How I'm preparing for winter
yes, i'm wearing heat tech
Hello! I hope all is well :)
I’m coming to you live with a freshly finished bowl of pumpkin soup sitting beside me. I’m huddled up under a blanket with the heater (don’t tell A) turned to a dial higher than necessary.
I can’t help myself, fall is here yet every year I somehow am surprised by the speed of which the sun goes into hibernation. I don’t remember the changing of the seasons to be this abrupt. Maybe this is just a Berlin thing, but then again, I am coming from Los Angeles where seasons are fictional and Tokyo where everything is always wonderful, so my seasonal points of reference are both outliers in their own rights.
The past two winters, I was unprepared in every possible dimension, thus leading me into the depths and despairs of the season (and a number of terrible sicknesses). This winter will be my third Berlin winter. The best things come in threes, hence why I’m perhaps even a touch excited for this change. As the dawn of autumn is upon us, I plan to march forth into the season wearing not only the appropriate attire, but also the appropriate mindset. Reflecting on my past mistakes, I plan to set up my circumstances for the best possible winter yet.
Here’s how I’m preparing for winter:
Step 1: Attire
Last year, I brought out my puffer far too soon. We’re talking late September guys… I thought I was onto something because if I wore a puffer, I didn’t need to compromise on my outfit.
My favourite time of year is summer (shocker), and one of the reasons is because of the fashion. I’m the most comfortable and confident getting dressed for a sunny day.
A puffer allowed me to have my cake and eat it to, by keeping me warm while dressing my way. But then November comes and sh*t starts to get serious. A blouse sans undershirt just doesn’t cut it anymore, and I felt scrambled to layer, without knowing how to do so tastefully. You see, the autumn months act as a preparation for temperatures to drop in many ways, fashion being one of them. Layering isn’t in my wheelhouse the same way that getting dressed for the beach is. I need to practice these things, or else I end up taking two hours to get dressed, which isn’t fun for anyone.
SO, my strategy for this year, is to keep my puffers tucked away and only bringing out the leather jacket and the trench coat. The thinking being that I will get a head start on the layering game to get the wheels turning when the stakes aren’t as high. Then when November comes, the puffer will come out and all the foreplay will be worth it.
Step 2: lighting
This I know for a fact is a Northern European thing. The light in Berlin ceases to exist, not only in the “winter” months, but even now the sun has been cloacked by a blanket of clouds, leaving with us only a stark, unchanging, dull colour of grey. A sad excuse for a sky if you ask me, but alas, complaining isn’t helping anyone.
Lucky for me, I’ve found myself with an incredible boyfriend who not only makes the most delicious pumpkin soup, but he also knows an inordinate amount about smart lights and Amazon Alexas.
Me being a sun lover, and A being incredible, he went out of his way to set up the lighting system in our flat to mimic sunlight patterns as if we lived in a place with a humane amount of light.
Back when I worked a regular job with a harsh eight am start, I would wake up thinking it was in the middle of the night, when it was actually six-thirty. Not a nice way to kickstart the day. But now, every morning at around seven, the sun (smart lights) will “rise” in our flat and twelve hours later the sun will “set”, tucking us both into the evening.
In October we still get a few hours of daylight (greylight feels more appropriate), so the effects of the lights are minimal, but in terms of planning ahead, I feel ahead of the curve on this one.
This wasn’t so much of of something that I did personally to prepare for winter, but moreso a slice of praise to A <3
Step 3: Autumn Cleaning
Spring cleaning is all the rage, but there’s something to be said about a little autumnal sweep. Summer is the season that is all about doing all the things. In terms of direction, for myself at least, there wasn’t really any. It’s a go go go season, but it doesn’t feel forced because that’s how the tide of summer rolls.
Then comes autumn, which is about doing, but in a more refined way. Hence why I find a beauty in clearing out the debris of summer — to charter a path for the coming months and come out the other side with a sense of accomplishment.
For myself, this spring marked the beginning of a journey to work for myself. I decided the corporate path I was on wasn’t for me, and decided to leap into yoga teaching and other ways to help people find their breadth, find their center, and ultimetly just chill out.
I never considered myself to be particularly ambitious, but when I started working for myself, it felt like every day came with eight new ideas on what I wanted to do. Thus, creating a hodge-podge of personal projects and a never ending to do list. I paralysed myself by the number of things I set out to do, and felt a sense of hopelessness by my lack of ability to get anything done.
The whole point of working for myself was to try and turn what I love into what I do. Lost in the flurry of ideas, I had no handle on the actual purpose behind my actions. I wanted to teach yoga because I wanted to help people feel better in their bodies. At the time, I didn’t have the words to hold me down because everything was so new and happening so fast — of course a storm of ideas came and swept me away.
Now after taking some time to chill myself, I’ve found clarity on what it is I truly want to do and how I want to do it. Thanks to a little bit of reflecting <3
In the process of reorganising my compass, I’ve found grace in knowing that so much of what I’m doing is new to me, and needing to wipe the slate clean isn’t a step backwards, but in fact a step forward. It feels a bit like I’ve spent the past few months splattering paint all over a canvas, trying out every colour that caught my eye. Now, I’ve taken out a new canvas, and I trust that I know exactly which colors I want to use to paint this new picture.
One of the big shifts being the substack for Presence Boutique — Presence Boutique is a little passion project if you will, that I’m working to bring to life. I had made a substack to document the journey, however, I found that the more time and energy I spent on PB’s substack, the more I missed the rambles and fluidity of Pickle Juice.
The primary reason for documenting this journey was to show the human element of creating a business, but there’s very little separating Presence Boutique, Pickle Juice, and Pria Koll. Hence why I’ve decided to shut down PB substack and merge it into Pickle Juice. I’ve given it her own section and all, and I’ll be migrating all posts from the presence publication over, so please take a glance if you so please.
Autumn cleaning: cutting out the weeds, trimming the trees to set up the conditions for a productive and perhaps a little fun winter season.
So that’s it for now. for those of you on a warmer latitude, soak up the sun for me. I’ll be here, curled up in my blanket with a heater turned up to an appropriate strength.
Till next time
xo
P from pickle juice & presence boutique <3
yess autumn cleaning >> spring cleaning
Tidying up is usually a good idea..simplifying is smart.. and love the lighting genius!