A little spring in our step…

Ahhhh.  Spring.  Last Saturday was the first day of spring, the Spring Equinox, and is more than just the first day of a new season promising more light and growth.  

First, it’s the day where we have equal light and dark and shift into days that start to provide more light.  Yay! I’m not sure if I have Seasonal Affective Disorder (aka SAD), but man I tell ya, from November to mid-March, I drag my butt out of bed each day and it takes a couple of hours to get my mojo going.  I started to use a Happy Lamp last year. People ask me if it works and I say “yes”.  I’m not sure if it really works or if it’s just a mindf*ck, but I’ll take it.  This past winter I had some stuff going on that had a pretty big impact on my mojo and took me to a darker place than the dark time of year normally does.  However, that said, most winters I wake up and want to crawl back into bed and stay there all warm and cozy, wrapped up like a burrito.  

It took me a while to get my head around it, but I’m okay with feeling that way.  And it’s okay that I feel that way (and you too). The dark time of year is a time for introspection, self observance, learning, building on what we know and taking time for ourselves.  It’s a time to plan for the light time of year, so we can take action and allow things to come to fruition or at least take the steps to plant seeds of growth, if you will.  Personally, I loved the fact that I was mostly working from home this year because it helped me with all of those dark time of the year things; I was able to sleep a little longer and still manage to start work on time, or it was okay to change my schedule and that in itself just made me feel better. On days I did go into the office, it was a more flexible attitude and that really took the pressure off. While at home, I was able to take little self-care breaks throughout my day like doing some stretches while waiting for the kettle to boil, eating better lunches because I could use my oven or stove, or going for a walk around my neighbourhood on my lunch and picking up the mail that normally sits there for a week or two because I forget to go get it otherwise.  

Second, it’s a time to check in.  At the beginning of the year, I set goals for the coming year. (My husband, who has already declared me a kook, couldn’t believe that I set about 20 goals in 6 categories.  My question to him was, why didn’t he?).  I don’t make resolutions because I don’t “resolve” to do something.  I make goals and then plan how to achieve those goals by breaking them down into smaller, bite-sized, doable chunks, if needed.  Some goals are super simple like I’m finally going to read “Crime and Punishment” that I bought ten years ago (C’mon Angela, it’s only 600 pages).  Other goals are more complex like I’m going to stop buying books that end up sitting there for ten years waiting to be read so I can start putting extra money down on my mortgage so I can pay off my house earlier, then add money to my retirement fund so I can retire tomorrow.  That way I can do what I truly love, which is helping you fine readers meet your wellness goals! I’m still working on the logistics of that one, mostly because I love buying books and my job has a pension.  Anyway, the change in season is a great time to check on my progress.  The beauty of spring is that is resembles the time of year to plant seeds, to make changes and to let go of that which is not serving us.  (Side note: one of my goals was to post a blog every two weeks; so far so good!).

As I check in with my goals, maybe it’s time to take steps that I wasn’t ready to take in the winter months.  Or maybe I was waiting for better weather or more light.  For example, I have multiple gardens and there was no point in starting to plant seeds too early.  Instead, I remembered that last year it was hard to get seeds, so I ordered them online in January (from a wonderful Canadian company in PEI called Vesey’s) along with everything I needed to start seedlings.  This week I’ll get soil and sow those seeds.  To me, there’s nothing better than being able to watch what you plant grow and come to fruition, quite literally.  I grow a variety of vegetables to cook with, juice and freeze for winter consumption.  I also grow a variety of herbs to cook with, make tinctures, perform rituals and to dry for winter consumption (refer about to husband declared kook).

Third, it may be a time to actually set some goals, make new goals (perhaps based on changes in our lives during the winter) or revise our previous goals.  We’ve moved out of the dark and are starting to feel lighter.  We can get outside and move around more which puts a little spring in my step (pun intended).  Maybe we didn’t set goals at the New Year or maybe we didn’t put them in place or see them through.  Humans are funny.  You can set a goal any time of the year, month, day or time of day. But we always seem to need a particular date to start.  For many of us, this is the New Year or now even September.  And if we don’t fulfill our goals at these time we seem to wait until they come around again to reset.  Why?  If we stopped our new exercise habit by February, why do we wait until next January to start it again?  “Ah man, I failed at my New Year’s goal to get in shape already.  I guess I’ll just lie around, eat, drink and clog my arteries again until next year”.  Why on Saturday do we say, I’m going to start eating better on Monday? Research shows that humans need a determined starting point to get their mind around goal setting.  Strange, but true.  So, if we missed the boat in January then, I ask, why not now?

Fourth, and this is pandemic related; now that the weather is getting nicer and we can get outside, we can start to socialize more again.  Socialization is the key to good health.  It will shift us from that place of darkness and isolation to a place of light, a sense that we aren’t on this life journey alone and that what we are going through is normal.  Everything you experience, good or bad, is a normal human reaction.    

So, let yourselves come out of the darkness and into the light, my butterflies.  Unfurl your wings and emerge, fierce and courageous, to face this new season and all it brings with it.  Let’s all put a little spring in our step!