The first snows of Winter – What is it  telling us.

by Jim Montrose, Ayurvedic Specialist and B-M, H, S artist, June 2025.

Last Sunday was the first snows of winter bringing reminders of the season. The weather has turned colder, and the days are approaching the shortest of the year. In nature it is known for hibernation, renewal and recharging to recreate anew in Spring.

First snows of winter – Time for Review and Reflection

We are halfway through our year, a great time to review our progress on goals and desires for 2025 is progressing. Are you on track or have you taken hibernation too seriously and stopped or given up on what you wanted to create?

Pull out any goals you have for your fitness, health and wellness in life and make sure you are taking care of yourself. The most successful in any field are those with vitality, health and longevity to keep at it. To maintain and gear up for the second half of the year increase your fitness.

The dark evenings remind us to rest fully and recover from the fall harvest before the push of spring into summer. It is glorious to go to bed earlier. Give yourself a little more sleep than normal. Take care and pamper yourself with self-care.

Prioritize self-regeneration and re-creation. For more health, longevity, happiness, consciousness and productive meaningful success. Embrace your authenticity, harmony, peace and compassion. An ideal time for introspection – plan for Spring.

First snows of winter – Self-care and conscious design through a morning routine

I worked with an elite client  who wanted  a morning routine – to consciously design the feel and flow of life. I introduced our morning routine that sets the feel, meter and intent of our entire day. So, we can run our day consciously.

A good morning routine starts with consciously waking. We install the body set-mind set, heart set, and soul set to carry through the day. It starts with a fitness boost, productive mindset, emotional check-in, reset, and spiritual alignment. I journal to boost my day (“an accounted for life leads to a glorious exalted life” – Jim).

In the body-Mind space we activate energy, physiology, hormones, and mindset to fuel and carry us through the day. In the morning, we orchestrate the bodies energy pattern, change metabolism, and hormonal activity.

To feel awake, release stress, center and ground for the day ahead. It is “body-mind” because the body and mind are not separate but intimately intertwined and activated by breath.

The heart space is the window to our emotions. They are telling us, to release, and feel our way through the day. The heart space is a separate center of intelligence and intuition in the body.  Emotions and deeper heart intelligence help us navigate life more lovingly and compassionately.

While the soul space connects us to our eternal spirit and knowingness to make the day spiritually meaningful in the long term. The soul space is where we connect and align to our eternal spirit, knowing and the bigger picture of our lives that is so critical to living the life we are meant to live.

First snows of winter – Nature calls set  morning and evening routines harmonize circadian rhythms.

If you look at a morning yoga class they gently and firmly allow you to wake, increase metabolism, stretch, energize, and increase active output.

An evening yoga routine should do mostly the opposite to help you wind down, center, pull your energy back, close the day and prepare for sleep and renewal.

This is demonstrated with winter (winding down for renewal) and spring/summer (waking up, gearing up for harvest in fall, effort, and production).

A very important part of the morning program is waking early after getting to bed early enough to support this. The Nobel prize is medicine in 2017 was given to three doctors who figured out a medical reason for millennia old circadian rhythms that all civilizations seemed to follow until us in recent times.

The short description of circadian rhythms is early to bed with dark and early to rise with sun. The doctors found that you need 7.5 hours to 9 hours of sleep per night and that sleep by 10pm, at the latest, gives the best quality sleep.

First snows of winter – Access the genius zone

With this many find there is truly magic with early morning waking. Some exercise studies say that a period of exercise first thing in morning is worth perhaps 6 times the amount of afternoon/evening exercise (this has not been universally found).

Most researchers agree that exercise in the morning sets metabolism much more effectively for the whole day. It can also help with weight loss. Morning exercise for just 20 minutes reduces cortisol (stress hormones), releases serotonin and dopamine (so you feel better) and BDNF (growth hormones).

A growing cadre of high-performance enthusiasts (including reportedly many billionaires) are waking early to capitalize on the brain’s natural genius effect, first identified by NASA in studying what makes the best astronauts. The genius zone occurs when people go more into theta brainwaves like early mornings.

Nasa identified that the early morning 4am was a particularly good time for benefitting and displaying more genius zone characteristics and mental activation for reflection, meditation, and planning your day. Robin Sharma who wrote “the 5AM club” has recently acknowledged that he now wakes up at 4am instead of 5am.

Give it a try and see how you feel. Many slow or stop exercising and waking early in the winter but I am reminded of the power I get in the early morning and the valuable insights the morning routine offers, and I consistently wake around 4 am, winter or summer.

Support the early morning in winter with going to bed earlier at night. With the shorter nights it tells us to go to bed at 8 or so. Let the first snows of winter wash the atmosphere, cleanse life, remind you to hibernate a bit more, get some extra sleep, while reflecting more to prepare for re-birthing your life in spring.

Take action now and consciously orchestrate your day with a morning routine.

Define the actions and focus you want to take for the remaining six months of the year. Pay attention to what you want to complete and bring them to fruition. Plan it and work your plan whether it’s your health, relationships, business or whatever. Also don’t forget to identify anything that you no longer want or need to complete and eliminate it so you can achieve more.

May you have superior fitness, strength, wellness, happiness and success. Learn more with Jim now and learn to create your morning and evening routines to manage your life in the areas of life experience: the body-mind, the heart and the soul.

Schedule an ayurvedic exam to learn about your body type and receive the daily routine personalized to your body type. Consider a weekend retreat for an experiential deep dive into the routine. Look for the grand opening of Jim’s new website in the spring.

May you have a great June,

Jim Montrose, Ayurvedic Specialist and Body-Min, Heart and Soul Artist

“Move forward consistently doing what is meaningful to you, daily small wins feeding your feeling of happiness, joy, and meaning in your life is true success.”  – Jim

“Laughter is not optional, life is for enjoyment.”  – Jim

www.drzairivene.co.za/jim

May you live in the magic of the early morning!

Copyright June 2025