Movement in Winter

Winter is the perfect time to run, walk or just enjoy the outdoors; you don't heat up as much (well, it takes a while before you do) and the cold makes you faster out of necessity and gives your sense of purpose/your activity outdoors, a heightened response.  

I like running in the winter as my face doesn't get red (my rosacea comes out when I am to hot), the landscape around me changes making my old running route look new, and my pace picks up as I learn to re-balance myself at every step I take onto the often snow laden and slippery road ahead of me.  I also become more retrospective during this time which enables me to let go of things that are bothering me as I run. Life is full of so much craziness and fast paced busyness that running allows me to slow down; yes it allows me to slow down.  Running is my ceremony. 

Running is my ceremony as I have to prepare for it just as I would do if I was getting ready to go into a sweat lodge or attend a ceremony.  I prepare my mind and body as I am asking it to do endure something that will make it healthy but requires a lot of energy.  It takes time to warm up in colder weather and I have to get my body moving before I head out the door with jumping jacks, knee raises and butt kicks.

But before I get my body ready, I have to get my mind prepared as it sometimes rebels and I have to trick it by putting on my running gear an hour ahead of my scheduled run just so I don't back out. It can be cold starting off some days, especially when it is -30 outside and my mind knows it!  Yes, I do run in -30 weather (Northern Ojibwe Cougars run in all kinds of weather...lol). Movement is the key to life and all that it entails; everything around us moves even if we stand still.  So if everything else moves, even the grandfathers (rocks), then we should too as it is only natural.

When my mind and body are set, I head out the door and onto the land.  The connection with the land is also part of ceremony.  Connecting with the land through all our senses enables us to understand the true meaning of what land provides us (life) and how we need to be cognizant of what we do to the land in return.  Running on Mother Earth teaches me to be kind, to see what I don't always see and to listen to what is really happening around me and on the land.  If I get so caught up in what is around me, technology, society and the busyness around it, then I will lose my ability to be humble and centred.  Running on Mother Earth centres me and grounds me.

As I run, my mind lets go of what is troubling me and just like in the lodge, I focus on my breathing and the rhythm of my heart beat as often in cold weather you can see your breathe as you move about pacing yourself evenly.  It is here that I become aware of my body working with my mind.  My mind will often encourage my body to keep moving, that the little ache will soon go away and all will be well.  I lose focus on everything but the natural feeling of my body doing what it needs to do to be healthy and alive just as it does in the lodge.  And as I run, I talk to the trees and the animals around me and they talk back to me; this awareness that I am not the only being in the world comforts me. 

At the end of my run, I am relaxed, no longer cold, and thankful. Running is ceremony and ceremony happens in all seasons, not just one.  It is prayer and wellness and I am forever grateful that I understand it as such.  Whether or not you run, go out and just be part of the earth around you, even if it is cold.  I can guarantee that you will feel alive once you move in it and enjoy what it has to offer you, even if that is just the coldness of the day.

Carrianne