Spring Forward: It’s time to bloom in work and life
Where I live, the first signs of spring have popped up over the last week or so. Buds and bulbs have burst open revealing new leaves and flowers, days have been longer and warmer and the sun has been shining.
All up, this has made me feel brighter, more energetic, eager to get things done, wanting to exercise more and eat lighter.
This new lease of life is not surprising because Spring is the season for new beginnings and increased energy. Following Mother Nature’s lead, we can harness the qualities of Spring to enhance our productivity and health. Before looking at exactly how you can do this, let’s put Spring into perspective by considering the qualities of the other seasons.
This diagram shows the main quality of each season and the mind set it brings.
Aligning our tasks, environment, diet, exercise and mind set with the seasons helps create a state of flow.
Alignment brings balance to our lives through the rhythm of the seasons and therefore helps prevent burn out.
Working with the energy of Spring
Spring is all about taking action after winter’s hibernation. So, if your New Year’s resolutions have failed to take off, now is the time to reignite them. In fact, the New Year was originally celebrated in March and early April and anyone who didn’t realise this was considered an April fool.
Work and life projects
Spring is the time for new ideas and insights. It’s also when you’ll have the most physical and mental energy, making it a great time to work on your most challenging tasks and projects. These could include implementing new financial plans, systems, procedures and revenue streams, meeting new people, changing career or hobby focus and learning a new skill or sport. Remember, in order to start new things you must make space by clearing out the old.
Things to do:
Create space for brainstorming and innovation by considering: what existing commitments and tasks you have that are preventing the budding of new growth? These are usually things that drain you. Can you delegate or get rid of them? What activities can you add into your schedule that will fuel and excite you? Read more about determining what’s fueling and draining you here.
Determine some goals for the next few months or year. You might have been thinking about things you want to achieve over winter or they might have popped up in your brainstorming.
Write down a few work or life project goals. Make sure they are things that excite you. If not, keep brainstorming. Write down the first action steps you can take towards achieving your goals.
TAKE THE FIRST STEPS whilst your energy is high.
Your environment
Feng Shui (the art of placement to create harmony between yourself and your environment) experts and professional organisers will tell you that your environment has a major impact on your energy and mood. It’s time to Spring clean and declutter your home and work environment.
Things to do:
Systematically go through each area of your environment to declutter and clean. A popular approach at the moment is to follow the Konmari method.
Implement spring feng shui tips: Open windows and doors as often as you can to let in fresh air; Change up some of your home decor accents to bright and light spring colours; bring inside potted flowering plants and fill vases with spring flowers; fill a fruit bowl with fresh seasonal fruits. Learn more about Feng Shui here.
Burn or diffuse some essential oils for uplifting energy. The citrus oils such as lemon, orange, grapefruit and mandarin are energising. Peppermint, eucalyptus, tea tree, rosemary, oregano and thyme are good for seasonal allergies. Learn more about aromatherapy here.
Your diet
Embrace the foods spring provides us with in your diet. Spring shoots and leafy green vegetables add the bitter taste into our diet. Bitters help improve digestion after the denser foods of winter. They naturally cleanse our bodies by purifying our blood and bringing energy to our cells via chlorophyll. Sour foods also stimulate the liver and gall bladder for better digestion.
Things to do:
Add a green smoothie to your daily diet. See how to make one here.
Enjoy big leafy green salad or sautéed greens as a main course or side dish every day.
Drink Nettle leaf tea especially if you suffer from hay fever. It’s a natural antihistamine and anti-inflammatory.
Add Mint leaves to drinks, salads and make tea with them. The menthol is a natural decongestant for seasonal allergies and helps with digestion.
Add spring asparagus to your dishes regularly. It’s high in vitamin K (for blood clotting, heart and bone health) as well as copper, selenium, B vitamins.
Add Spring onions to dishes as these contain high amounts of polyphenols which help prevent disease and reduce oxidative stress that causes wear in our bodies. They are also natural antihistamines and have antibacterial and antifungal properties.
Add lemon and limes to your water and salad dressings to assist digestion.
Add radishes to dishes as they remove waste and toxins from the stomach and liver. They are also natural diuretics and help treat urinary and kidney conditions, hydrate your skin, reduce fevers and even treat insect bites.
Seek out restaurants in your area that serve local seasonal food. Get some ideas to try at home.
Browse at a local farmer’s market and see what fruit and veg are on offer. Choose things that appeal to you and then Google recipes with these ingredients and cook up some new spring dishes.
Exercise
With naturally increased energy, Spring is a good time to move more and sit less.
Things to do:
Stretch and strengthen with yoga and pilates.
Do walking / jogging / cycling outside in the fresh air. Get onto the golf course, bowling green or cricket pitch.
Start new and challenging workouts eg. training for a marathon, learning a martial art or learning to climb
Get outside
Get outside when you can to absorb some Vitamin D which you might have been lacking in over winter. It promotes bone health, proper cell differentiation and boosts immunity. Remember to have at least 15 minutes without sun screen on in order to absorb it.
If you’d like any life or health coaching to help you focus your Spring energy then please contact me for an appointment. Watch this space for tips on how to work with the other seasons as they emerge throughout the rest of this year.
