Get Ready to Winterize Your Boundaries
Shifts are all around us. The daylight is shortening and the temperatures are dropping. With every season transition there lies an invitation (okay, sometimes it feels a bit more forceful) for our bodies and minds to slow down.
Where is this seasonal shift guiding you?
As I wrap up our boundary-writing time, let’s transition to our seasonal move towards Winter with some reflections on what it looks like to prioritize embodiment, rest, and seasonal boundary shifts over work and modern culture's hustle and bustle of the holiday season.
As we wrap November and head into December, the energy shifts again. Deadlines stack up, inboxes overflow, and we push through “one more thing” before break.
It’s the same cycle every year. A sprint to the finish that pretends productivity has no season. But our bodies know better. Nature slows down. The days shorten. Yet most organizations expect a steady, summer-level output all year long.
The truth is, our bodies and minds aren’t designed for constant motion. Nature isn’t, either. Yet, if you look at the typical workplace and academic calendar, it’s clear how dramatically out of sync our institutional expectations are with the rhythms that actually sustain us. Even with a slight pause in winter, chances are that time is spent catching up or trying to get ahead with sprinkles of holiday expectations, rarely to never an actual rest.
I learned a lot of this the hard way as a neurodiverse Capricorn rising and sun sign fully baked into the “go-go-go” mode, with a Pisces moon quietly begging for ease and flow. Years ago, I was living completely out of rhythm: chasing deadlines, teaching, presenting, playing superwoman, while my body begged for rest through injuries, breakdowns, and exhaustion. I wore overwork like a badge of honor… until my nervous system and spine made me stop.
It took recovery, reflection, and a lot of listening to realize: I’d been living as if the natural seasons didn’t apply to me.
As we move into this month, before the holidays pull you into their full rush, I invite you to pause and notice:
Where are you (and others) pushing against your natural rhythm?
What would boundaries feel and look like to honor your body’s pace this season?
How might rest, stillness, or small practices become part of your days, especially in your work?
Our bodies hold wisdom no calendar or deadline ever will. Listening is the first act of embodied living and leadership. We have to learn how to deinstitutionalize from within the systems.