Spring is here! No it is. Really. I know you may not feel it right now looking out of your window at the grey colour of the sky, but it is really here. Look a little longer and deeper at the outside world. And listen. Outside in nature everything has come alive once more. The deep green shoots are pushing through the earth, snow drops, daffodils, crocuses. Colour is returning around us. Birds are flying around us and the air filled with their songs.
You might be thinking “ Yay, woohoo. Spring is here. What the heck does that have to do with with my personal growth and reaching my goals?” Well I’m glad you asked because Spring can actually boost our personal growth, if we choose to let it.
Let me explain. Right now we are actually at a special point in the solar calendar (Or to use its proper name the Astronomical calendar. For a more in depth explanation click here). It is the time of Spring Equinox. What this basically means is that we here have a short period where day and night are at equal length. It is a point of transition, it could be said between the darker half of the year, Autumn and Winter; and the year’s lighter half, Spring and Summer. After this point in the year this is when nature goes completely ballistic with activity (pretty much until its exact opposite time in the calendar Autumn Equinox). From the flurry of activity preparing the beds in the garden and planting seeds now the first frosts have gone, to the buds that are starting to sprout leaves on the trees and the explosion of birth in the animal kingdom, spring is like nature’s equivalent of our pre christmas shopping. The game is on! Now we are part of this natural cycle, no matter how far removed our lives seem from it today. Something in our deepest dna gets reawoken during the spring. Instinctively we feel that this is a time of transformation and of new birth.
We used to be really in touch with this shift in nature’s cycle before we became an industrial society. Today however around Equinox people just tend to feel a little wobbly beforehand and then improve and balance out again afterwards, without noticing or understanding why. (It’s actually very obvious to see if you are working with children, the same as when it’s full moon their energy goes temporarily bananas.)
Once the Equinox is over, and with the added bonus of sunshine; we start to feel friskier, more alive. So instead of walking around with our head in the proverbial, and in some cases actual smog of modern life. Imagine what you could achieve if you could harness this transformational and vibrant life energy of Spring and applied it to your own life. How different would your life look with a transformation, an energy boost and a surge of inspired activity leading to your own growth?
Very different. And trust me it feels very, very good. In the last 20 years I have been working with nature’s cycles as a guide and tool for my own personal growth and I want to share with you a 5 things you can do to connect with the boost of Spring and re-energise your life. These suggestions are easy and practical to do and will fit into any lifestyle and time frame. You can choose one, a few or all of the below. Do those that inspire you, whatever steps you try you will gain you a fantastic boost of inspiration, whilst reconnecting you with a cycle that humans have been part of since the dawn of humankind.
As its Spring Equinox today why not try the first today and get reconnected with yourself.
Go out for a walk alone
Its simply that. As soon as you can go out for a good hour on your own. Go where it is green. This can be in a woods, in a forest, around the local park and cemetery. Wherever nature is around you. Ignore your phone, Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, emails, sms’s. For this one hour nothing but you and nature exists. (If it helps put some music on.) Use your time to look for signs of the spring returning. Look down at the ground and up at the trees. Smell the earth. Instead of just observing nature, interact with nature. Touch, feel , smell and listen to it. Give yourself the opportunity to awaken your senses and have a sensory experience. Our senses work to engage our attention and help our brain become more alert of our surroundings so when we stimulate them we are actually giving our brain a workout, giving ourselves more focus and intelligence.
Whilst walking allow yourself to think about your life, your goals. Allow inspiration to come and go. I often use nature as the macrocosm to reflect the microcosm of my life. How does it reflect externally what is happening with me internally. When you get home allow yourself 30 mins to free write any of the observations, inspirations, realisations you had.
(This is a great way to connect in with nature AND yourself. It can be done at any time of the year, each season has its own glory and teaching. If you don’t have a chance to do anything else do this one. For something so simple it has such a huge payback.)
Balance yourself
Nature is doing it so why not join in. After all when did you last check in with yourself? Balancing yourself could take the form of making a work life balance assessment (The Life MOT ), realigning your chakras, taking a yoga class or practising a five minute balancing meditation exercise (Here’s my favourite the Tree of Life on Youtube for some inspiration.) Another great way to do this if you have the opportunity is to create an equinox day for yourself giving yourself equal hours of work, rest and play.
Clear out
Spring is traditionally associated with “ the spring clean”. In my opinion this tradition arises from the time when we had been staying inside the longhouse during the winter. With the arrival of spring and the new light, more time can be spent outdoors therefore it was time to clean out the house to make space for the new food and materials to be stored after harvest.
Although spring cleaning your home may seem like an arduous and strange task to be doing to help us tune into nature, it is in fact bringing us home into the cycle. In order for new growth after winter beds need to be cleared for the new plants coming. When we tidy around ourselves we also tidy within ourselves (an in times of mind turmoil and confusion can be the achievable task that gets you through the day). Physically by shifting the winter’s dust and cobwebs you are also making your home a healthier place to be. Spring cleaning as unlikely as it seems is a true mind body spirit procedure. So grab a duster, chuck out the old bills you have no use for and if you want a good cleansing after all that hard work book yourself into a spa detox day, go have a healthy lunch with a detox smoothie with friends or jump into the sauna at the local swimming pool. After all life doesn’t all have to be hard work!
Make or revisit your plans
A great way of harnessing the Spring energy is to make or revisit your plans for the year. What goals are working towards? What do you want to create for yourself or your friends and family this year? I find that making plans for actualising my dreams are a lot easier after the Spring Equinox than before. (And if you haven’t got any plans for this year then have a look at my 4 part series on making new year’s resolutions that are easy to keep, it is still new year after all).
It’s at Equinox I revisit my plans, check in to see what is actually realistic now I am further into the year and make detailed plans for those goals. We have in our house a ritual where we combine an Easter tradition and spring goal setting by blowing and painting 3 eggs. (I know it does sound a little strange, bear with me and I’ll explain). On each egg we paint symbols of our 3 main goals we want to achieve. It is a fun way of refocusing our own energy and the symbology of the egg itself reminds us of the spring birth energy throughout the year. And we get to invite our inner children and creative minds into our goal setting process. (Btw the eggs often do look as though our inner children have painted them!)
Take positive action
Remember Walt Disney said “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” Of And nothing beats connecting with Spring energy like taking positive action. Doing something constructive for new growth is the real theme in nature right now. Personally it is at this time of year I connect with my accountability partner (we have a winter break from Jan – March.) At this time of year we lay out our new goal achieving strategies and support each other to take action. An accountability partner is a great way to support you to manifest what you want in your life. However you might be in need of a different type of positive action. It could be you need a day out to rest and recuperate or an evening connecting with your family to reconnect with yourself. Or it could be time for a life overhaul or just doing that thing that has been bugging you for ages that you haven’t got around to doing. Whatever it is identify what you need to do and do it. And then do the next thing. Small achievements and big achievements go a long way in making us feel great about ourselves and our abilities. So get out there and get going. You will feel fantastic afterwards. Personally I will be found weeding our garden this weekend. ( I haven’t a clue exactly how to do this as I have never really had my own vegetable garden before, however I am gonna give it my best!)
————————————————————————–
Have a great week allowing the Spring Equinox energy to inspire growth, balance and action in your life and have fun getting your spring boost on!
Happy Spring Equinox <3
