Here's How To Spring Clean Your Stories

Nearly a month ago we welcomed the Spring Equinox.

It’s been a messy few months over here with many transitions…

I never really understood when people said they felt sad when it was grey and raining... but when seasons change I feel it. I only started noticing this happening a few years ago. Before that, I didn’t notice and I didn’t really care.

Since then I use seasonal changes to my advantage as best as possible and it’s helped me immensely. Of course, planning according to Q1 to Q4 is essential for business administration but seasonal planning gives a 360 angle which can power up and integrate professional and personal.

Have you noticed any changes to your mood, your body, your thoughts or actions this week with the shift in seasons? Check in with yourself now. What has been different? From Winter to Spring?

I experienced a feeling of relief and lightness, an emergence of myself that feels physical and emotional, ready to see and be seen...and exercise.

In tune with the Spring Equinox last month, I met with two friends to share our thoughts. We discussed the following:

1. What have you experienced so far this year?
2. What do you feel in this moment?
3. What do you want to let go of from Winter and, let’s face it, probably beyond that too?
4. What do you want to create this Spring?

It might be helpful for you to take a moment to do this too.

At the time of discussing this I said and wrote a lot (of nonsense) as my thoughts came to me. I definitely didn’t have as much clarity or the ability to articulate it like I am now. I realised that I needed to live the messiness in that moment, and in the safety of friends, to get to this place now…story of my life.

My experience of this year so far...

It was chaotic because there had been so many changes, most notably moving home. I put my energy and focus into that but at the same time started working with some new incredible and inspiring clients. So there was a lot of energy flowing out without putting much fuel in the engine.

In these moments of transition I felt, with changing my environment and then the seasonal shift, a lot of tension and oscillation between the thoughts that I have around what it means to work hard vs work smarter and if they are mutually exclusive or one comes before the other. Then what state of mind I need to be in to apply either of them.

I realised I had been trying to take shortcuts to the lifestyle I want and trying to make life?easy. That may sound great…making life easy, what’s wrong with that… especially as we live in a world where there are shortcuts for everything and an easy life always seems to be celebrated.

However, I realised that often these shortcuts, or aspiration for shortcuts, actually created more hardship, more numbing, more escapism, more pressure, more chaos.

There’s something about “sitting in the mud”, as I heard Simon Sinek phrase it recently, that is so important to our growth and experience of our life in its fullness.

I had been trying to be in control of my life for pretty much my whole life.

It was exhausting.

In recent years, and still learning, I’m embracing the discomfort and the challenges because I learnt that on the other side of it is growth. So when I’m in the thick of it sometimes that’s helpful to remember. It’s easier said than done, especially with the conversation around shortcuts being so prevalent.

Shortcuts for relationships, in business, health and fitness, money, studies, etc.

We live in a world where shortcuts are the solution?and?the goal.

It’s actually in the moments of doubt and second guessing that we provide ourselves with the opportunity to step up and step more into ourselves again. Like when we rest we allow our bodies to regenerate for the next phase of action. Like when we exercise and it's bloody hard but we generate more energy and strength.

I've decided to let go…

With the Spring season I decided to do some spring cleaning of my thoughts and the questions that I ask myself. In the conversations I've been having this season it seems that timing is everything because it’s never been so relevant not only to me but the people I have conversations with. Perhaps it will also resonate with you.

How can it be easy?

There is nothing particularly?easy?about life. From birth to death. Babies move from a cosy, warm, watery environment to being born into the big, cold, wide world. Life is full of ups and down, our time is finite, and then death is inevitable. Nothing about any of the journey is particularly easy. There’s never really an easy route, just routes. I've had a great life but my life has not exactly felt easy. Yet I’ve found myself in this phase of my life this past year trying to make life easy.

I went to the same photography exhibition three times last year by Steve McCurry (I'll share my thoughts on it soon). It was a beautiful reminder of how variable life can be depending on the circumstances in which you are born. Compared to most people in this world my life?is?easy and to even have access to read this article it’s obvious that you and I are so privileged in so many ways. So in many capacities life is?already?easy.

How can it be easy...? I ask this question when things feel especially challenging and I have unhelpful thoughts that hold me back from doing the things I want to do, need to do or prevent me from feeling more present and appreciative with what already exists in my life.

We’re often looking for something that already exists and that we’re already experiencing but because we are in it it's so hard to for us to see, especially in times of transition.

When life's easy, it can be easy to not be satisfied and be comparing ourselves to others or striving for more or something that we think is missing. When life's not easy we are so busy with experiencing life in those challenging moments that we forget that this is what life is really about...the journey of it all.

The experience.

Life is not meant to be easy.

This Spring I’m creating...

Discipline. This word can have negative implications. For me, I want structure, to take massive action, to generate energy so I can give more energy, to connect with myself more deeply, to connect to more interesting people, to work with people who inspire me.

Discipline to me means that I give myself a foundation, a framework, to be able to experience all shades of my life fully. I'm not attached to the easy stuff or the hard stuff. It's purely about the experience of it all.

This phase of my life is about sharing, not necessarily fixing the problem…for myself, creating the space for my friends, my family, my clients, anyone I have a conversation with. Through that we gain awareness of self and others, build resilience and learn about our patterns and processes without feeling the need to make everything easy. Just facing ourselves for who we truly are.

I think that only when we are ready to face ourselves we can truly help others, otherwise we are often just trying to fill our own void.

This year is all about energy for me and it’s clear that Spring brings vibrancy in to nature so I’m focussing on the same for me. I'm being disciplined about the energy I generate and use.

I'm always trying to create a new perspective on things because we can get so stuck in our usual ways of thinking and being. This is true for me right now.

So the new question I'm asking myself (and you) is...

Qn: How am I choosing to experience this?

I also want to own that I missed a week of sending out the newsletter BUT do you know what I’m?not?doing…I’m?not?shaming or judging myself. I’m just getting right back into it and here I am. (Discipline!) Something that used to always knock me down, and still does sometimes, is when I set myself a goal and then don't live up to the consistency of it. My thought has been that if you’re going to make something happen then it has to be all or nothing. Not true.

What stories, thoughts, questions do you currently use that could do with a spring clean? What are you replacing them with?

If this resonates with you can leave a comment or send a message. Let's talk!

#spring #business #entrepreneur #seasons #q2 #thoughtoftheday