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173 | Embracing the Dark Half of the Year: Rest, Reflection, and the Wisdom of Wintering

  • Emily Reuschel
  • Nov 13, 2025
  • 4 min read

Header for Wild and Waking episode 173 | Embracing the Dark Half of the Year: Rest, Reflection, and the Wisdom of Wintering

Listen to Embracing the Dark Half of the Year: Rest, Reflection, and the Wisdom of Wintering on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Your player of choice

What if you stopped dreading the darker months and started seeing them as sacred? In this episode, Emily invites you to embrace the descent into the dark half of the year, a season of rest, reflection, and deep inner renewal. Drawing from ancestral wisdom, cyclical living, and her own evolution, she explores how “wintering” isn’t just about enduring the cold, but remembering that rest itself is holy work.


Emily shares how nature’s rhythm mirrors our own: trees release what no longer serves them, seeds rest underground, and the soil restores its nutrients, all in preparation for new life. Through these ancient patterns, we’re reminded that nothing in nature blooms all year long, and we’re not meant to either.


This is an invitation to slow down, to release the pressure for constant productivity, and to reconnect with what your body and spirit truly need in this season. From cozy rituals and nourishing rest to the invigorating clarity of cold air on your face, Emily offers tangible ways to lean into winter’s wisdom, even if you’re someone who craves sunshine and green.


Because on the other side of the darkness, there’s always a rebirth. Every spring you’ve ever witnessed began here, in the quiet, the cold, and the unseen. You are allowed to rest. You are allowed to not bloom. You are allowed to become.


Meet Emily Reuschel:

Emily Reuschel is a Soul Expansion Coach for Wild & Waking Women, guiding leaders, dreamers, and changemakers—particularly in rural communities—through the powerful journey of reclaiming their truest selves. Known for challenging the status quo, Emily empowers women to break free from inherited limitations, embody their truth, and create lasting impact in their lives and communities.


As the host of the Wild and Waking podcast and the facilitator of transformative retreats, workshops, and virtual communities, Emily curates sacred spaces for connection, healing, and expansion. She inspires women to shed societal expectations, reconnect with their inner wisdom, and transform from the inside out.


Emily’s work is anchored in her signature Wild & Waking Framework—a soul reclamation process that moves women from performative survival to embodied leadership. Her approach honors the unraveling of old narratives, the remembering of true essence, and the reclamation of personal power—all leading to a rise marked by unapologetic expression and aligned action.


Through her work, Emily guides women home to themselves, helping them live with alignment, purpose, and intention. Whether speaking on stage, leading mastermind groups, or facilitating retreats, her warmth and authenticity create a ripple effect that inspires lasting change. Emily’s mission is clear: to help guide women in reclaiming their truth, step into their power, and rise boldly as forces of lasting change.


In this episode, Embracing the Dark Half of the Year: Rest, Reflection, and the Wisdom of Wintering, I cover:

  • The power of wintering and cyclical living, how ancient and ancestral wisdom teaches us to honor nature’s rhythms, slow down, and find meaning in the darker months.

  • Why nothing in nature blooms all year long, and how to apply that truth to your own life, leadership, and wellbeing.

  • The invitation to rest, reflect, and restore, releasing the pressure for constant productivity and embracing deep rest as sacred, not lazy.

  • The physical and emotional benefits of cold and stillness, from supporting your circadian rhythm and mental clarity to the invigorating healing power of cold air on your face.

  • Practical ways to lean into winter’s wisdom, cozy rituals, slow living practices, journaling prompts, and simple ways to bring warmth, connection, and intention into this season.

  • Embracing both light and dark within yourself, integrating the yin and yang of your inner world, finding wholeness through acceptance, and trusting that the pause is preparation for what’s next.


If this episode landed in your hands at just the right time, trust that it was meant to. Share it with someone who’s craving the same reminder, and let it inspire you to slow down, soften, and find beauty in the quiet corners of your life.


Connect with Emily:

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About Wild & Waking: 

Wild & Waking is more than a podcast—it’s a sacred return to who you’ve always been.


This space is for the woman standing at the edge of everything she’s outgrown. The one who’s checked all the boxes, followed all the rules, and still feels the quiet ache for something more honest. More alive. More hers.


She’s begun the unraveling—of roles, expectations, identities that no longer fit. She’s remembering the voice beneath the noise, the rhythm beneath the hustle, the truth beneath the performance. She’s reclaiming her joy, her intuition, her fire. And she’s rising—not as a version of who she was told to be, but as the truest expression of who she already is.


Hosted by soul expansion coach Emily Reuschel, Wild & Waking is for the spiritual entrepreneurs, coaches, rural changemakers, and conscious leaders dismantling old paradigms and creating new ways of living, leading, and becoming. Through raw conversations, deep reflections, and embodied wisdom, we explore what it means to awaken a life of abundance, authenticity, and purpose.


This is for the woman who holds both sacred rage and radical joy. Who moves with reverence for the seasons of her life. Who isn’t afraid to break cycles, speak truth, and dismantle what no longer serves—not to destroy, but to create. To rebuild a world rooted in the celebration of difference, the beauty of nuance, and the power of sovereign, embodied leadership.


If you’re ready to come home to yourself—fully, fiercely, and without apology—welcome.


We’ve been waiting for you.


Share the Love!

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it! Your support helps us reach more people who are ready to heal and grow.


For more transformative conversations, visit: EmilyReuschel.com


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