We naturally pay more attention to the seasonal changes, as they affect the temperature around us, and we tend to dress accordingly. However, our emotional temperature is as influenced by the seasons, and being mindful of their changes can benefit our lives.
Inner And Outer Climates
Circles have no beginnings, and are never ending, so it's best to start right where you are!
Consider the season you are in as you read this. How is the weather? How is your mood? Are they in harmony or in opposition? Don't try to change or force anything, just observe, take note, cultivate your curiosity about the correlation between your inner and outer climates.
Springing Into Action
Spring is often thought of as the starting point on the wheel-of-the-year. Nature renews herself in spring. All that laid dormant through winter is stirring back into life. Seeds are sprouting, leaves are greening, butterflies and birds hatch, lambs are born.
Ride this birthing momentum. Take stock of your half-baked ideas: it's time to re-activate them! Turn on the oven (as natures is turning on the sun) and start baking. How? Increase heat by taking more risks. Be as bold as spring, as daring as a butterfly leaving the safety of its cocoon to take flight into the unknown.
And while your ideas are cooking, make action plans. Map out the steps that will take you from a dreamer to an activist, from potentiality to actualization. Let yourself be inspired by nature's awakening, and imitate her. Mother Nature is a great teacher to follow.
Summertime, And The Living Is Easy…
What fish are jumping in your rivers? How high is your cotton? Summer will start to ripen your endeavors. The seeds you've planted in spring may be of different varieties: some are flowering and ready to be picked now; others are still cooking, only to ripen at the turn of the season. It is time to rejoice in your accomplishments, and to nurture those projects that still need tending to.
Since summer is a dry season, make sure that your energy streams don't dry up. Hydrate your body, your garden, and your projects. Ask yourself how can you infuse your endeavors with water. Keep watering them before your inspiration dries up.
Yet remember the playfulness of summer, and allow yourself to dance freely, travel, and revel in the beauty and bounty of this season.
The Yin And Yang Of The Year
As the moon waxes and wanes, so does the yearly cycle. Spring and summer are the waxing phase of the year, when nature's energies are outward bound, and so are our bodies. Daylight grows steadily longer during the year's waxing time.
In contrast autumn and winter are the year's waning phase, with their steady decline of light and heat. Looking at the year as a circle, we can visualize it as a perfect Yin Yang symbol. The light and darkness, heat and cold, outward and inward - perfectly mirrored.
Autumn Leaves Falling
Autumn is a time of change, and even the greenest, prettiest leaves transform, wither, and feed the roots of new growth. The weather is often changeable as well: chilly mornings make room for hot afternoons, which cool down considerably in the evening. Is it any surprise if your moods are as changeable?
You often wear layers to allow for differences in air temperature. How can you prepare for the emotional temperature swings? You may look at the excess emotional layers you carry around, such as harboring old resentments or niggles. Shedding some of these will allow you to cool off and feel lighter.
On the opposite end of the scale you may want to prepare for the cold by adding layers of gratitude to your inner landscape. Give thanks for your harvest, invite friends to share in the fruits of your labor, bundle up in thanks.
Winter Warming
During the dark, cold, and wet part of the year, nature is inwardly busy. Even though everything looks barren on the surface, life is being sustained underground. Seeds, bulbs, and roots gather strength and nutrients from soil and rain. What can you nurture within the darkness?
Try dreams, visions, and inspirations. While in spring you increased heat by taking risks, in winter you need to produce heat from within. How? By keeping your inner flame going.
Journaling is one good way of doing this, as well as writing down your dreams as soon as you wake up, and kindling your quest for guidance before you go to sleep.
There Is Time For Everything
Rowing with the river is much easier than going upstream. The same applies to navigating our lives with the cosmic currents, such as the seasons, moon cycles, or days and nights. Launching a new endeavor in winter is not impossible, it will only take much more energy and effort than attempting it when the whole of nature is giving birth.
In the same way that delving within yourself for vision or inspiration is possible in summer, yet your body may rebel in its itch to be outdoors and run freely. If you attempt something that is not easily flowing, don't rush to blame yourself. Look around and see what Nature is doing.
It may be that you are trying to put a square peg into a round hole, which in a different season would be a perfect match. "There's time for everything" is not necessarily an old fashion saying from our grandparents' generation. It may be a precious old compass, which can help navigate your life…