If you have been wondering how to protect your energy in winter, I would like to start somewhere unexpected: underneath the ground.
Walk past a garden in November and it can look as though nothing is happening. The flowerbeds are bare, the trees have let go of their leaves, and the soil feels cold and still. But below the surface, life is very much at work. The bulbs planted in autumn are sitting quietly in the dark, sending out roots. Seeds are resting, holding everything they will need to grow when spring comes. Nothing is being spent on show. Everything is being kept for what comes next.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, winter is the season when we go within. And I have come to believe it is one of the most misunderstood seasons of the year, especially for women like us, who are used to keeping the same pace twelve months a year.
The Season of Going Within
In the traditional Chinese calendar, winter does not begin at the solstice. It begins in early November, with a seasonal marker called Li Dong, “the start of winter”, which falls on 7 November this year (2026). From here, the days keep shortening until the winter solstice, when Yin, the cool, quiet, inward energy of nature, reaches its fullest point.
The classical texts of Chinese medicine describe winter as the season of storing. Their advice is surprisingly practical: go to bed early, get up a little later, wait for the light, stay warm and keep your energy contained rather than scattered. In other words, do what nature is doing.
For many years, I paid very little attention to any of this. My operating principle was simple: keep going. Winter was just the same life with darker mornings, the same pace, the same list, the same feeling that rest would come later, once everything was done. Later, of course, never came.
What I understand now is that winter is not asking us to stop living. It is asking us to change where our energy goes: less outward effort, more inward replenishment. Just like the seed under the ground, we are not doing nothing. We are preparing.
There is a lovely detail about bulbs that I think about every November. Many spring flowers, tulips among them, actually need a long period of cold in the soil before they can bloom. The cold is not a delay. It is part of the process. Without winter, there is no spring flowering.
Winter, the Water Element and Your Kidneys
Each season in Chinese medicine is connected to an element and to an organ system. Winter belongs to the Water element and to the Kidneys.
In TCM, the Kidneys are much more than the organs that filter blood. They are seen as the root of our vitality, the place where we store Jing, often translated as “essence”. Jing is our deepest reserve, the foundation that supports growth, energy and the way we age.
I like to explain it this way.
Your daily Qi is like your current account: you spend it and top it up every day through food, breathing, rest and movement.
Your Jing is more like your savings. When the current account keeps running empty, month after month, you start drawing on your savings. Winter is the season when we are invited to stop drawing on them and start putting something back.
This is also why the Kidneys matter so much for women in midlife. If you have read my article on Second Spring, you will remember that this phase of life is closely connected to Kidney energy. Taking care of it in winter is one of the most meaningful things we can do for our long-term vitality. It is not about adding years to your life. It is about adding life to your years.
The Water element also has an emotional side. When it is out of balance, it is linked with fear and worry. When it is nourished, it shows up as quiet determination: the deep, steady willpower that does not need to shout.
When Winter Asks and We Do Not Listen
From a TCM perspective, winter is when we often feel the effects of running on empty. You might recognise some of these signs, which Chinese medicine traditionally associates with Kidney energy under strain:
- feeling cold to the bone, especially in your hands, feet and lower back
- a tiredness that a good night’s sleep does not seem to touch
- an aching lower back or tired knees
- low motivation and a strong wish to withdraw from everything
- feeling more anxious or fearful than usual, often without a clear reason
- waking at night to go to the bathroom
In Chinese medicine, these are not seen as random complaints. They are messages. Your body is telling you that your reserves need attention.
Of course, this is a traditional framework, not a diagnosis. Persistent tiredness or any new or worrying symptom deserves proper medical attention, so please talk to your doctor. What Chinese medicine offers is another part of the picture: a way of understanding how you are spending and restoring your energy, and what you might change.
And here is the shift I would love you to take with you into this season: winter is not the time to find more energy. It is the time to stop leaking the energy you already have.
How to Protect Your Energy in Winter: Seven Ways to Work With the Season
None of these require you to overhaul your life. Choose one or two that feel right and let them become part of how you live this winter.
1. Go to bed a little earlier
The simplest way to work with winter is to let your evenings follow the light. Possibly by 11:00 PM, according to the “body clock” in TCM, but even half an hour earlier makes a difference. Sleep is one of the main ways we replenish our reserves, and winter is when the body is naturally asking for more of it.
2. Keep your lower back and feet warm
In TCM, cold is the climate of winter and it can easily make its way in. The lower back is where the Kidneys sit, and the soles of the feet hold an important point called Yongquan, or “Bubbling Spring”, the first point of the Kidney meridian. Warm socks, a layer around your waist and a warm footbath in the evening are small habits that Chinese medicine has valued for centuries.
3. Eat for the season
Winter is the season for warming, slow-cooked food: soups, stews, broths and roasted root vegetables. Traditionally nourishing winter foods include black beans, kidney beans, walnuts, black sesame seeds and seaweed. A little natural saltiness, the taste linked with the Water element, is also part of winter eating, in moderation. This is a good season to reduce raw, iced and very cold foods, which ask the body to work harder to warm itself.
4. Do less, on purpose
Look at the weeks ahead and ask yourself honestly: where am I spending energy simply because I have always done things this way? Winter is a wonderful season to say no to what does not really matter, so that you have something left for what does.
5. Move, without draining yourself
Winter does not mean giving up movement. Your body still needs it to keep Qi and blood flowing, and movement is what “pumps” your lymphatic circulation too. But this is not the season to push yourself to exhaustion. Walking, stretching and Qi Gong support circulation and warmth without emptying your reserves.
6. Try a simple Kidney practice
Qi Gong literally means working with Qi, working with your energy, and winter is the perfect season to bring this into your daily life. Here is a simple practice you can do in a few minutes:
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart and your knees slightly bent.
- Rub your palms together briskly until they feel warm.
- Place them on your lower back, over the Kidney area, and rub up and down for about thirty seconds.
- Then simply rest your warm hands there, breathe slowly into your lower back, and feel the warmth sinking in.
Many of my students tell me this becomes one of their favourite winter rituals, especially first thing in the morning.
7. Make space for stillness and reflection
Going within also means listening. Winter is a natural time to look back at the year, notice what nourished you and what drained you, and decide which seeds you would like to nurture for spring. A few quiet minutes each day, sitting, standing still or writing, are enough.
Learning from the seeds
A seed does not apologise for not flowering in December. It does not feel guilty for resting in the dark. It simply knows that this is part of the cycle, and that everything it does now, quietly, below the surface, is what makes spring possible.
We have been taught to see rest as a reward for finishing everything. Winter teaches us something different: rest is part of the work. The energy you protect now is the energy you will have when the days start to lengthen again.
So I will leave you with one question for this winter: what is one thing you could stop spending your energy on, so that something new can take root?
If you would like to keep following the seasons with me, you can read about autumn in Autumn Self-Care According to Chinese Medicine and about late summer in What Can the Fifth Season Teach Us About Change?
And if you would like support to live this winter differently, not just read about it, this is exactly what we do inside The Energy Cultivation Program. Every week we meet for a live practice in a small group of no more than twenty women. We follow the seasons together with Qi Gong, breathwork, meditation and the wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine, brought into real life in small, sustainable steps. You do not need to find an extra hour a day, and you do not need any experience. You simply come as you are. And if life gets in the way, the recording stays available for five days.
Winter is the season for building your reserves, which makes it a beautiful time to begin. Join The Energy Cultivation Program →
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Let’s keep walking this path of awareness and transformation, one mindful step (and one gentle breath) at a time.
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