Ease yourself through the holiday preparations with this gentle episode all about rest, including a host of ideas for taking care of yourself as winter moves in. With inspiration from Liza Dalby (@lizadalby), Jilly Shipway, Shiva Rea (@shivarea108), Lucy Brazier (@brazier.lucy), Claudia Hammond (@claudie_hammond_), Gareth Owen, Katherine May (@katherinemay_) and Sonoko Sakai (@sonokosakai).

Featured in this episode:

• East Wind Melts the Ice by Liza Dalby (Chatto & Windus)
• Tending the Heart Fire by Shiva Rea (Sounds True) 
• Yoga Through the Year by Jilly Shipway  (Llewelyn)
• River Cottage Christmas by Lucy Brazier (Bloomsbury)
• The Art of Rest by Claudia Hammond  (Canongate)
• Wabi Sabi: Japanese wisdom for a perfectly imperfect life by Beth Kempton (Piatkus) 
• Winter Days by Gareth Owen in The Oxford Book of Christmas Poems edited by Michael Harrison (Oxford University Press) 
• Wintering by Katherine May 
• Japanese Home Cooking by Sonoko Sakai (Shambala)
• Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year: A Little Book of Festive Joy by Beth Kempton (Piatkus)

Jennifer Piercy’s Melatonin Magic yoga nidra meditation is here on Insight Timer.  

You can download a FREE copy of The Perfectly Imperfect 2022 Digital Planner here, to help you reflect on the year and look ahead to 2022. 

Ingredients for the featured recipe (makes 4 servings)

•   3.5 cups or 830ml dashi stock - there are wonderful recipes for making your own dashi in the book, but you can also buy it as stock from places like the Japan Centre.

•   3 tablespoons of white or red miso

•   2 oz (57g) mushrooms of your choice, stems removed and sliced 1/4 inch or 6mm thick

•   4oz (113g) soft or medium-firm tofu, cut into 1/4 inch (6mm) dice

•   1 teaspoon yuzu or lemon peel, pith removed

You can buy dashi stock from Japanese supermarkets and stores such as japancentre.com.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit calmchristmas.substack.com