Spring Clearings

Have you noticed that spring cleaning is both an inside and an outside job? For your house/yard and your mind/body. As we step into the season we head outdoors to more freely move our body, and to clean and beautify our outdoor surroundings. It feels great to move the body deeply after a winter of generally quieter engagement with our physical selves. You might notice however that there are parts of your internal selves that are still tugging at you and asking to be fully addressed before the opportunity is lost. Your heart might be asking you to finish the internal work you started before you completely give yourself to your outdoor projects. It is easy to become overwhelmed when we have so much going on both in the mind and in the body. This can create sleep issues and a resultant springtime fatigue.

We are now generally expending more physical energy, which is tremendously helpful in quieting the body and readying it for rest at night. The complicating element this time of year is the excess or un-directed mental energy. Because the majority of our focus is moving outward right now, enjoying the uptake in physical activity, we can often forget that our mind still needs an outlet for expression in order to be able to find its way to a restful sleep state at the end of the day.

To combat the somewhat erratic nature of my sleep pattern in the springtime, I have to regularly recommit to and become more disciplined in my daily meditation practice. I notice I will also often pick up my journal out of a need to work through my thoughts and my emotional experiences of the day. I find both of these practices to be particularly beneficial at the end of the day in the spring. They give me a tangible way to work with and release any mental hyperactivity that has arisen during the day, and set me up for a much more restful night's sleep.

Sending you blessings of energized days and restful nights.

With love and gratitude,
Tawa

P.S. Looking for more guidance on how to manage the spring energy swings? I've written more here and will follow up with the remaining ideas in Sibyl Magazine and on my website in May.