A thick fog is hanging around my house this morning. The first night frost left the river nearby steaming, setting itself apart from the cold air. It’s hard to see the trees that are only some fifty meters away. It’s very dreamlike.

Although this foggy morning fascinates me, the same fog has been hanging around for days in my mind, clouding my thoughts, making me fuzzy. I don’t feel the energy to do anything and the internal fog seems to separate me from the rest of the world. Nothing seems to work out around this time of year when the light is slowly fading away, making the mornings and evenings shorter. It’s enough to spin even the most uplifted spirit into a foggy depression.

That’s why it’s so important to generate something from within ourselves when the season turns cold and dark. In the Buddhist tradition of Shambhala we talk about rousing ‘Windhorse energy’. You can compare it with the Yogi’s Prana, the Chinese Chi or the Christian’s Holy Spirit. It is that part of you which energetically appreciates. It’s a mental and physical state of clarity; it’s your ‘mojo’. You can sense when somebody ‘has Windhorse energy’. They have a quality of brilliance and clarity about them.

That’s not to say that some people ‘have’ Windhorse energy and some don’t. It’s a flow of energy that moves through us continually during the day. You can sometimes feel yourself coming into your Windhorse energy, just by walking down the street or sitting behind the computer. You feel connected and not sunken into yourself.

That’s why, in these days, it is so important for us to consciously raise our Windhorse energy. You can read a beautiful article on how to do that by Sakying Mipham Rinpoche by clicking here

Sending you lots of Windhorse energy,

Geertje