Soulstice Chat with Sam & TeriLeigh

🌙 The Vibe: Winter Hibernation Mode Activated

Picture this: Two sensitive souls, talking about the most relatable thing ever—how the cold, dark, dead-of-winter days make you just want to burrow into your couch and never leave.

🛁 The Great Sauna Salvation

I’m activating the Scandinavian in my heritage, firing up the sauna to combat the sub-zero temps (even though it’s only in the 30s—Minnesota girl problems!). The world outside has gone full grayscale filter: brown, gray, leafless trees, and zero color anywhere. It’s giving very “nature’s minimalist era.”

🛒 The Grocery Store Assault Course

The grocery store during is sensory warfare. We’re talking:

• Fluorescent lights that feel like tiny daggers ☠️

• Christmas jingle bells that sound like “cold crystals penetrating your ears” (poetic AND accurate)

• Products literally SCREAMING “BUY ME” from every angle

• The frantic energy of everyone everywhere

Grocery stores are designed ALL WRONG in the first place, and then just made worse during the holidays. They should be more like farmers markets—soft edges, natural colors, inviting conversations—not cold hard floors, sharp lights, and pointy displays. Basically, stores are out here assaulting our sensitive souls when they should be creating community.

🎄 The Great Thanksgiving Revolution

For me Last year’s Thanksgiving was a full house—cousin Claudia (a type-A extrovert powerhouse), her three daughters, siblings, dad, the whole crew. It was beautiful, vibrant, exhausting, and by the end I thought to myself “never again”

This year I negotiated a cozy two-person Thanksgiving, just me and Hobbit. And get this—THE UNIVERSE DELIVERED A TINY TURKEY AS CONFIRMATION. Like, someone literally gifted us a turkey right after they made the decision. Magick is real, people.

this is the first year I am actually not feeling left out or FOMO or sad about doing a quiet Thanksgiving of just the two of us. I’m actually looking forward to it!

Sam’s doing the same thing—skipping family gatherings, telling mom “there’s just so many humans” (the most valid reason ever), and claiming her first quiet holiday season.

🍄 The Mycelial Network Effect

We have been talking about slowing down for three weeks, and it’s created this ripple effect. Sam’s calling it a “mycelial network”—information and permission passing from person to person, root to root, soul to soul. We’ve both made major changes to our holiday plans just from giving each other permission to rest.

Moving from “I want to belong / Why wasn’t I invited? / I should feel guilty for not going” to “I don’t want to be welcome—I want to be HOME.”

Less is MORE, baby.

And we’re giving that advice for free.

🕯️ What’s Next?

We’re hosting a Candlelit Solstice Community Chat on Zoom (FREE!) next Monday at noon Eastern / 11 Central. It’s all about protecting your quietness, going full hibernate mode, doing less instead of more, and taking care of your sensitive soul during the holidays.

✨ The Takeaway ✨

Sometimes the most radical thing you can do during the “most wonderful time of the year” is choose quiet. Choose small. Choose your hobbit and a tiny turkey. Choose staying home in your rainbow-filled house while the gray world spins outside.

And maybe, just maybe, when we all give ourselves permission to hibernate together, we create a little magick network of rest and restoration that spreads further than we could ever imagine.

Sprinkle sprinkle, sensitive souls. You’re doing great. 🌟