Each year, as the darkness of the winter solstice takes center stage, my thoughts turn to our ancient ancestors.

They were left to draw their own connections between the happenings around them and the vast darkness in the skies above. What were they thinking?

I know that we humans instinctively fear the darkness in anticipation of those who hunt during the night. Thankfully our ancestors were duly skilled defenders, usingtheir attention to fully occupy where they lived.

No stone was left uncovered, no territory unmapped and no “bump in the night” too small to go unnoticed.

And their faithfulness paid off. They turned living on-edge to having an edge in the survival of our species.

Their keen awareness enabled them to notice subtleties in  the sky and time of year that would go unnoticed by our attention-challenged selves of today.

I like to say our ancestors were more ‘fully inhabited’ — and their sharpened senses are the reason we still celebrate the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice.

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Even now their insightful actions and inactions in their quest for survival illuminate for us the wonderful gifts that result from occupying the unwrapped spaces in our lives.

‘2Be Inhabited’ is to explore what lives deep within us, and then as now, actual or metaphorical, inhabit the spaces with less light and wrestling with our limitations, both real and imagined.

When we become aware of how our values are lived, we develop empowering tools that build confidence for taking risks — to step out and be our most authentic selves.

Our most primitive desires — to belong, to be safe, to experience meaning — aren’t always top of mind, but they’re always in operation.

Today, our attention is easily drawn away from fully inhabiting our bodies, and yet the body is the very place where we live in commune with our world and our tribe.

There’s a lot at stake in 2018. The night still gives cover for those who operate with predatory interests. It’s up to us to elevate our understanding of what is less obvious but nevertheless moving and shaping our experience. And yeah, this extends to our skin care experiences and our concept of beauty.

Real beauty goes beyond makeup and mirrors. Beauty is what results from an experience that forges deeper connections within ourselves and with the world around us.

Beauty is a powerful tool. And if you want to awaken strengths you never knew you had, take the beautiful risk ‘2Be Inhabited’ — in touch with your body and the world around “Eu”.

I think our survival depends upon it...