Reflection: Embracing the Darkness in Winter
The Winter Solstice marks the longest night of the year. A sacred pause where darkness reaches its fullest expression before the light begins its gradual return. In nature, this is not a mistake or a failing. It is a necessary part of the cycle. A time when growth happens quietly beneath the surface, unseen yet essential.
For us, the Winter Solstice offers a powerful invitation to reflect and create space to look back over the year with honesty and compassion. To honour what has worked as much as what has not. To acknowledge the changes you’ve made, the lessons learned, and the moments where life asked something different of you than you expected. Reflection is not about judgement, it is about awareness. And awareness is where meaningful change begins.
The WinternSolstice can also act as a conscious threshold: a final letting go of what no longer serves you. Whether that is old belief systems. Habits that once protected you but now constrain you. Emotional or energetic burdens you’ve been carrying out of loyalty, fear, or habit. Winter teaches us that release is not loss — it is preparation.
As you stand at this turning point, you might ask yourself:
What is ready to be laid down so I can live more deeply in the coming year?
Honouring the Yin Season
Winter is the most Yin time of the year. Where summer (Yang) is expansive, expressive, and outward-facing, winter draws energy inward. It is reflective, intuitive, and it should be deeply restorative.
Yet our modern culture often resists this natural rhythm. We are encouraged to stay productive, visible, and relentlessly optimistic; even when the body, psyche, and nervous system are asking for something quieter. Light is praised. Darkness is often framed as something to overcome, fix, or avoid.
But darkness is not the enemy.
In the natural world, darkness is where seeds germinate. Where roots strengthen. Where life gathers its resources before emerging again. When we deny ourselves access to this inner darkness, we cut ourselves off from a vital source of wisdom.
Carl Jung spoke powerfully about this when he said:
“It is not our shadow that causes harm, but our refusal to see it.”
The shadow, the parts of ourselves we hide, suppress, or judge, does not disappear through avoidance. It simply waits, often expressing itself unconsciously through burnout, conflict, or self-sabotage.
When we allow ourselves to meet the darker aspects of our inner world with curiosity rather than fear, they become teachers.
Darkness as a Tool for Growth
Embracing the darkness does not mean dwelling in heaviness or losing hope. It means developing the courage to look honestly at what is present. The grief, the fatigue, the doubt, the unmet needs. Observe, reflect, but do not rushing to fix or transcend them.
This kind of reflection builds self-trust.
It allows us to see patterns more clearly. To understand why certain choices no longer fit. To recognise where we may have outgrown roles, identities, or ways of leading. In this way, darkness becomes a refining force, stripping away what is inessential and revealing what truly matters.
For leaders, this is especially potent. The capacity to sit with uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, without immediately forcing resolution, is one of the most important leadership skills of our time. Winter teaches us how to do this naturally, if we let it!
Living More Deeply
The promise of the Winter Solstice is not that the light disappears, it is that it returns, renewed. But it does so slowly. Gradually. With patience.
By allowing yourself to reflect, to rest, and to engage with your inner landscape, you create the conditions for a more grounded, authentic, and sustainable way of living and leading in the year ahead. What emerges from this season is not forced ambition, but aligned intention.
As you move through the darkest days, consider:
What truths are asking to be acknowledged?
What parts of yourself are seeking compassion rather than correction?
What inner fire needs protection so it can grow?
Winter does not ask you to shine. It asks you to listen.
And in that listening, something quietly powerful begins.