Emerge & Awaken: Ancient Wisdom for Spring

After a long winter, it’s lovely to see the early spring flowers starting to bloom - the snowdrops, daffodils, tulips, and more.  I love the promise of spring - the potential for the birth of something new, the growth from seed (idea) to seedling (starting) to small plant (growth).  The days are getting longer and warmer.  There’s a reawakening that’s happening as the energy shifts from down and in (winter) to up and out (spring).  

In Chinese medicine, the winter solstice is the height of Yin energy and the summer solstice is the height of Yang energy.  The equinox in both spring and fall is when Yin and Yang are in balance and the tipping point to growth depending on the season.  Spring represents the shift from Yin to Yang and the beginning of the growth of Yang.  Spring is also the season associated with the Wood Element in Chinese medicine.

Wood Element

The Wood Element is said to govern creativity, plans, inspiration, vision, ideas, planning, goals, aspirations and the courage to act.  It’s also associated with aspiring to become our highest self - the best version of ourselves we can be.

I like to think of spring as my “New Year”.  It’s the time of year that I do my planning and envision what I want to do, become and accomplish throughout the coming year.  For me, this process usually starts just before the Spring Equinox which was just a couple of weeks ago.  Now I’m starting to refine my vision and goals and turn them into plans for the year to come.

This is a season when vision, goals, plans and the courage to act are usually the strongest.  It’s also a season when creativity can help to unlock ideas, vision and aspirations.  It can help to shift things and allow the courage to act on the things that we want to make, create, become.      

Planting Seeds

This is the season of planting the seeds of what’s to grow in the coming seasons.  What are you planting?  These seeds come from the vision, goals and plans you have for your future.  Chinese medicine has a saying “Where your attention goes, your energy flows.”.

In planting seeds, we’re choosing to focus attention and energy in these places.  Are these seeds that are going to help you thrive?  Are they seeds your future self will thank you for?  

It takes attention, action and energy to cultivate seeds that are beneficial to us and help to bring us closer to our goals and who we want to be.

Releasing

As you move through this season, notice if you’re easily angered, perhaps feeling frequently frustrated by circumstances beyond your control.  Choosing to focus on what you can control (yourself and your boundaries), focusing on what’s happening in the current moment (not what has happened or might happen) and choosing to act from a space of peace and calm can help you to release the anger or frustration you may be feeling.

Practicing forgiveness with healthy boundaries allows you peace without allowing others to walk all over you.  The mistake many people make when working on setting boundaries for the first time is that they make the boundaries about other people rather than about what they’re willing to accept and tolerate.  When boundaries are about someone else, they’re rules.  When boundaries are about you, you can choose when you remove yourself from a situation rather than expecting someone else to behave in a specific way.

Going with the Flow

This may be one of the hardest things to accept and roll with for many of us.  When life throws something in your path, how do you typically react?  Are you the type to throw your hands up and stop?  Are you the type to plough through, consequences be damned?  Are you the type to look for another path?

Being flexible while being strongly rooted in your convictions and your identity is helpful when dealing with anything life may throw at you.  The ability to shift, move and change is what allows a willow tree to not only survive a storm but to dance with it.

Take a moment to watch the wind in the trees.  Notice how they move and how they return to their space when the wind calms.  Trees are almost always in motion (watch the top branches of a tall tree) - they move with what is instead of holding strong against it.

The deepest roots of a tree nourish the uppermost branches.  The roots are where the flow of ideas, creativity and inspiration come from.  Allow this to provide motivation for the coming months and years.

Movement and Flow

Another classic phrase in Chinese medicine comes from the HuangDi NeiJing - “Where there is no free flow, there is pain; where there is free flow, there is no pain.”

What it means is that when you live life in flow with what’s going on around you, you can change, shift and move without being held back or ridgid.  You’re also at peace and are relatively unflappable.

When you hold firm to something with rigidity and refuse to shift or flow, there’s increased stress, frustration, anger, and resentment.  All of this can cause pain and suffering.

This saying can also be taken far more literally.  Where there is pain in the body, there’s a lack of flow of Qi and nutrients reaching that space.  When there is free flow of Qi and nutrients, there is no pain.

The spring is a great time to focus on gentle movement and stretching.  You can also focus on the sides of the body where the Wood Element is said to reside in the body.  Yoga, dance, tai chi or qi gong can all be helpful to help move Qi in the body and release any minor aches and pains you may be experiencing.

This might be as simple as stretching periodically throughout the day.  If you think about waking up first thing in the morning, you naturally yawn and stretch.  That yawn increases oxygen in the body, waking up the brain.  The stretch helps your body expand and wake up muscles that haven’t moved much for the last several hours.

What kind of movement is your body craving in this season?  Consider adding in more of that.

Another way to help move qi is with creative pursuits.  Making and creating helps to move the Wood energy - this can be anything from creating art to writing or crafting.  Your skill level doesn’t matter.  The act of creating something is what’s important.  You can also choose to be inspired and try something new.

Cooking

As we move into spring and the snow finally melts, it’s natural to start to change your cooking with the season.  Similar to craving more soups, stews and warmer meals as fall moves to winter; we also start to crave lighter foods in the spring.  Moving to more poaching, quick stir-frying, steaming and slowly introducing a little raw food is optimal at this time of year.  

Starting to eat more spring greens, focusing on adding in more foods like onions, leeks, chives, scallions, mustards and mustard greens, Chinese yams, sweet potato, spinach, green leafy vegetables, green peas, carrots, mushrooms, mung beans, dates, cilantro, fennel, oregano, rosemary, caraway, bay leaf, mint, black pepper, ginger and horseradish.  

A great tea to drink in spring is a honey + mint tea.  The honey is slightly sweet and mint is both slightly sweet and pungent.  The combination of naturally sweet and pungent helps to shift our energy from the down and inward energy of winter to the up and outward energy of spring.

Final Thoughts

What will you be releasing this season?  How will you spend your energy?  What seeds will you plant? This is a season of awakening change!  Allow it to help you prepare for an amazing spring and an even better summer.

If you’re looking for more support in alleviating symptoms that might be coming up, making these or other changes, a free 20 minute consultation might be the encouragement you need to get the most out of the coming season.