I get cabin fever in the winter. It’s kind of a problem, actually, so I decided to go to yoga this morning in a last-ditch effort to shift my mood in a more positive direction.

Getting out of the house was helpful, and stretching was also helpful, but one of the meditations proved to be the most helpful thing of all. An interesting thing about yoga is to deepen poses without injury requires you to stop trying. It is about finding inner silence, softness and stillness. It’s a distinct break from real life, which drives you to be noisy, tough, and full of momentum.

The snow I spent the better part of the weekend bitching about prevented me from engaging in my usual activities. I was still feeling frustrated when my yoga teacher told us to mediate on the nature of positive change, which sounded like something I could use. She went on to say that struggling and fighting doesn’t create change, surrender does. This started me thinking, what if I abandon all the sound and fury, and surrender to winter? It seemed worth trying, or more to the point, not trying.

In a matter of hours, I may be climbing the walls, because when it comes to cabin fever, relapse is virtually inevitable. But in this moment, I’m okay with everything, the snow, the cold, the knowing that I will forget this lesson, and most of all, knowing I will get to learn it all over again on some other snowy day.