My Winter Wellness Routine
Winter can be tough.
When you suffer from long term or ongoing illness winter can feel extra hard on your mind and body. Aches and pains become more pronounced, the cold can be an extra layer of exhaustion, and the lack of daylight has a tendency to affect our mood and immunity…
It’s so important at any time of year to have a routine that helps you not only feel and stay healthy, but also gets you excited to start the day & means that you approach every day with the best mindset, energy, and intention possible.
That doesn’t have to be the same routine all year round though. Your routine should shift and change to naturally align with the changing seasons and the changes these being about in your body, health, and wellbeing needs.
If, like me, you have found living seasonally is a way to help your health, then during winter self-care and your wellbeing practices are one of your biggest allies!
My self-care and well-being routine has changed, grown, and evolved over the years. There are some things that remain constant, and others that are phased out either for the season, or because they no longer serve me.
As the seasons change so to does what my body needs. In summer my days are long and I spend as much time outdoors as possible. In winter things are slower, more internal, I spend more time indoors keeping my muscles and joints warm, and drink plenty of teas and hot chocolate.
The foods I eat to nourish my body, and the rituals of preparing them, changes with each season too.
Here are some of my constant and firm wellbeing favourites, as well as some specific Winter wellness + wellbeing activities that are part of my routine this winter —
My Morning
I like to start my mornings early. But in winter they are a little slower…I have learnt to love running in the dark, and getting to see the stars through this season. But lots of layers are required! And warmth is so important for our muscles and bones at this time of year - especially if you are dealing with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, or long term illness.
Our bodies have to work a lot harder to regulate our core temperature when it’s either very hot or very cold. This extra work is why we often feel more worn out from being outdoors at this time of year, and when conserving your energy is essential, so too is wrapping up in lots of layers + thermals to keep warm!
Being out to greet the sunrise is a beautiful and uplifting experience in winter, and there’s something about breathing in the cold air that really awakens the mind and senses. My winter mornings are also a time for slow yoga, meditation and warming teas…
Winter Teas for Digestion + Warmth
Our digestion slows down through winter, and can often feel sluggish, uncomfortable, and cause digestive issues. Because of this I like to drink lots of ginger in my tea blends, as well as warming herbs for better circulation and warmth — fennel seed, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, rosemary, cardamom, all are spicy additions that will leave you feeling comforted and grounded through the winter, they all help me to warm up, and keep warm, through the winter months when I tend to feel the cold too.
Here’s one of my goto winter tea blends for you to enjoy:
Warming Winter Tea
Ingredients
20g dried ginger root
2 cinnamon sticks
20g dried liquorice root
1tsp black pepper kernels
1tsp dried fennel seed
Method
Loosely grind all ingredients in a coffee grinder or pestle and mortar. Use one tsp in a cup and add hot water. Leave to steep before drinking.
Winter Foods
My meals and the ingredients I choose change with the seasons too. Eating seasonally is a great way to ensure our body gets all the nutrients and care it needs — or as much of them as we can.
Breakfasts are warming and nourishing foods like porridge and stewed apples. Dinners are full of root vegetables and more complex carbohydrates — our bodies need both these things to fuel us through winter and keep us warm.
Body care
Taking care of your skin is of most importance in this season. For me especially the winter is the harshest season for my skin. The cold, unrelenting air of winter, plus the switch to dry, heated air indoors can lead to cracked, chapped, flaky, dry, sore + uncomfortable skin. Especially on your face and hands (those parts most exposed to the cold).
In winter I make sure to switch to a gentler cleansing routine for my skin, and focus on protection and nourishment. Lots of shea butter and thick body creams, adding a pump of sweet almond oil to my baths, and using oils on my face are just a few of my skincare rituals through winter.
Things like warming hot baths with Epsom salts and infusing your face and body oils with other healing plant properties are another two of my favourite practices…
Infused Body Oils
Infused oils are scented and take on the properties of the plants you choose. Working on both the skin and senses…
Oils like sweet almond, sesame, sunflower, rosehip, or avocado work just as well for this, and all are full skin nourishing properties on their own. Choose the oil that suits and works best with your skin.
For winter I like to add frankincense, rosemary, lavender, pine, orange, and ginger. You do not have to use all of these at once. Choose your oils/plants for their scents, properties, or what most calls to you in this season…
You can add either essential oils to your base oil, or you can use plants to infuse your base oil.
If you are using plant materials they need time to infuse their properties + benefits and must be left 2-3 weeks (or for a full cycle of the moon) to work their magic. An essential oil mix on the other hand can be used straight away. Just shake to combine all of the oils…
Warming Bath Salts
Bath salts can be soothing to the body and the senses and are a perfect opportunity to nourish the skin.
Ingredients
200g Himalayan salt ground
100g Epsom salts
1tbsp Sweet almond oil
1tsp Ginger essential oil
1tsp Rosemary essential oil
1/2tsp Black pepper essential oil
2 handfuls dried rose petals
Method
Mix all ingredients until combined. Add one handful to hot running bath water. Store in an airtight container.
And don’t forget taking care of your physical body too - Making sure that I am taking care of my body means listening to it throughout the day, and following it’s cues, making sure I am drinking plenty of water regularly, stretching, and taking time to walk are all important.
Immunity
One of the main focuses for my wellbeing through winter is supporting my immune system and keeping it strong.
In the depths of my chronic illness, this was a necessity to try and ward off illness, now it is a precaution and a habit I keep - one which must be working as I haven’t been sick, at all, for the past 3+ years!!
Eating the right foods, keeping hydrated, and keeping warm, these are just one part of supporting your body in staying strong. Other things I use to support my immune system through winter include :
Taking echinacea as soon as I start feeling run down. There are many herbal remedies and medicines that work to support our immunity. Echinacea is my choice and one that works for me, you may have a different herb that works for you…
Starting taking a vitamin D supplement in Autumn
Gargling with salt water whenever I feel a tickle or soreness in my throat - this kills any germs or bacteria that I may have picked up and stops them from multiplying in the throat
Taking a spoonful of elderberry or rosehip syrup - both full of vitamin C and antioxidants to support immunity
Evening Rituals
How you finish your day is just as important as how you start it.
It starts to get dark before 4pm in the depths of winter, and while it can feel like you should keep on working, these darker nights should be a time to wind down and do less… as with the slower winter days, winter encourages us to do less. Conserve energy.
It is a time for hibernation and reflection.
While it can feel like you are wasting precious work time by switching off electronics and using less blue light once it gets dark, in truth it will only feed your creativity come Spring.
Winter evening are a time I like to drink a mug of hot chocolate, spend time with my bunny rabbits, and read a good book.
Winter evening are also the perfect time to journal, and write…
Review your year, reflect on your growth.
Spend time doing the deep, transformative, inner work through this season.
Then start planning for the next!
What do I want to Change?…
No one’s perfect, especially not me. There’s plenty I could still improve on, and always things I want to improve on and change for the coming year. As we grow and expand our routines should grow and expand with us, supporting us with what we need in this moment.
So do not get too caught up in making things ‘perfect’ or doing exactly the same thing each day or each month. Be guided by your intuition.
And as each season draws to a close spend time feeling into what you want for yourself in this next season, what you want that to feel like + what habits and rituals you want to keep, let go of, or add to your routine… as well as noticing any bad habits or tendencies you may have picked up along the way that need to be addressed!
If you need some help with this check out my Seasonal Journaling Prompts to help you:
And most importantly, don’t forget to have fun with it all… make it playful, and make it uniquely you! Because ver health and wellness is, it is ALWAYS completely personal to you + your body. Let this season be exactly what you need.
xo Emily
