only shows itself when we give it sufficient space and time.

What if we wonder instead of plan, if we release the pressure to achieve everything immediately, if we make letting-go lists instead of to-do lists, in which we write down what burdens us—old projects, obligations, expectations—and consider how we can let go of it all. What if we enjoy those moments of stillness, whether it’s a walk without a destination, a warm bath, or simply nothing really.

“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers.” Black Elk

Living in kinship and in relationality with our Mitwelt is also that: following the rhythms.