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Hibernating Is Good for Your Health
Your only New Year’s resolution should be to hibernate
It’s taken me a pile of years to finally appreciate — and enact — the unobvious at holiday time: do less. Like, really: less. And then: less again. Hole up, be still, quiet down. These are the yuletide lessons I’ve finally swallowed after years of doing the frenzied opposite. In fairness, I’m still mid-swallow on some of the nuance.
For instance, I habitually register a post-Christmas urge to reach for any number of all-new-you resolutions to propel me into January. I particularly notice it this year, compelled by a wish to compensate for, or recover from, the bleak horror of 2020. Yet, I now let the urge appear, signal its suggestions, and then dissolve.
Don’t get me wrong. Permission to dissolve isn’t granted because I’m airtight as is (errr, no). I’ve no doubt there will always be more to learn and create in a given lifetime. I just don’t feel compelled to bring about my next-level self in lieu of a midwinter’s nap.
As Nora Zelevansky reports for Elemental, the ancient science of Ayurveda advocates for this approach, as does traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). After all, longer nights and shorter days are nothing new in the scope of human existence — the cold season has always invited us to huddle up and rest. Turns out there are health benefits to be reaped here. Among them: enhanced connection with self (which tends to spark greater insight); alignment with nature’s timing signals (which, despite the invention of electricity, our species is hardwired for); and good old fashioned slowing down — an inevitable ally in the 24/7 wrestling match with stress. The winter months cue us for this, and always have. It’s the surge of health & fitness marketing right about now that can make the cues easy to miss.
After such a painful year, I’d love to think fewer of us miss the cue as 2021 breaks open. I know my body (which is far wiser than my mind) won’t let me squander the opportunity to rest — really rest — before the dawn of the fresh, warm season ahead. I can iterate and push later; for now, I hibernate.
