The Light Returning

January at The Yoga Source

Hi Friend,

January settles into the Valley without urgency. The swirl of the holidays dissolves with the simple turning of a calendar page, and the world feels wrapped in wool. What’s left is dark and cold, wide and quiet – a kind of spacious nothing.

There’s still more darkness than light, but if you pay attention, something subtle is shifting. The days stretch a little longer. The mornings brighten a little earlier. It’s almost imperceptible, but it’s there.

The light is beginning to return.

This moment doesn’t ask for reinvention or decisive action. It asks to be noticed. It invites us to take stock of what’s been used up, what remains, and what wants care before anything else is asked of it.

A Seasonal Mismatch We Rarely Question

January is framed as a time to start over. The messaging is loud and persistent – to reinvent ourselves at full speed; to start “fresh,” and make decisive change. We’re encouraged to resolve, to reset, to decide who we’ll become in the year ahead. If you look outside, however, very little supports that story.

It is worth naming that the pressure to change everything in January is historically recent and seasonally strange.

For much of human history, intentions and commitments were made in early spring, when light and energy returned, food stores were replenished, and the land itself was waking up. In ancient Babylonia, year-marking rituals took place in March, aligned with the spring equinox and agricultural cycles. Even the earliest record of “resolutions” and the new year were tied to planting cycles and communal renewal, not individual self-reinvention. Change was timed with abundance, not scarcity–to a moment when energy was available and momentum could be sustained. The calendar we use now places the pressure to change at the coldest, darkest point of the year, when most bodies and minds lack the resources to facilitate such a personal transformation. It places the demand for change at a time when both nature and the human nervous system are oriented toward conservation, not expansion. 

This season invites you to see yourself clearly to notice what’s already present, and what is quietly emerging. 

Winter in Ayurveda: Kapha Season

Ayurveda offers a different way of understanding this moment. In this system, winter belongs to kapha: the principle of slow, dense, heaviness that keeps us grounded and stable. It governs structure, cohesion and storage and is governed by earth and water. 

During winter, cold and dampness increase while available energy decreases. When resources are limited, the system prioritizes preservation over expansion. Regularity matters more than ambition.

These qualities influence the body whether we acknowledge them or not. That means winter makes the body less tolerant of skipped meals, late nights, irregular schedules, and constant cognitive demand. It also means that practices requiring sustained willpower or high output are harder (if not downright impossible) to maintain. 

If you feel sluggish or heavy right now, there is nothing wrong with you. This is seasonal physiology, and winter simply asks for a different strategy.

The Wisdom of Winter

Winter operates by different rules. 

Energy is finite. This is not a mindset or discipline issue. The human system responds better to steady outputs than ambitious, grandiose overhauls, especially when resources are low.

The nervous system prefers rhythm over novelty. Regular meals, consistent sleep, and predictable movement matter more than intensity or variety.Digestion and assimilation take priority over productivity. In Ayurveda, digestion includes how we process information, emotions, and responsibilities. Winter digestion benefits from simplicity. 

Vision belongs to spring. Winter can clarify values and direction, but it’s not a good time for execution. 

Seen through this lens, resolutions make very little sense in January. They rely on motivation, excess energy, and sustained self-control during a season that actively limits both. A more seasonally intelligent use of winter is not deciding who you will become, but clarifying how you might rise again. 

Think less “new year, new you,” and more “You, in a new light.”

Agni: Tending the Inner Flame

Within the heaviness of kapha, agni burns steadily and is most active in January. Agni is the inner fire that governs digestion, perception, clarity and direction. It is not the fiery expression we associate with summertime, external focus, or high output. Instead, it’s the smaller, more consistent flame that supports nourishment, focus, and a sense of purpose. 

It is the ember you lean toward instinctively at this time of year, the warmth that makes a sense of security possible. Tending the flame does not look like sweeping commitments or harsh, grandiose resolutions. Those fall away quickly in the bright light of agni. What matters now is gathering and protecting the resources that sustain you.

Think of tending agni as gathering fuel for what comes next. Ground now, so growth later does not come at the cost of your health. Winter is not asking you to change yourself. It is asking you to sustain yourself. 

Nothing needs fixing right now. There is no urgency to change anything. Winter’s job is to restore capacity so that action, when it comes, does not deplete you. 

You, In a New Light

If winter isn’t asking for reinvention, what is it asking for? 

This season invites clarity rather than change. It asks for clearer seeing and deeper listening. The light returning does not demand that we act on everything it reveals–only that we notice what is already there. 

“You, in a new light” is an invitation to observe without pressure. Can you notice habits, patterns, and tendencies without approaching them as problems to solve? Can you tend your inner flame so that when momentum returns, it has something real to draw from?

Winter does not ask us to decide who we will become. It asks us to prepare the conditions that make becoming possible. 

EMBODY THE SEASON WITH US

Winter has fully settled into the Valley, and with it comes an invitation. Can we not only deeply listen, but can we practice seeing clearly, too? Our January events at The Yoga Source are shaped around ways of moving and resting that help you notice what’s present without asking you to change it. This is the work of winter, embodied. 

Join us for a monthly sound experience with Zach and Chelse: Where the Flame is Kept: A Kirtan Gathering on Friday, January 30th at 6:30pm. Kirtan, a form of call-and-response singing, is a practice of listening before acting. Participation over performance: a reminder that energy does not need to be generated alone. Attend to your inner flame with Chelse at the Moon Fire Women’s CircleWeekly on Wednesdays beginning January 7th at 5:30pm. A weekly place to gather with other women, tend inner fire, and be witnessed. Drop in for a class or sign up for all seven! 

You’re invited to join Kyla for Tending the Fire Within: Ayurveda and Yoga for Hormone Health beginning February 1st at 5:30-7pm.

At the end of the month, join Kyla for an educational and experiential workshop that offers an introduction to Ayurvedic and yogic approaches to hormone health across all stages of life. Explore how common symptons are early signdals asking for deeper care, and learn simple, sustainable practices that support energy, mood, sleep, and long-term wellbeing. Come prepared to listen, reflect, and practice. 

Seasonal Suggestions for At-Home Practice

If you can’t make it into the studio, winter can still be practiced at home through small, repeatable rituals:

-Gravitate toward warm, fully cooked foods like soups, stews, grains, and root vegetables with warming spices.

-Keep routines simple and straightforward.

-Choose rhythmic, intentional movement over intensity.

-Support rest with earlier nights and slower mornings.

-Practice Abhyana, an Ayurvedic practice of warming the body with oil massage.

-Create soft, steady light in the evening.

-Spend a few minutes gazing into the flame of a fireplace or candle.

Light as Teacher: Trataka

This is where Trataka, the Ayurvedic practice of steady gazing at a flame, becomes especially relevant. Trataka is simple: You sit. You look. You stay.

Let your eyes rest on the flame until your mind unclenches. The mind follows the eyes and as the gaze settles, internal chatter quiets. There is no visualization, no affirmation, no attempt to conjure (or manufacture) insight. The practice trains attention by reducing noise rather than adding stimulation. Over time, it steadies the mind and sharpens perception without depletion.

Light, in this context, is not concerned with brightness or intensity. Light is about clarity: seeing what is already present without distortion. Winter is well-suited to this kind of work. Focus is fragile when energy is low. Trataka offers a way to strengthen attention, gently. The flame does not rush, it burns because it has the resources to do so.

We’re choosing to work with Paavani’s Sacred Ghee Candles throughout January, because their warm, clean flame creates a gentle focal point on which to rest the gaze. Whether you join us in the studio or bring one home for your own practice, trataka offers a way to reconnect with the light within and around you without force or urgency.

Why this Matters to Us

The Yoga Source exists to offer education, access, and community-centered care. We are not here to sell urgency or promise transformation on demand. We are here to help people understand their bodies, their energy, and the seasons of life we all move through.

Our winter programming reflects that commitment. It is designed to sustain rather than extract.  When spring comes, we want you rested enough to meet it fully.

When this season is honored, spring does not need to be forced. It arrives with momentum that feels earned.

For now? We tend the flame.