As much as most of us enjoy the cozy hibernation of winter, we are now officially in the budding stage of spring. It’s time to push back the cozy blankets and reenter the world, hopefully, rested and refreshed. Springtime is a wonderful reminder of how good it feels to stretch our limbs, move our bodies, and embrace the energy of movement that comes with longer days.
I want to take this opportunity to talk about how we have so much to look forward to over the next several months as we move from the budding of spring to the growth of summer, and then to the harvest of Fall. Living in alignment with the seasons feels much better for me personally than the life I had before, which pushed me towards perpetual summer and fall, growth and harvest. You wouldn’t ask a cherry tree to blossom all year long, so why would you expect that of yourself?
A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to facilitate a day retreat at Presence&Co with Mary Wahlman-Krogh, LMT, RYT. It was an incredible experience. We had the best group of women. We moved our bodies. We journaled. We connected. It was beautiful.
Afterward, one of the attendees told Mary she really liked the retreat. She shared that she was really nervous about the journaling portion because it was new to her, but she was so glad that she had done it because she found it really powerful.
Helping people reframe their lives and reconsider what they could do to have lives that feel better is so important to me. It makes my heart happy to know that by stepping out of my comfort zone, I was able to have such a positive impact.
I believe all of our participants got a lot out of these questions. I watched them fill line after line in their new notebooks with all of the ideas that these questions prompted. So I want to share them with you too. Maybe if you take some time to answer these questions, they will help guide you for the coming year.
Before starting, I would recommend grabbing your journal (or a blank piece of paper) and a nice pen, finding a quiet place in your house, taking a few deep, relaxing breaths, and lighting a candle.
Then, pick a few songs that make you feel happy, that make you want to dance, and turn on the music and dance it out. Go for two to three songs at least, more if you’d like, but as I told the retreat group, my journaling answers are always better after I’ve moved my body, even just a bit. Once the good energy is flowing, take a few deep breaths, center yourself, and answer these questions.
One quick note about your answers – write whatever comes to mind, let the information flow, it doesn’t have to be neat or make sense or be what you would have expected. Just let go and write until you can’t write anything else on the topic and then move to the next question. Sometimes this is the best way to answer your own questions, your subconscious mind answers in an instant, until your ego talks you out of that answer and into a more logical, practical, acceptable answer. Don’t censor yourself. You’re the only one reading what you write. Just let it be exactly what comes up. It’s all beautiful. It’s all perfect. It’s all exactly what it’s supposed to be.
- What is the best possible outcome in this new season for you?
- What does the best possible outcome for your life feel like?
- What seeds do you need to plant now to see that outcome this year?
- What part of your life needs to be nurtured to source capacity for that outcome?
- What’s one way you can add more of that best possible life feeling into your daily life more now?
That’s it. A few simple questions. I hope they help. I hope that you start looking around your life and finding ways that you are going to actively make your life feel as good as it probably looks from the outside. Make it better than ever before. You can do it. I know you can!
With Presence,
Hannah