Spring is a beautiful time of awakening for nature and for us humans. Spring equinox is when our planet starts to tilt more in the sun’s direction. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, the spring equinox is in mid-March, and for those in the Southern Hemisphere, it is in September.
The equinox is when the day and night are of nearly equal length. It’s a time when buds are bursting and leaves are unfolding. Many animals, insects, and plants are waking from their winter slumber.
And it’s similar for us humans! It’s time to lighten up and shed our winter coat. We can finally spend more time outdoors without worrying about cold air. The daylight is finally longer. Our bodies also undergo changes that you may not even realize. And as we transition into spring and move away from the winter blues, we can support our hormonal harmony with mindset shifts and sacred practices.
How Your Body Changes in the Spring
During the winter, our digestion typically slows and our stress response may be more challenged. It’s important to ease your way into the early spring by supporting your digestive tract and adrenals with a nutritious diet, exercise, and mindset shifts.
If you’re considering starting or adding to your family, spring is the perfect time for reproduction and growth. Exposure to more sunshine increases our production of the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), which helps stimulate ovulation.
However, even if you don’t have fertility goals, spring is a great time to rebalance hormones, revitalize, and get rid of the winter blues. We’re moving from the high-cortisol times of winter to low-cortisol summers, and as women, our estrogen levels are increasing as we approach summer. It is important to support all of these physical changes with mindset practices.
7 Mindset Practices for Spring
1. Declutter and Spring Clean
Have you ever looked around your home and thought, “how did that get there?” If there’s anything we can all learn from stuff, it’s that it accumulates quickly. Pull open a drawer or your closet and give it a quick glance. The odds are you’ll find something that you don’t need, use, or want anymore.
Even better – make a day of it. Schedule a time to clear the clutter out of a certain area of your home. Donate what you don’t need to someone who does need it. When you get rid of what you don’t need, you’ll make more space in your life for what is most important to you mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. A stack of to-do lists or items in your home creates mental heaviness and dampens your outlook.
2. Start a Garden
Gardening or planning your garden is a wonderful way to connect with nature. Start a small indoor herb garden if you can’t plant anything outdoors yet. For some people (like me!) March is much too early to be gardening outside for a fruitful crop. However, you can get past this by starting seeds indoors. Having a garden to tend to will take your mind off of daily stressors and improve your mood. This is especially true when you see the fruits of your labor (no pun intended!).
3. Choose Something to Simplify
It’s so easy to let our plans take over our lives. More is not always better. We have too many plans, too many items on our to-do lists, and simply too much to do. Ask yourself if you have room in your life for what you are committing to right now. Cut back where you can, and practice saying “no.”
4. Try Something New
Spring is a motivating time of year. We’re awake from the winter and have more energy. This is a great time to try something new. And your “something new” should be something that brings joy, harmony, and light into your life. It should be something you are passionate about or have always wanted to try. It can be as simple as reading a book you have always wanted to read.
5. Light a Candle, Meditate, and Journal
This time of year is definitely a transition time. In some locations, there’s still snow and cold weather. Lighting a candle is a beautiful symbol of fire in our lives and in our minds. It is a wonderful reflection of the passion and zest we have for life. So light a candle, indulge in the softness of its warm shadows and take a moment to meditate on what you want to bring into your life. When you’re done meditating, journal about what you felt in that moment and use this time to strengthen your mindset and outlook.
6. Take a Walk in Nature
Enjoy the sounds and sights and smells of spring by getting outdoors. This is the perfect time of year to be outside! Close your computer, leave your phone behind, and immerse yourself in nature. Take a moment to feel the sun, listen to the birds, discover a flower burst out of the ground, and get a little extra Vitamin D.
You can even do a walking meditation. It is possible to meditate while you are moving. All you have to do is go for a walk in silence. Focus on the sights and sounds around you, not the noise in your head or the pinging of your phone. Spending time outdoors is proven to boost your mood and improve your outlook – so make sure you get out there.
7. Do Yoga and Breathwork to Warm the Body
Warming up your body in the spring is important after a long winter. Yoga and breathwork techniques can help you create more energy in your body. This is especially useful if you are planning on completing a spring cleanse or detox program.
In my latest book, Natural Beauty Reset, you’ll discover even more ways to support your health and hormones through the changing seasons. Click here to order it!
And it’s important to remember you don’t need to do all of these things to shift into a spring mindset. Do what you can. These practices should create more awareness, peace, and happiness in your life – not more stress.
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