A Winter Solstice Reflection

Today marks the winter solstice. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, we'll experience the shortest day and the longest night of the year. For the next six months, the daylight will continue to increase. 

Join us for our last episode of Season Four, where we reflect on the elements of lightness and darkness, and we look back at the growth of 2023 and the promise of 2024. 

Transcript

Erica D'Eramo: 0:05

Hello, and welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm your host, Erica D'Eramo. And this is season four. In fact, this is the last episode of season four as we round out 2023. And it's a short episode today, just kind of wrapping up the year giving a little bit of a preview of what's coming in 2024 and sharing some of your thoughts with you. Really glad to have you joining us on this podcast through our four seasons of existence and excited to enter the new year with you. So today is December 21, which means it's winter solstice, tonight will be the longest night of the year for many of us in the northern hemisphere. And there are a lot of feelings that come with winter solstice, there's, you know, a lot of discussion of the darkness and kind of in the darkest days of winter, people feel very differently about that some of us who have experienced, you know, like seasonal effects of that probably have our satellites, you know, blaring some full spectrum light into our eyeballs, hopefully taking our vitamin D and staying active. But there's also an element of the winter and these darker days that kind of invites us to be a bit more introspective, to nest a bit, maybe do some of that, like cleaning and tidying around the house, because you're going to be indoors for a few more months. Well, at least for those in the cooler climates. I know for folks in Houston, this can be some of the nicer weather in the year, depending on some of the seasonal changes. But in general, the the winter kind of brings us towards this coming in, right like more, more internal vantage point. And that can be tough for a variety of reasons. But it can also be a time to sort of plant seeds, right? This is like a hibernation period, it's a time for restoration. It's a time for growth. So as we know, you know, anyone who's trying to build some muscle mass knows that the muscle doesn't get built during the activity, it actually gets built during the healing. So that restoration and rejuvenation is one of the most important elements of of growth. And in a modern world where we have access to light and heat and noise 24 hours a day. And we pretty much maintain our similar level of activity, whether it's January or June, it can be a little tough to manage that tension between being restful and quiet and feeling like we should be go go go, you know, all the time. And while I know we talked about like taking some time off during the holidays, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that have a to do list that's longer than they would like to admit right now. And all of the shopping and all of the preparing and the get togethers and the gatherings, it can really fly in the face of any sort of restful intentions. So with that in mind, I just, I just hope that folks have a have the space to be cognizant of what's happening in their world, and maybe intentional about how they're spending their time and their energy right now, and perhaps aware about any of the feelings that they have about taking downtime or taking rest. And if they feel guilt around that which a lot of high achievers a lot of folks who are really intent on making impact sometimes carry some feelings of guilt or shame when they take some true rest. Or, even worse, when they don't plan for the rest and their body or their brain forces them to take rest then that shame is sort of doubled. So all the more reason to really be intentional about it and to question some of those feelings that come in when we resist what, you know, the sunlight, what our bodies what our brains are telling us, we might need. And I think it's also a good time as we kind of encounter more darkness and have been encountering more darkness right since the summer solstice. It's just been getting darker and darker and there's a lot of language around Winter Solstice that's like, Hey, this is as bad as it's gonna get. And then it starts getting lighter after this and I I love the hope that's contained in that message, I love the cyclical nature of that, that, you know, even after all the leaves dropped from the trees and the ground is frozen that, you know, from this point forward, things will probably start to turn towards spring, we'll see longer days, we'll see, eventually, like the plants around us will start to react, the animals around us will start to react, and we'll welcome spring and then summer again. But we still have a lot of winter left. And for anyone that's in, you know, a more temperate or cooler climate, usually, some of the coldest days are towards the end of January. So I think we all sort of know that while the light is coming, there's still some cold there. And I personally, am working to challenge the idea that the light is good and the dark is bad. I think that that is something that's ingrained in a lot of our, you know, the world religions. It's something that we see in all sorts of parts of society, Star Wars, right, we know, like, turn towards the light, all of this terminology that we have. And yet, we don't really examine that and think about the implications in terms of even, you know, culture and racism and colorism and how that shows up when we treat light and whiteness as inherently good and darkness and blackness as inherently bad. So I know that for some folks, that might seem like a big stretch between, you know, UV rays, and how much of that we're getting versus skin color or male melanin. But I think, in reality that gets blurred a lot in our society. And it's not, we don't need to look far very far back in history to see that really play out in terms of cruelty done to humans and lightness and darkness used as a way to justify disparity and harm to other humans and lack of opportunity. So, yeah, just I want to question that. And, and I think that, you know, it's all both are good, the light and the sunshine is good. And the darkness and the rest is good. Rest isn't, you know, the quietness of it can be good. And so with that I kind of went searching for, you know, somebody else who has maybe spoken a bit more eloquently about this, and I found a poet named Wendell Berry. So very interesting character, I highly recommend looking him up. But he wrote a short poem. So I'm gonna read that I don't think I've read a poem on the podcast before. So today's the day, always, always ready for our first the name of the poem is to know the dark. To go in the dark with a light is to know the light, to know the dark, go dark, go without sight, and find that the dark to blooms and sings and is traveled by dark feet, and dark wings. I just love that poem, because it actually highlights how much we try to counteract the darkness rather than welcome it and will often feel safer with light around us that we can see. And I understand that like humans are very visual. We want to be able to understand our surroundings through sight for those of us who have sight. So the idea of darkness might seem scary or unfamiliar, right? Sometimes we don't turn the lights out until we're absolutely ready to fall asleep. So the idea that we can reevaluate our relationship with the darkness, and maybe leverage some of our other senses or explore the darkness welcomed the darkness and see what's there might be kind of scary. I mean, there's a reason that folks avoid meditation, right? Because we're alone with our thoughts. What could be worse? Oh, there's a reason that people, you know that shavasana in yoga is such a powerful pose. And really, the whole exercise of yoga before that pose is leading up and preparing for that quiet silence. And that's because we know that exercise and moving the body is is helpful in getting the brain to quiet down and to be able to access those more introspective thought patterns. So shavasana where we're laying on the ground with our eyes closed and probably in silence, maybe there's some music playing. That is one of those moments that we can tap into that darkness like tapping To the solitude and the quiet. But we don't really do that a lot outside of a yoga mat or outside of a meditation practice, perhaps, maybe folks have a healthy sleep hygiene routine where they turn off all their blue lights, they turn off artificial light, and they kind of prepare themselves to go to sleep. But for a lot of us, it's sort of like a TV screen or a an iPhone screen, or an Instagram feed, or tiktoks, or, or even an Outlook inbox, perhaps, or Gmail inbox, kind of write up until we're ready to go to bed. So we've sort of fight that darkness right up until the end. So now might be a great time to reevaluate that and just experiment with it and see how we feel as we approach that. And if there is discomfort with sitting in the darkness, or sitting with quiet, what a what a great line of questioning to see what's going on there. And how that then extrapolates into the rest of your life. And the relationships you have. If quietness feels uncomfortable, how is that showing up at work with your colleagues, with your friends with your family. So some thoughts may be getting a little esoteric today. But it's the solstice I feel like that's appropriate for this this time of year. But moving beyond kind of the internal, I did want to take a quick look back at 2023. And how that went for us to peers. And then a quick look forward to 2024. And what we've got in store. So we had a lot of growth in 2023. And I'm really, really grateful for that we saw growth with podcasts, which is wonderful. I love to see that more folks are listening that it's getting further reach. I'm always kind of surprised. And I think I've said this before when I encounter somebody at like an event and they say oh yeah, I listened to your podcast. And I think I didn't think anybody was listening, even though I know the numbers, say otherwise. So thank you for listening, if you're listening to this right now. And please feel free to like, let us know if you're listening. And if there's something that you love hearing about, there's something that you hate hearing about, if you like hate these solo episodes, let me know. Or if there's a certain type of guests that you want to see as invite for future episodes, I would love to hear that. Because different points of view are something that we absolutely welcome and value here. So yeah, we saw growth in the podcast, which is lovely. But this is not a source of revenue for us by any means. It's just a free resource out there. As you notice, we don't have ads, we don't have sponsors, we just kind of put this out there to help provide resources and access to information and to highlight some of the voices that we think are doing really good work and in the world. On the coaching side of things, we've had a lot of growth there as well reaching out into other industries. So we've got representation in our coaching clients from kind of aerospace from the financial industry, from tech, from heavy industry, really, I'm so, so grateful to have access to these like wonderful minds that I'm working with in the coaching realm, who are showing me so much diversity of thought and just diversity of experience in industry and where they're at in their careers. And yet, at the same time, it's just a reminder that the human experience is so similar. And many of the challenges faced in these different companies in different industries are so very similar. So many people are struggling with companies that have really tightened budgets have gone through layoffs, and reorganizations. And there's more to do with fewer hours less resources. And this constant challenge of trying to balance doing it all with facing the reality that there's only so much that can be done with X number of resources and X amount of time. And so I see a lot of my clients facing facing that reality and just trying to understand how to navigate it. And I say on the consulting front, we've also seen some great growth there. And I'm really excited about some of the new clients that we've got that we're helping to frame out their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts to get really clear about what it is that makes this important to them. What will make it effective, what will make it actually embedded and integrated into the way that their organizations function and work. Though not just like an add on piece of programming, not just something that a person in HR does off the side of their desk, but something that is underpinned by a commitment from management, from the leadership from the key stakeholders. And, you know, understanding how it interweaves into the various functions in the organization just like safety, just like, you know, operational discipline does. And so that's exciting. I can't wait to see some of the growth in 2020. For for our, our clients on the consulting side. And I know that there's been a lot of challenge in 2023, the Supreme Court decision has put a lot of kind of discourse out there about what we can do in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion, what is acceptable, what's not, we've talked about it on the podcast before with some of our great guests. And we discussed, you know, as dei dead, absolutely not. And I think that the framing the the framing that is most valuable right now is understanding where these barriers to opportunity exist. And there's nothing about that Supreme Court decision that says that we can't be looking to remove existing barriers that keep us from accessing and developing talent that is representative of, you know, the the world we live in. So I look forward to helping our clients navigate that space in a way that's effective in a way that gives them a sustainable organization. And then on the workshop front, it's been a really exciting year, we've done some amazing workshops, at conferences, at in house with some some companies, a mixture of bespoke workshops that we've developed for for different organizations. And then you know, off the shelf, ones that are tried and true that we've run over and over again, that are kind of bestsellers. And some of the favorites this year, definitely authenticity was a big favorite. And ironically, that word authenticity, I had to laugh when I saw this, that it is the Merriam Webster word of the year. So that'll be showing up in the newsletter next week. But that one was a certainly a popular one. And we rolled out a new workshop this year, working with one of our foundational clients that's been with us, kind of since the beginning Guti or construction, they collaborated with us to develop a Spanish language leadership training. So we rolled that out this year. And we'll be conducting that throughout 2024. So very exciting to be able to offer that. Dr. Lemnos is the person who runs that workshop, he is one of our coaches and is phenomenal at what he does. So if that's of interest to you running some Spanish language leadership training, let us know. And obviously, we offer all of our workshops in English as well. And pretty much any workshop that we offer we can do in Spanish. So really excited to be able to offer that looking into 2024, we are going to be doing a free monthly webinar. So I'm you know, I'm still in the like, deciding phases of this, we're gonna be experimenting with it, and I'll see how it goes. So definitely committing to the first quarter, we'll try it out, do a free monthly webinar, it'll depend on if we get people attending if folks show up, but interactive. And the first one that we're planning for mid January, and dates are to be confirmed, but we're kind of tightening that up right now is going to be a goal setting workshop. So we'll talk about what makes a an effective goal. And we'll be providing some tools and resources to work through that and collaborating with a couple other creators on that. So I'm excited about that, that free webinar coming up in January. And then in February, we have our resilience mastermind. And that is I'm really excited about that because I've given it a full six weeks for us to be able to dig in, implement some new behaviors and new thought patterns and build the resilience that I think we probably are all wanting to grow right now because the world is a bit volatile. I don't know when the world's ever not been volatile. To be honest. I think it's always been volatile just in different changing ways, which is perhaps a bit meta. But resilience is something that gets talked about a lot and misunderstood just as much. So we'll debunk some of the myths around what resilience is, and is not, if you've been reading the newsletter at all, you know that it is not endurance, that's something different, they are related and different. So resilience is really characterized by coming out of a difficult situation or a challenge as either as strong or stronger, healthier than you were before. And so if you come out of a situation, and you are hurt, injured, carrying some of those wounds, still from that, which is understandable, that doesn't mean that you are not as you know, that you're somehow morally lacking or less valuable. We all go through difficult situations where we come out the other side, and we have some healing to do. So that is different than a resilient outcome. Right? That's, and we want to make sure that we're giving ourselves the tools and the resources to be able to increase the likelihood that after we face these challenges, that we come out the other side, as strong or stronger, as healthy or healthier, and then understanding what is within our control and what is not, because a lot of this is dependent on the environment that we're in the community that we have. So some of those elements can't just be changed. With the flip of a coin, or the the flip of a switch. That's stuff that we need to be building over the long term. So ensuring that our environment is to the extent we can is conducive to resilient outcomes, that the community that we're building is conducive to resilient outcomes. And working to foster that over the longer term. And then also recognizing what is completely out of our control. And some of these things we do not have control about control over and the world decides it for us. And there's some probability in there as well. So getting clear on that means we can focus our energy on what will be most supportive and most beneficial for us to have resilient outcomes. And if you couldn't tell already, I have a very love hate relationship with resilience. I love the actual real concept of it. I dislike the way it is thrown around in society as much as it is without the understanding of what really makes up resilience. But I do totally nerd out on it. And there's so much out there in terms of research, data, lived experiences, historical perspective, indigenous knowledge, different ways of knowing about this. And there's a lot of information that we can use to Yeah, help help ourselves and those around us help our communities to be more resilient as well help our organizations to be more resilient to be able to handle this very quickly evolving and changing environment that we're in a world that we're in. So that is kind of it for what I wanted to share on this episode giving, again, a bit of a recap of 2023. I look forward to 2024, and just thanking our audience for tuning in and for listening and engaging with us. And please, if you ever just want to connect and chat reach out, you can reach out to myself, you can reach out to Anthony, Dr. Lemnos. via our website at twopiersconsulting.com. You can reach us on the social medias, whether that's LinkedIn, Facebook, we are we are still present on X, formerly known as Twitter. And we're on Instagram. So you can reach us on any of those places, email, whatever, we're here for it, or even just schedule a discovery call with us. If you want to just chat and get to know us a little bit more, you can do that from our website, just go check out the coaching page. And you can book a call right into our calendars. So I really hope that this winter solstice is a time of peacefulness for you. I hope things are winding down. I know a lot of folks have their out of office on already which I highly applaud. I will be taking some downtime over the the new year and just getting ready to have a great start to 2024 even though in some ways January 1 is a pretty arbitrary date, but it's a great, great calendar date to look forward to what's coming in the in the calendar year. Yeah. Happy New Year, folks. Happy Solstice and we'll see you in 2024