Spring Forward

I have always felt spring is the best time of year to go inwards, reflect and start clearing the way for new things to come into bloom. Often for me the "inwards" is about being at home and clearing out my space, freshening it up in readiness for the spring sunshine to pour through the windows.

Other times it's clearing stuff from my desk at work that no longer serves a purpose, to make space for new creativity to emerge. But most of all I always feel March brings the opportunity to clear my mind from the fog of the winter months which tends to show up in those long nights of January.

For me the months of mental hibernation that I tend to do in the winter can hang about like a fog, waiting for something to come along and clear the view so that I can see again with the clarity that left me during the early days of winter.

These last few weeks, as days have grown longer, that fog has gently lifted, and I feel that renewed sense of clarity that always arrives at this time of year making me eager to start moving forward.

In truth, it's not because that spring arrived that clarity returned and the fog lifted, because I know that this is all just a story I tell myself, I know that at any time I can choose to experience that clarity whenever I want.

We all can.

What happens for me, and maybe for you too is that I get caught up in my thinking and allow my self to be seduced by thoughts that pull me ever deeper into that fog, and the more I get drawn in, the more I experience the heaviness of that fog and wonder will it every lift.

For many years I used to fight that fog, and do everything I could to clear it. I would spend hours meditating or journaling. I would analyse why my thinking is like this and try and turn all the foggy thinking sunny in the hope that I would experience clarity again. I would push through the winter months and keep moving because I genuinely felt that's what I should do.

Thankfully I am a lot wiser to that now and know that there's nothing I need to do. All that's ever required is for me to do what occurs to me at the moment, and if that somehow results in a little hibernation over the winter months and slowing everything down, then that's precisely what I do.

Afterall when we listen to our inner wisdom and follow the natural ebb and flow of our energy, it seems like common sense to me that the winter months are time for slowing down. A time of regrouping and creating space for new resources and energy to be restored so that we have everything we need to spring forward when the change of season arrives.

So why do we fight against this?

For me, I fought against it because I thought I "should," because all my conditioning via society friends and myself taught me that we need to keep pushing forward, keep on doing, keep moving, make things happen.

Go faster not slower!

And I believed that. Most of us do!

Winter is a time of slowing down; we see it everywhere in nature; plants stop growing, animals sleep more and go into hibernation. And we are all part of the same source of energy that flows through all living things, so why should it be different for us?

Because somewhere someone decided that we "should" be doing more!

So if you have been beating up on yourself for not getting enough done over the winter months, or failing to achieve all those goals you set at the beginning of January, cut yourself a little slack, those months weren't months designed for sowing seeds and experiencing growth.

Those months are designed for recuperation, idea generation, preparation and building reserves of energy in readiness for the season of growth.

If this idea seems far fetched, you only need to look around in nature and notice that it's just in these last few weeks of March that nature has begun to burst into life.

It's no coincidence and It's no different for us.

So as we come to the end of March go easy on yourself and do a little spring cleaning of your own, whether that's at home, the office or inside your mind. Use this time as we move deeper into spring to start those projects that have been gently formulating in your mind. Slow down and allow them the time grow, nourish them and begin the process of bringing them to life so that when winter arrives again, as it will, you can give yourself permission to slow down again and prepare for the next cycle.

And if like me you need a little help at times to get out of the fog, you can use my "Spring Clean Your Mind" Miniseries to help you, not just in spring but any time you feel that fog come down.

Love
Avril xx