The Northern Light Within is a tender, winter-lit guide that blends science, story, and simple practices into a compassionate roadmap for moving through life’s hardest seasons. Why was this an important book for you to write?

I wrote The Northern Light Within because winter has always brought up a lot for me personally. When the days grew shorter and colder, I noticed my own emotions getting louder — old anxieties, self-doubt, and a sense of heaviness that was harder to shake off.

Over the last 15 years of coaching, I saw the same thing in my clients. Winter, and “winter-like” phases in life, seemed to amplify whatever people were already carrying. The season stripped away distractions and made vulnerability more visible.

This book felt important because I wanted to offer something gentle, honest, and practical for those times. A companion for people who feel like they’re walking through their own inner winter — blending science, story, and simple practices that have genuinely helped me and the people I’ve worked with. In many ways, it’s the book I wish I had during some of my hardest seasons.

How did you decide which rituals and reflections belonged in the book?

The filter was very simple:
Does this actually help someone when they’re struggling?

If a practice didn’t pass that test, it didn’t make it into the book.

The rituals and reflections are drawn directly from my own journey and from years of working with clients. Some came from moments when I personally needed support — breathwork during anxious phases, grounding practices when my mind was racing, small daily reflections that helped me find perspective in the middle of overwhelm.

Others are tools I’ve seen work repeatedly in sessions: simple, doable steps that helped people feel calmer, clearer, or more emotionally steady during difficult seasons.

Nothing is there because it sounds nice on paper. Everything in the book has been lived, tested, and has made a real difference in someone’s life — mine or my clients’.

How did you balance scientific grounding with personal storytelling without letting one overshadow the other?

For me, the two naturally belong together.

I’ve always believed that ancient practices and modern science are speaking the same language — just with different vocabularies. In my coaching, I blend both because people today want reassurance from neuroscience, but they also want to feel understood as human beings, not just as “brains on legs.”

Over time, that blend evolved into what I call Medit-Action: a way of working where meditation, awareness, and spiritual tools are always anchored in small, practical actions and supported by what we know from research.

So in the book, the science offers clarity — why winter affects mood, how the nervous system responds to stress, what breathwork and grounding actually do in the body.

The stories — my own, and those inspired by client journeys — show how all of that plays out in real life. They give the reader something to relate to, so it doesn’t feel abstract or clinical.

I didn’t want the book to be purely academic or purely emotional. I wanted it to feel like someone sitting beside you saying, “Here’s what we know, here’s what I’ve lived, and here’s what you can try right now.”

That’s the heart of Medit-Action, and that’s how the balance found its way onto the page.

What do you hope readers feel or carry with them in the days and weeks after they finish the book?

I hope they walk away with a softer, steadier relationship with themselves.

Not a perfect life, not constant positivity — just a little more calm in their body, a little more clarity in their mind, and a sense that they’re not “broken” for finding certain seasons harder than others.

If a reader can come out of the book feeling more equipped to handle their own winters — with a few practices they actually use, a new way of understanding their emotions, and a quiet belief that their inner light is still there even on the heavy days — then the book has done what I hoped it would do.

More than anything, I want them to remember:
your hardest season doesn’t erase your light.
Sometimes, it’s the very thing that helps you see it more clearly.

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