Trust your instincts

I know it’s winter when I want to just rug up in front of an open fire, preferably in my favourite pyjamas enjoying a warm hearty meal with a nice glass of red. Perhaps you’re like me;  perhaps we are just being human.  After all if animals can slow down and hibernate during winter why can’t we?  

Our ancestors were influenced greatly by the seasons.  In 1900, the British Medical Association published a description of winters among Russian peasants. For centuries, they survived scant winter food by engaging in lotska—sleeping the whole season away. “At the first fall of snow the whole family gathers round the stove, lies down, ceases to wrestle with the problems of human existence and quietly goes to sleep.”

And in France economists and bureaucrats who ventured out into the countryside after the Revolution were horrified to find that the work force disappeared between fall and spring…Villages and even small towns were silent, with barely a column of smoke to reveal a human presence.  As soon as the weather turned cold, people all over France shut themselves away and practiced the forgotten art of doing nothing at all for months on end.

And just like we have a preference for certain foods in winter so do our choices in what we prefer to smell.  The stimulating and earthy smell of rosemary, basil and lavender become more attractive to us than the uplifting scents of lemongrass and lemon.  Our bodies naturally know that these oils will help us with circulation, muscle and joint pain and memory.  So follow your instincts during these colder months and trust what your body tells you.  And before you know it the sweet scents of spring will waft into your home and encourage you outside.