Spring Renewal: 5 Ways to Reawaken Your Spirit and Get A Fresh Start

Spring is truly a natural time to reawaken your spirit and get a fresh start inside and out. Perhaps there is a change you have been considering for months or even years. Maybe a new and invigorating idea has swept in with the new Spring air. You may have specific ideas in mind for changes you would like to make in your life, or just a vague sense of restlessness that’s nipping at your consciousness in the quiet moments. Regardless, Spring’s unique energy offers us the opportunity to renew or even reinvent parts of ourselves that are hungry for growth.  Here are five ways to make the most of this season’s call for rejuvenation.

Mark the occasion

In the busy flow of our lives we often don’t make the time to really mark important moments. That includes dedicating ourselves to a new project, journey, or process. We frequently blow by our commitments without ceremony, either because we don’t have time or perhaps because we’re fearful that we’ll disappoint ourselves or others later on. After all, if we don’t announce to friends and family that we intend to lose twenty pounds this year, we won’t worry about the perception of failure if we don’t end up doing it. But in minimizing our intent, desire, or commitment to make changes, we rob ourselves of an important opportunity and ritual. Making a “big deal” out of a new journey or important occasions is a rallying call for support from the important people in our lives. It is also a significant “notice to self” in which we acknowledge that amidst all the other people whom we serve, our selves remain vitally important figures worthy of attention, care, and nurturing.

Celebrate Spring in ways that are meaningful to you. If you’ve been craving a special night out with friends or a long weekend away with someone whose company you adore, Spring is the perfect time to make it happen. Or maybe there’s a solo adventure you need, from a spa day just for you or a weekend retreat in the mountains with others who share a common passion. Regardless, honor Spring renewal as the important time it is by doing something that feeds your soul and starts the season.

Do something different, really different

At one point or another most of us have initiated a fresh start of some sort with a preparation activity. We may have gone on a cleaning and organization bender of the scary junk closet in our home to mark a fresh start to staying organized or decluttering. And while getting those sorts of tasks done can certainly be a relief, they’re also fairly mundane and not much of a tribute to the renewal Spring offers.

Do yourself a kindness and consider a less traditional means of kicking off a fresh start.

This means opening up to experiences that are new. Not necessarily wild, extreme, or out of your comfort zone, just new. Maybe consider participating in a volunteer event that you wouldn’t normally be drawn to, or taking a class in a subject area completely outside of your realm of knowledge. Offer to help out a friend or relative with something you really don’t relish, but you know would be greatly appreciated. Take a meditation, yoga, art, or dance class, or invest in a plant you’d like to nurture. Find seasonal starts that feel different in ways that are important to you.Make Spring Resolutions

Spring . . . with nature blossoming and longer daylight hours . . . is a much more natural time to make some Resolutions than is January 1, if you really think about it. Consider all that extra sunshine an invitation to make some meaningful changes in your patterns. Spring Resolutions might involve a new commitment and strategy to a specific goal. For example, resolving to ride your bike through the neighborhood three times a week in the evening, taking your kids for an outdoor family activity at least once a week after dinner. Or revisit your New Years’ Resolution(s) and leverage the energy of the season to recommit to them.

Shine some sunshine on yourself

Often, the winter months are a flurry of activity. The holidays, school schedules, work demands, and a range of other September through April calendar demands leave us exhausted and struggling to catch our breath. Spring is a completely natural time to take a deep breath and engage in overdue self-care and self-compassion.

For some, self-care may mean a rebalancing of schedules that have gotten a little out of hand so that we can take better care of ourselves on a daily basis. Daily attention to ourselves through exercise, spiritual practices, social support, good nutrition, and adequate sleep are so very important and often go by the wayside. Others may find themselves significantly overdue for a substantial vacation. Vacations aren’t always geographic. Perhaps you need a vacation from a certain stressor, a certain person, certain habit/behavior pattern, or a certain situation. Spring is rich opportunity to get space (mental or physical) and return renewed and refreshed.

Find what renews you and keep doing it

Spring renewal endeavors can serve as important models for us the rest of the year. When we find the activities that serve us well in this way, we can strive to implement them on a regular basis in small doses that continue to nourish us the rest of the year. The energy and momentum of Spring is an important launch into practices to sustain us as we go forward into the coming seasons.

How to Thrive in the New Year – How to Set Intentions Not Resolutions

Each new year we are encouraged by society to set New Year’s Resolutions. It’s a time that’s supposed to be filled with new hope of making things different in the coming year. However, if you’re like most people you aren’t a fan of setting New Year’s resolutions. In theory, it’s a good idea, but it leaves many people feeling like they’ve failed by the time February 1st rolls around. That’s why I’m going to encourage you to set intentions for 2019 instead of resolutions.

What are New Year’s resolutions?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines New Year’s resolutions as, “a promise that you make to yourself to start doing something good or stop doing something bad on the first day of the year.” In short, New Year’s resolutions are when people decide to take action and work towards a goal. The most popular resolutions are to:

• Lose weight

• Exercise more

• Eat healthier

• Stop smoking

• Drink less

• Learn a new hobby or skill

We know that it’s good to have goals in life, but there are a few reasons why resolutions don’t work for most people. The first is that many people struggle to know how to set proper resolutions and goals. So they choose something they want to do, but they don’t have a plan on how to accomplish it. This leads to failure to achieve the goal. The second is that we tend to view resolutions with an all or nothing mentality. That means the first time we blow our diet or miss a workout we throw our resolution out the window completely. Resolutions are something that we either succeed or fail at. It’s black and white.

If you don’t believe me just go to a gym at the beginning of January and then again at the beginning of February and March. Gyms across the country are packed with people that have made resolutions to get in shape at the start of the year. But, each month attendance drops off as people give up. After so many years of trying and “failing” to stick to their resolutions, people just stop making them altogether.

How are intentions different than resolutions?

But unlike resolutions, intention-setting focuses less on goals and more on the journey which leads to certain outcomes. Think of it this way: Intentions focus more on internal power and long-term change, whereas resolutions focus more on external—and sometimes, short-lived—rewards.

Let’s look at how this works for one of the most commonly set resolutions—losing weight. If you are setting a resolution to lose weight it might be something like, “lose 20 pounds”. But, if you choose to set an intention the weight loss might be a result, but it’s not going to be the focus. The intention might be something more like, “I’m going to take care of my body the way that it deserves.” This might incorporate making changes to your diet or exercise regimen, but the focus is not on those specific changes but the intention of treating your body the way it deserves.

Intentions are about reconnecting with our authentic selves. It enables us to reconnect with what we need – mind, body, and spirit.  Intentions seek to address this residue from within in order to achieve change, whereas resolutions most often set awareness on the achievement of something externally. The difference is subtle but important.

How to set intentions

Spend time in self-reflection and dig into your why

The first step to set intentions for 2019 is to spend some time in self-reflection. Your intentions will only matter to you and come to reality if it’s something that truly matters to you. Think through what areas of your life are the most important to you along with what your priorities and passions are. Your intentions need to align with who you are. Take time to really dig into what you want your intentions for the year to be and why they matter to you. What do you want your life to look like and why? What would life be like if those things came to be?

Create a statement for your intention

Once you know what your intentions are going to be you should create a statement around each of them that you can focus on throughout the year. Your thoughts hold a lot of power over what outcomes you will experience in 2019 and beyond. Once you have your statement make sure you spend time thinking about it for a short time each day. Spend time meditating on it.

Release your doubts and negative beliefs

Once again, your thoughts are powerful. Therefore, it’s important that you work on releasing any doubt or negative thoughts that you have about your intentions. This can be tricky, especially if it’s an area that you set resolutions for and failed in the past. You need to let go of the past and remind yourself you are focusing on intentions, not resolutions now.

Allow your intentions to guide your plans

Once you have intentions set in place you can use them to determine what actions you want to take in order to achieve it. When you use the intention as the focus it allows you to keep going even if have trouble sticking to the changes or actions you are working on incorporating in your life.

Get ready for 2019

2018 might not have gone exactly as you wanted, but as you set your intentions for 2019, make sure to celebrate the successes from the year. Celebrating successes, even the small ones, can go a long way in building confidence and spurring you on to further action. Then, remember the difference between success and failure is often spelled as intentions.