Like Nature’s spring blooms of soul Resurrect your Glorious, truest self!
As we awaken to spring, we might ask ourselves what we want or who we want to grow into as this new cycle begins. Along with the renewed life blossoming around us, we are opening to blossoming, too! What part of you wants to emerge? What scent of you wants to be released into the air? What brilliance in you wants to show your depth and beauty to the world as you unfurl your pedals and dance?
Spring can also be a time of slow awakening, like a bear coming out of her cave after a long sleep. Here, in Portland, the weather changes every 15 minutes from bright, golden, lit skies to stormy, gray, shadowed downpours. My moods seem to change as rapidly as the weather. One minute I’m high as a kite, talking to everyone at the post office or grocery store with a giant smile on my face and fresh air under my wings, and the next minute I’m slumping over, grumbling to myself under my breath and feeling a sense of doom. It’s a roller coaster of emotions for sure, which is why now it a good time to talk about stress and emotions!
An essential aspect of my trade as an Emotional Wellness and Alignment Coach is to bring energy, attention and power to the intelligences of our emotions, or what we feel in our hearts and our bodies. It’s a different source of information than what we experience in our minds, which tend to work overtime, attempting to figure out solutions to problems, while trying to protect us from experiencing stress. The problem is, our thoughts can actually be a major contributor of stress and imbalance, feeding the frenzy of worry, and causing more stress! If we train our minds to quiet down a bit, we can listen to our hearts and bodies, to what messages they have for us about ourselves, about what is most important to us, about what needs to open to receive light, about what is changing in us. We can notice, without judgement, what we are thinking AND feeling.
When I was a kid, I was often told that I was too sensitive and too emotional. I know I am not the only one. I learned to stuff my feelings and carry shame for feeling things deeply, turn on myself, and absorb others emotions unconsciously. It took many years and heavy life hardships and lessons for me to find my way back to the truth of my own feelings, to open them up, honor them and listen to what wisdom they bring. My emotions now tell me I belong in this world, that I have purpose and meaning in feeling and that what I feel in my heart is simply an invitation to engage my intuition.
Intuition is often associated with the “gut feeling,” the knowing in our center. When we slow down enough to tend to our feelings, we may be led quickly to our inner knowing as well. I am not saying this is always a delightful process. It can often be vulnerable and painful, as what we feel could be grief, despair, anger, fear, etc. I cannot imagine a person or living creature in who does not experience or sense fear and pain as natural emotions in a chaotic and difficult world. And, as an alternative to trying to avoid or fix these very uncomfortable feeling, we can allow them, even for a few moments, and then sense what we know to be true with greater acceptance, rather than with resistance. This will guide us to take action from that place of truth in ourselves.
“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.” ~ Carl Jung
