Guest blog post by Cara Corodoni: Spring, spring, spring is almost sprung, especially if you’re in California where we skipped winter this year. Spring, when the seemingly dead reveals itself as only dormant; when then earth once more begins her veil dance, showing a little green here and there, oh la la! A flash of color a snippet of birdsong. Rising desire. Spring, a lovely time to surrender to the cycle of abundance, to be comforted by the repetition beyond our control. Spring is also a time of new beginnings, in many ways the true beginning of the year. And new beginnings mean change, and where there is change or the longing for change, there is resistance. Ah, resistance, fear, anxiety, wish for control, for knowing how it will all turn out. Spring panic: The energy we feel at reconnecting to the possibility, at seeing the earth burst forth and both being called and fearful ourselves. Within resistance, there are assumptions and limiting beliefs – often a space in which we let our brain’s negativity bias call the shots. Our desires can scare us, activating a digging-the-heels-in, I-don’t-need-anything-to-change reaction even when we really want everything to change. There are numerous ways to grapple with resistance and its feelings of fear, anxiety, and panic; thank goodness ’cause we need them all! Here I invite you on a Spring mindfulness approach to moving through resistance.
Heightened Awareness
Right now, as we step into another spring, do you know how you’re feeling? We often get so focused on our obligations & responsibilities that we forget to check in with ourselves and be curious.
1) Take a moment now to do a body scan: Feel your feet on the ground, feel where they contact the solid substance beneath them. From the bottom of your feet, bring your attention to the tops of your feet, to your toes. Guide your attention to your ankles, calves, shins and so on up your body. Take your time. Be curious – what does your physical body want to communicate to you at this moment?
2) Next, take a moment to do an emotion scan: What feelings are you aware of? Where do you notice them in your body? Focus on the feeling and note any stories that you start to spin about the feelings, explanations of why you feel this way. Let the stories pass like clouds and re-focus on your emotions and body.
3) Once you feel complete with 1 and 2, shift your focus to the natural world – look out a window at a garden, gaze at the photo of cherry blossoms in this post or at flowers on your table. Be curious about the natural scene you’re observing. Notice colors, textures, shapes. What are the smells, real or imagined? What’s the temperature? Can you see something you’ve never noticed before, about a plant, tree or flowers? Imagine you ARE the garden, tree or flower. How would you move? What sensations on the surface of your being would you experience? You might ask the natural object: What can you teach me? What’s important for me to understand right now?
4) When you feel complete with your ‘natural’ experience, turn your attention back to your human body and emotions. How do you feel now? Has there been a shift? Insight? If you have lingering negative or uncomfortable emotions, try this: Imagine the emotion is coming out of you, rising to the surface of your skin. You can push the emotion out, like sweat, and as it comes to the surface, use your hands to scrape it off. Next give the emotion to the earth by placing your hands on the ground, allowing the earth to take this ‘waste’ knowing that she can transform it to compost and into new growth. Thank her for taking this from you. Choose an emotion/feeling that you would like to have instead of the one you just released. Invite this new emotion to grow within you, to bud and bloom along with Spring around you. I would love to know what your Spring meditation reveals to you – post a comment here or send me an email.
Enthusiastically, Cara Cordoni Flashlight Coaching