Have you noticed the tulips reaching up their stems, and the crocuses blooming in the neighborhood lawns? Ready or not, the annual spring sprouting is upon us!
 
Since the Winter Solstice in late December, the days have grown consistently longer as they always do in winter. This weekend on March 19-20 we reach the Spring Equinox, a moment when night and day come into balance. This equaling of dark and light signals the first day of spring—an event bursting with creative power.
 
Spring and the Creation Cycle
Whether you consciously tune in to it or not, the energetic influences of the seasons offer structure and support for your personal creation cycle.
 
Each year the seasons flow from the yin energy of winter (internal, passive) to the yang energy of high summer (external, active), and back again. Your personal creation cycle has a similar flow.
 
In the first stage of creation we turn inward to draw on our inner guidance and germinate the seeds of inspiration—this is like winter. The second stages invites us to come forth with our desires and reveal them to the light—this is like spring. Then as our creation takes shape, we bring it into full action and expression in the third step—this is summer. Finally, we receive the outcome or bounty of our work and begin to turn inward again—this is the harvest in the fall. 
​Here we are in spring: wet, muddy, messy, volatile, and full of promise.
 
The Energy of Spring
Spring is associated with the energy of rebirth, renewal, and the dawn of new opportunities. Eggs are associated with spring as they signify the coming of new life. Many current and ancient cultures and religions mark the time of the Spring Equinox with festivals and ritual.
 
In Greek mythology, at the Spring Equinox the Earth goddess, Demeter, reunites with her daughter, Persephone, when Persephone returns from the underworld after living there during the six months of fall and winter (this has to do with the six pomegranate seeds she ate). As Demeter rejoices, life returns to the plants and animals of the earth.
 
In the Chinese five elemental system, spring represents the wood element which carries the energy of impetus and initiative. It’s the wood element that gives the tiny seed the energy and gusto to push through the soil toward the light and begin its life.
 
These spring energies remain around us and within us for the next three months.

Wake Up and Smell the Fertile Soil
If you are still ambling through your winter slumber, if earlier sunrises and later sunsets or louder birdsong and warmer temperatures have not roused you yet, the Spring Equinox invites you back to life! It’s time to bring forth the ideas and desires that have been germinating inside you and show them the light of day.
 
Each annual creation cycle offers six months of active yang energy: three months in spring (March-June) and three months in summer (June-September). Farmers hold a keen awareness of this limited time opportunity, called the growing season. Knowing that in September the annual opportunities for new growth come to a close, farmers don’t delay planting their crops at the first opportunity of spring.
 
Like the farmers’ growing season, we are also impacted by the realities of the annual creation cycle. Jump on the spring bandwagon if you haven’t already. Move into action. The energy is ripe and the soil is ready.

Next Steps for Spring
What's been germinating for you? What seeds of ideas and visions have you been tending over the winter? How will you begin to bring them out? All creative seeds are viable--whether they lead to large external life changes like job or relationship changes or more subtle internal shifts like behavior and attitude adjustments. 
 
Don’t worry if you don’t have a 12-month plan clearly mapped out. That’s not what’s called for in early spring. Observe the seedling. Its job and sole focus at this time is to emerge from the soil and see light. What happens after that? Well, stay tuned in late spring and summer as creation takes full shape. For now, just take the the first steps into action.
 
Don’t have a clue what’s ready to come forth? You can still sync yourself to the prevailing spring energies by starting to come out in small ways. Speak your ideas in daily conversation. Share a realization with a trusted friend. Say hello to a neighbor, write a letter, turn the soil in your garden, plant seeds indoors, register for a class, do research, move your body.

As you move into action, your creativity will engage and inform your next steps. Watch and listen. Connect to your inner guidance for direction. Notice what catches your eye. Pay keen attention to those things that spark your feelings of enthusiasm. Fueled by your intuitive insight, the picture of your coming year will begin to take shape.
 
Get Messy With It
Spring discovery is naturally messy. It has to be. This exploratory going-into-action stage in the creative process requires doing things you've never done before, with trial and error. Wade into the mud and see how it feels. Use the next three months to test and examine your vision. Don't expect a straight-shot, ducks-all-in-a-row experience. Be prepared to start, fail, regroup, then try again with new insights. If you do, by Summer Solstice you'll have solid information based on real evidence, then it's full steam ahead. 

The other day while having lunch with my sister and our 97-year-old grandma at a Chinese restaurant (Chinese is gram’s favorite!) the following advice appeared in my fortune cookie: Practice is the best of all instructors.
 
Bam. The message resonated--and it appeared at the right time for support. Over the winter I’d been working to reignite and deepen my personal meditation and self-healing practice. Tto be honest, it required a challenging new level of disciplined and patience.
 
As I considered the message in the fortune cookie, I started thinking about how I came to learn what I know and how, in most cases, my independent practice provided the leaping-off point from which I moved from novice to confidence to self-authority (and then continued to practice!)
 
Owning Your Practice
If you’ve ever been involved in a team sport or group exercise, after the teacher-led coaching or instruction there’s an opportunity to step away and practiced on your own. If you did practice on your own, you may have found that you returned to the group practice with a new feeling of authority in your body and ownership of your skill.
 
I experienced the impact of independent exploration in my yoga practice a few years ago. As soon as I began practicing away from class on my own, I developed a new relationship to my body awareness. Back in class, the teacher’s guidance still supported my learning, but I had become my own guide in how to deepen my practice and communicate with my body. Yoga is no longer an outside challenge that I needed to master. Rather, I’ve integrated yoga into the way I express and know myself.
 
You can do this too. You can connect directly to your inner awareness and empowerment. Perhaps you’ve begun already.

Embodying Your Intuition
A very talented violin soloist played at a concert I recently attended. Although the soloist was a petite woman, I kept noticing how small the violin looked in her hands. She seemed to have energetically embodied the violin so that it became an extension of herself.
 
Developing your intuition is similar to learning to play a musical instrument. At first, intuition may seem larger than you and outside of your grasp. With practice, as you grow your skills and awareness, intuition becomes an integral part of your consciousness.
 
There are a few universal truths about intuition and inner guidance, but the way we experience our inner guidance is unique to each one of us. When exploring intuition it’s essential to learn your own inner language: the specific way you receive and perceive information from within. There’s no one who can tell you what your intuition feels like, sounds like, or looks like. No one can experience your inner guidance and the way it works but you.
 
Of course, having a teacher remains helpful and important. I have deep gratitude and appreciation for my teachers and mentors who modeled their own self-practice and exploration. Teachers share information and hold a space for you to explore and learn. However, after the class, you choose whether to take what you’ve learned into action through practice and application in your daily life. If you do, it creates a powerful combination of teacher/group support and independent practice.

A Story of Personal Practice 
When I was studying energy healing, my teacher at the time introduced the concept of spirit guides: we each have a guide that is specifically assigned to us. In class we connected to our guide and learned what that felt like. We then received an assignment between classes: on a daily basis, connect to your guide and use writing to channel the guidance your guide has for you.
 
I accepted the practice. For several months, each morning I took 10–20 minutes to stretch, center myself in meditation, and connect to my guide. My awareness expanded exponentially. I owned my relationship to my guide and anchored that connection. I also learned what my own inner voice sounded like, so I could begin to discern the voice of my higher truth from all the other voices in my head.
 
When I returned to class, I felt a new layer in my inner foundation that was always with me no matter who my teacher was and whether I was part of a group or not.
 
Becoming Your Own Teacher
We’ve entered an era of self-directed discovery. We find ourselves less and less likely to look to a supreme authority for direction. Therapists and healing professionals provide a foundational service to support our growth. However, if you see a therapist or healer or take classes on a regular basis but do not have your own independent practice (journaling, self-reflection, meditation, movement, or whatever supports you) you’re setting up a dynamic of imbalance. Without maintaining a personal practice, how can you cultivate your own space for observing, information collecting, self-healing, and self-expression? How will you learn what you truly know, feel, and need?

The practice of getting to know yourself in depth isn't quick or easy. There’s no shortcut to mastery, just like there’s no shortcut to healing. It takes trial and error. Sometimes you're on the horse and sometimes you fall off.  But if you stick with a practice for any length of time, your inner awareness begins to bubble up from inside, and you begin to create a personal foundation that stays with you wherever you go.
 
Next Steps

1. Choose a skill or activity that you are drawn to. Perhaps you’re already learning it, perhaps you have yet to begin.
2. Create a personal practice you can implement to support your learning. This is an additional to any teacher-led classes or group work that you may already be doing.
3. Decide what level of commitment you are able to make at this time. (Daily? Weekly? 10 minutes? 30 minutes?) For what duration will you practice? (21 days? 40 days? 3 months? A year?)
4. Begin your practice.