Winter Warmth

by Megan Amal
AFO staff

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Hey there!

Winter is really hitting its stride here in Chicago and as a Floridian, I am looking everywhere for ways to cope. I had heard that this season can be an emotional and physical challenge and am now, in my first Winter, coming to understand why. The sun hides for days at a time, my skin is dry, and my joints ache. Even my Floridian car is strugglin’!

So, here in this Winter Warmth series I will share exercises, activities, ideas, and recipes that are helping me appreciate my first time in seasons. This series will be helpful to other Winter newbies and snow-day veterans alike. Although inspired by the harsh weather in Chicago, this information will be useful to those in more mild climates, and even to those lucky fools back in Florida.

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This morning I woke up and chose to breath in some Winter Warmth with a Tai-Chi exercise that I recently learned from the luminous Lin Shook (artistic director of Perceptual Motion, Inc., a Chicago modern dance company). This exercise is both grounding and uplifting. It is a great and simple way to check in with your body and breath.

• Begin standing with you feet a comfortable distance apart. Breath naturally, in and out. Slowly deepen your breath as you take in the space around you and notice the sensations in your body.
  
• As you inhale imagine that you are gathering energy from the earth. This energy enters your body through swiss cheese pores in your feet. It travels up the body through the center.
  
• As you exhale imagine that you are gathering energy from the sky. This energy enters your body through the crown of your head and travels down the body through the center.
  
•  After a few breaths you can incorporate a bend in the knees. As you exhale, allow your knees to bend slightly. (shown in the photo below) In Tai-Chi you want to move within your limits. Bend your knees to a point just before their limit. Always leave a little extra space to move. As you inhale, allow your knees to straighten without locking. Repeat as many times as you’d like.
  

• You may also incorporate movement of the arms. As you inhale allow the energy moving in through your feet to lift your arms. As you exhale allow them to lower. (photos below)
  

• A variation on arm movement: lay one hand inside the other, as if you were cupping something precious. As you inhale allow your hands, palms facing up, to move upward toward your heart. As you exhale allow them, with palms facing down, to move downward toward your pelvis. (photos below)
  

• Notice the difference in sensation and awareness from when you began.

Check back soon for some more Winter Warmth here on AFO. Next time we will have a recipe for a nourishing and easy to make Winter tea and some gentle movement to open hips that are tight and tired from the cold and from avoiding the cold on the couch.

Thanks for coming!
In solidarity and coziness,
megan amal