In honor of this celebratory day of hope and new beginnings, I thought it appropriate to talk about some simple, yet powerful ways to bring in this lovely new season.
Though most of these you’ve probably heard of and perhaps have already started doing since Spring rituals tend to happen pretty naturally, it’s always nice to have reminders and move forward with refreshed intentions.
Cleaning and Clearing
Spring cleaning is usually referred to as a household chore, but it’s actually a very powerful practice. Winter gathers a lot of stagnant energy. For months we keep the windows and doors of our homes sealed tight as we accumulate dust and clutter and even extra body weight.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this, but everything has its season. And the Springtime comes to keep things so fresh and so clean clean, as the hip kids say.
The actual act of cleaning does more than just clean up the extra dust and grime. It makes space for a new energy. It symbolizes and invites change. And it has proven to help with people’s mental and emotional health.
Try viewing Spring cleaning as a healing ritual instead of a burden of to-do items to check off, and see how that changes things. Turn on your favorite music. Light a fresh smelling candle or incense.
Open the windows. And take joy in making space.
Sweat Out the Winter
Along with cleaning out our living space, it’s important to also clean out our inner space. Now is the time to bring in more movement to our lives to ensure our bodies can process and release its Winter storage.
Try to break a sweat every day, ideally in the morning and even more ideally, outside. Get that fresh Spring air running through your body. Sweat out the toxins and stagnant energy that has gathered through winter habits.
And it doesn’t have to be some hardcore workout plan. In fact, I urge you against that. Gently start to bring more vigorous exercise into your life through outside activities, yoga, dance parties, yard work, you get the idea.
Embrace Hope
Spring is a time of true hope. I wrote more about this last year, but I wanted to bring it up again. Hope is the vehicle for change. It’s the pushing force that inspires us to have a better life. Hope moves us to action.
As we hope for the flowers to bloom and the birds to return each year, we can also hope for our deep desires to take root and bloom in the seasons to come. But it all begins with that hope or belief that things can and will change.
I wish you happy Springing, my dear reader, full of hope, moving, and grooving.