Winter V2.0: The Science of Anchoring Warmth

Did January feel like a long month?

Cold, dark, wet winters can place a quiet load on the nervous system. Fewer cues of safety and restoration, and less natural light, can leave us feeling unbalanced.

Hibernation, or ‘wintering’, is appealing in theory, but in a digitally connected age, the opposite often happens, and we spiral into depletion.

Without anchors, winter becomes synonymous with work rather than rest.

I know that heat therapy is deeply settling for my nervous system. Sauna has been a winter anchor for me before, though this year I had not yet returned to it.

Then, on Blue Monday, I found myself at Dawnstalker’s community seafront sauna. I did not go with the intention of practising regulation. I simply went.

What surprised me was the combination. Heat. A wide view of the sea. The opportunity to sit by water. The quiet presence of other people, sharing space without demand.

Only afterwards did I recognise what had happened. My nervous system had received multiple signals of safety at once: heat, horizon, nature, co-regulation. It became a new weekly anchor I could return to with ease.

From a neuroscience perspective, weekly anchors support recovery most effectively when they work across multiple channels.

In this experience, several mechanisms were at play:

• Heat and regulation
  Warmth reduces muscle tension and helps the nervous system move out of sustained alertness.

• Horizon and attention
  Wide visual fields reduce vigilance and support parasympathetic activation.

• Co-regulation
  Being around other settled nervous systems provides powerful cues of safety, even without conversation.

• Nature as context
  Natural environments consistently support stress reduction and attention restoration.

Dawnstalkers’ research and perspectives offer practical insights into how cold, heat, and community can interact to support resilience and regulation.

This was a reminder that I am still discovering anchors in unexpected places. The Calm Habit (from Book 2 of the Resilience Series) does not lock us into routines; it creates the framework to know when we’ve found something good.