You may have already picked up from the last few weeks’ blog and social media posts that I am absolutely loving this time of year, the shift in the air in people’s energy, the trees, the flowers, everything blossoming. And by now I am also certain you have started to notice the shifts too. The Spring Equinox was now almost a month ago – the day that represented a pivotal shift in the seasons, equal daylight to night. A peak of sorts. A sense of equilibrium and a momentary pause in nature to take stock – to be in that exact moment of equal light and dark – of recognising what has been, and what is yet to come.

I’ve been seeing the shifts and peak in the change as an opportunity to shed the layers and to really let go of anything no longer serving me. Giving myself permission to go with the flow more, less push, more gentle compassion with my self.

There’s a necessary protectiveness to the winter months you see, a going within to ground, recharge our energy reserves. The equinox is this beautiful metaphor for now choosing to step into the light. What have you been holding back? Pushing away? Or tentatively stepping towards? We can take our cues from nature to start asking ourselves questions to unlock the heaviness, to emerge recharged and refreshed.

The light can represent permission we give ourselves to truly shine. Moving toward something instead of move away. The nature equivalent that immediately springs to mind is bears hibernating for the winter – moving away from the cold, from the dark and going into their caves. To emerge during spring – to move towards the light, the water, the streams in search of food.

When we’re feeling stuck (for example, busy, overwhelmed, confused), a change in our cycle, habits, or way we go about our days can feel overwhelming. Naturally. Because we’ve been couped up on those saves for an entire season (or our entire lives in some cases!). Maybe it’s the fear of the unknown, of not being in control of our familiar, safe, comfortable surroundings anymore. What would actually happen if I stopped being busy? Or let go of the reigns?

That emptiness we feel when faced with change can be the loneliest feeling on the planet. At least, it was for me. The gnawing of not knowing as well as the gnawing of dissatisfaction and lack of a true deep sense of connection and joy. It felt like a double-edged sword, no way to feel secure or safe. The thing is, nothing is going to change for us unless we have a big enough PULL to do so. Think of the bear, he gets pretty darn hungry after months and months tucked up in its cave. OF COURSE there’s a big enough reason WHY it would venture out again, even if it’s not entirely sure how the landscape may have shifted. Without having a picture, a visual, a feeling associated with the change we’re looking to create, there’s no real pull for us to do something different. Our brains tend to be wired over time to do more to avoid pain than to experience pleasure anyhow, so we keep avoiding the pain of the unknown, the discomfort. The risk of ‘change’ is far too high. It may not feel good.

Establishing your pull, or your reason WHY you would be bothered to do something different is handing yourself that rope that you can latch onto and get out from STUCK when it shows up.

For many of our clients (and for myself too) this can be incredibly challenging in itself. We’ve spent so long in survival mode – just getting by, on autopilot, protecting ourselves – that the permission to envisage anything different has stopped completely.

The language and words for how we want things to be has been switched off. Or maybe it was never on in the first place. We absolutely need to create it ourselves. And it can literally start with language. Word games. Getting our brains used to the idea of change. Asking yourself: How would you like it to be? What would that give you? For what purpose will I act? Being gentle and also being incredibly detailed is the only way to coax your brain out into the sunshine, to help it acknowledge that moving out of the cave is worth it. That the pleasure of swimming in the river and eating the fish again after the winter is what life is all about.

Know anyone who could do with a wake up from their hibernation? Perhaps they feel like their life is running on autopilot and they want to reconnect and recharge? Share this post with them, it may just be the light they need to pull them towards more of what they want in life!