Solstice 2025 FINAL
===
[00:00:00] Welcome to the average nineties GAL podcast. Join me as I share my own journeys through life, how I got and continue to get through them, as well as real stories from real people in this crazy world. Let's get through it together.
Hello and welcome to the average nineties GAL podcast. Meredith here of course, and I am jumping in for a solo episode on the Winter Solstice, December 21st. If you are listening to this, when this comes out. Of course I am in the Northern hemisphere, so it's the winter solstice, but if you are listening from the southern hemisphere, it is the summer solstice, but doesn't matter which hemisphere you are in, it is still a solstice.
And it is a [00:01:00] time that I like to think of as the real new year, and it's because I love to set intentions that will. Be about this next six months, not about the whole year New Year's resolutions, if that's for you, that's great. That never seems to work for me. So I really do love to use the solstice as a time to set intentions, not goals.
I do not like the word goal really for the next six months. And then on the next solstice, I set intentions for. The following six months into the end of the year, I also like to use the Equinox because that is the time between each six month period, between the solstice, and it's the perfect time to [00:02:00] say to yourself, okay, it's been three months.
Now, how has it been going? Am I truly living into the intentions that I set for myself on the day of the solstice? Do I need to tweak anything? Do I need to redo anything? And really just do a little mini audit to see, okay, well maybe this didn't work, but perhaps I should do this instead for the next three months until the end of this solstice and going into the next one.
And December 21st, because I am in the Northern hemisphere, it is winter time and it really is a time to go inward in intentions. But if it is the summer solstice for you, it is really a time to think outward because it's really about the sun. It is the [00:03:00] longest day of. Of the year for you. For us in the Northern Hemisphere, it's the shortest day and it is now beginning to lead into days that will now start to be longer again.
And then if you're in the southern hemisphere, it's the opposite. Your days are now starting to become shorter starting tomorrow, uh, anyway, no matter where you are. Whether you feel like going inward or you wanna think about your out going outward, your outside life, for instance, uh, the sun shining on you.
It doesn't matter how you do this. So I am just sharing this because I just love intention setting, but I only love it if it's something that I'm truly going to do. I want to just share with you a few things that [00:04:00] I'm going to be doing and what I wrote in my journal this morning that made me decide to just hop on and publish an episode because I think that especially this time of year, we.
Tend to look at others, which is fine, but it's really important that we're looking at ourselves and we really are thinking for our future and our present and paying attention to ourselves and giving ourselves the space and the time to. Go inside of ourselves and see what it is that we want to do. Not just goal setting, not just I wanna lose 20 pounds, kind of, uh, intentions and goal setting, but really who it is we want to be in the next six [00:05:00] months.
What is it that we have been thinking about maybe, or holding onto that we need to let go and. Something that's really been nagging us of what we really want to do with our lives. What do we wanna do with ourselves? How do we wanna make it happen? And the solstice is a really great time to do that. So something that I do at the end of every year is I go through all of the journals that I have written in for the entire year.
I hold onto them and at the end of the year, and this is something I did this past week actually, is I go through and read through every single journal and I tear out anything that I want to keep. Journaling for me is. Just a [00:06:00] brain dump as well as ideas are in there, thoughts, poems, drawings. I have journals just full of so many different things, but I do not go back to them while I am in the midst of it.
I just finish one and then open up a new one. So it's really great to go through my journals and see what I wrote throughout the year and to remind myself of ideas that I had, of poems that I wrote. Uh, you know, it's, it's really cool. And then anything that I do not want to keep, I will then throw in the recycling bin.
And it's a really great end of year ritual for myself. I do like to clean my house as well. To get rid of clutter. To get rid of things, but throwing out, recycling, hey, burn it. [00:07:00] If you want any, anything that you've written in journals, it's really a great way to look forward and to stop looking at the past and to move ahead.
I just love that. So if you have anything like that for yourself. Anything that you do throughout the year that you keep, that you can possibly go through, take what you need, take what you want, and then get rid of it. It is so cathartic. It doesn't have to be something like, you know, major. You didn't have to go through anything major.
It's just a really great cleansing of the mind and thought and opening up. A new journal buying new journals. I went to Target and bought four different types of journals that are empty and just waiting for brain dumps and creativity and ideas and I'm really excited [00:08:00] for it. And it isn't about looking back.
I love looking forward and it's interesting because. I found a couple of things in my journal that I would love to share with you that is just so fitting for specifically the winter solstice, but once again, it's for any solstice as well. I don't even know when I wrote these, but it just seems so fitting for this time of year.
So I found, so this is the first one. Today is a day for going inward, a day for listening to my soul, listening to nature, to what the wind and the birds tell me. How often do we truly stop and listen to the world around us and not ignore the messages, turn off the noise, turn off the voices in and out of our heads.[00:09:00]
I love that little message to myself because that's exactly what I want to do today. Go inward and I ask you to do the same. And of course, once again, because this is the winter solstice, it is about the darkness and this is another, uh, journal entry. And also none of these are edited. I'm reading them just as they are in my journal.
So if I stumble a little bit, it may be because I cannot read my. Scribble, but, uh, this is another one I found that seems fitting. Darkness welcomes me because I am not afraid because it knows that I have been there, I have seen it. I can face it, and it can at times bring me comfort when nothing else can.
It can make me into something new, something that only grows in the shade. A toughness that only comes when it grows in the dark. [00:10:00] It should not scare the darkness. It should not be only a place for monsters or demons, but a place where light finds a way to emerge. Like the species at the bottom of the of the sea.
They have figured it out. How to create light, to see, to see the reality, to see what is true. I really do love the idea of embracing the darkness. We always tend to feel as if we need to look away from it to be scared of it, but we need to embrace the darkness because we can't have light without it.
Right? And this is why I love this time of year, the actual weather. No matter where you are, really gives to what it is that you may want to be paying attention to. [00:11:00] And I really love the idea of nature and the world around us, giving us the permission and the invitation to do what it is we need to do and to take that as a sign to lead us to where we.
Want to be and what we want to think about, and then taking action into what it is we would like to do. Using nature as a guide is what's inside of us. It is what truly sends us to our imagination, our creativity to the person we really are. If we look to nature to give us the guide, then we will truly feel connected to ourselves as well as to others and as well as [00:12:00] to the world around us.
I truly believe this, so I invite you to do the same and to welcome it to welcome whatever the season is for you, where you are right now. To not fight it, but to embrace it and to love it and to enjoy it. And what I wrote in my journal this morning, I promised I was going to get to that. I went on and on and on.
I apologize for that. Is is this, and then I'm hoping what I wrote is then going to lead into something you can think about for yourself. To think about the intentions that you would want to do. So I wrote this this morning. Only a few leaves are still hanging on fluttering. As the wind tries its best to take them down.[00:13:00]
Just yesterday, that tree was vibrant with color. Now it is bare. As if to shed its skin the way I must shed my past, my fears, my insecurities that take up space and will not give room to the new life that is waiting for me. One thing I heard recently that I really loved, and I am using this solstice to do it, is to set one bold intention and a grounding commitment.
Now, I'm not necessarily going to do one of each, but I love the idea of intentions and commitments instead of goals and resolutions. I just love those words and it's a perfect solstice type of journaling and thought process. But what I'm also gonna add to that is what do you [00:14:00] want to let go of and to do that first.
So to first on this solstice, write out or think through everything you want to let go of. Now that can be things that can be feelings, that can actually be people in your life that you would love to let go of. It can be anything. It could even be something that you're going through mentally that you just really wanna let go of.
It can be physical as well. If you feel as if you need to shed, you need to really get rid of actual extra weight. Do you also need to sweat it out? Do you need to go to a sauna? Do you need to cold plunge? Do you need to actually, I mean, do [00:15:00] go get a massage. Lymphatic drainage, actually do dry brushing and just literally shed skin off of yourself.
That's letting go as well. If you need to meditate, you need to go for a really long hike. You need to be without screens, things you need to really let go. It does not have to be physical. It can be anything. So for me, I wrote down this morning and I'm sure there will be more. I am letting go of laziness, roadblocks, and fear being in my own way.
Of what others think of what I have told myself, they will think. I do want to also, just as I wrote in, uh, about the shedding, uh, like of the trees and how I just need to shed as well. This is definitely what I need to shed. [00:16:00] I need to shed all of the excess that is just weighing me down, holding me back. I need to.
Tear down the walls that are in front of me and let it all go. The intention I wrote down to show up for myself each day to give myself the space and grace to bravely live out the life I want to live and become the person I want to be. And connected to that intention, I wrote under commitment to Move every day.
Strength and cardio and steps. Eat only nature's food. And what that means for me is to stop grabbing for anything that's in a box. Get rid of processed, overly processed food. So eat only what nature has brought. [00:17:00] Write every day and create, and. Work for the Meredith Company, move the needle is what I wrote, and that just came to me of what are we doing for another company, for instance or for others?
If you don't have a job, if your vocation is caring for others, for instance, are you putting. Forward the same amount of commitment and drive and dedication to yourself as you are to whatever you're doing work for out in the world or who you're doing that for. If you do work for a company, are you also working on you, your company, the company of you, the company of your world, and your [00:18:00] surroundings?
How much dedication are you putting towards yourself? So that just came to me of the Meredith Company, and I kind of like that. I, I think that's gonna stick with me of am I giving the same amount of hours and dedication to my personal company as I am to everything that I work for and strive for? And that is, even as a mother.
The, uh, the freelancing, I'm doing the job, I'm doing everything that I'm doing. Am I also putting the same amount of effort towards myself? So I ask you to, on this solstice, do the same for the next six months. What are you going to let go of? What is an intention or intentions and grounding commitments?
Or one grounding commitment for the next six months, and [00:19:00] on the Equinox, do an audit of the past three months, how is it going? And I even will on the Equinox, maybe do an episode to talk about how it's going for me and to remind you to think about how it has been going for you. I love using nature. Once again as a way to bring ourselves back to who we are.
We are humans. One, uh, intention or commitment, I should say as well, that goes with all of, everything that I want to do for myself is I want to have a day each week, and it would probably be a Saturday or a Sunday. Let's be real. That I want to call, pretend the power is out day, where [00:20:00] I am going to shut down screens, not look at anything that is plugged in or use anything that is plugged in.
I would even love to just light candles and write and read. Yes, I, I would want to listen to music, so I probably would use my speaker and turn on a playlist, but the point is to sit outside, be in nature, go for an intentional walk as well, and really just pretend that there is no other way to escape than a book.
Or a page or nature, so I invite you to do that as well. That is definitely going to [00:21:00] be one of my commitments to myself is to do that once a week. My teenager is not going to enjoy it. Maybe I won't force him to do it. Perhaps I can get him to do it for half a day. Uh, but I also don't wanna fight with a teenager on that day as well.
So I really want it to be a day of calm and meditation and connecting to everything that is not on a screen or plugged in or social media or any of that. I am really looking forward to those days. One final journal entry that I found that really connects to all of this. I don't know when I wrote this once again, but I think this is a great way to end this episode because I just realized it really [00:22:00] connects to everything I was just speaking about yesterday.
A coyote looked at me as if it knew me. I told it to go away, but it paused as if to ask, are you sure I wasn't? I was being protective of my dog. So if I were alone, would I have stayed still staring, welcoming the wild within me, hoping it would tell me what to do next. That your life is not what it is supposed to be.
Not yet. It turned and walked into the darkness of the trees. I found myself wanting to follow. I hope you take the time on this solstice to go inward, to set intentions and to also find ways to connect to yourself to [00:23:00] the outside world, but not through. A screen not through your phone, and to really figure out what you would love to do for the next six months, who you want to become, who you really are, but you lost perhaps recently, and who you want to find.
I hope this episode was helpful for you and I'm wishing you all the best for the next six months. Happy Solstice and also happy holidays and a very happy new year. I'm truly looking forward to 2026. I will see you in the next episode. Thank you so much for being here. Bye-bye.
