How to Take Life Head On

Six signposts to hatching out of your shell to plan for the year ahead

Well, goodbye winter …and hello spring. Or so we hope. Are you feeling excited, empowered, enthusiastic … or frustrated, helpless and distressed? This season of the Spring Equinox is a time of extremes when Nature is trying to bring everything into balance. Day and night become equal; the light has finally caught up with the dark. We talk of mad March hares and spring fever, so if you’re feeling a tad wobbly or well… unbalanced, it’s Ok, you’re in good company …you and Nature alike.

1. Understand what is happening

Since Nature is struggling to bring everything into balance, this is a time when everything can, as a result, feel somewhat chaotic. The two weeks before and after the equinoxes can often be stressful or tense. We may experience unpredictable weather, such as storms or strong winds (not to mention mood swings), as if the earth’s elements are objecting to being forced to harmonise. The energy of this time of year is much stronger, much clearer than at Imbolc. It is the decisive male as opposed to the intuitive female.

2. Embrace the forceful energy of spring

The challenge for Nature … and for you … therefore, is to bring these two conflicting forces, male and female, outer and inner consciousness, day and night, light and dark into balance and harmony.

• Go out into nature on a windy day, face east and think about the wind blowing out all the remaining cobwebs of winter. Take deep breaths and imagine that you are being inspired by this new energy. Write down any inspiring thoughts that occur to you.
• Choose a particularly windy day and fly a kite. Revel in the force of the wind. Afterwards, write about any chaotic feelings that the wind has inspired in you

The procedure of emerging from the nurturing embrace of winter, to stand strong in the cold light of the spring, is like that of the hatching of an egg: the inner potential has reached a stage of development at which it can emerge into the outer world, but something must be shattered, the shell must be broken, in the process.

3. Know its Ok to feel unsettled

The shattering of outer shells is not always a comfortable business and we can often feel uneasy or even distressed at this time of year. To quote the poet Kahil Gilbran ‘Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.’ (Gilbran 1997 p. 61). Around us everything is setting forth, but if we have not devoted enough time to our inner processes in order to have a balanced view of our outer lives, feelings of helplessness and frustration may ensue. The wildness of the winds outside brings us into contact with the wildness within our own nature and this can have a positive or negative result.

4. Use affirmations to feel calmer

Research has shown that repeated negative thoughts affect areas of the brain and prevent the sufferer from shifting to more uplifting emotions. In other words, the brain is ’in a rut’, the groove becoming deeper the more negative thoughts are channelled through it. Shifting out of this rut requires strategic and forceful intervention. Using self-empowering affirmations has been shown to form new pathways in the brain.
Affirmations can be used not only to counteract negative thoughts but also to project positive ones. If you keep telling your subconscious that you are no good at something, it will attempt to make this a reality for you. On the other hand, if you project positive thoughts about your ability and you do it often enough, something in you will begin to believe it and start to make it happen. The trick is to act ’as if.’

• Create a positive statement in the present tense of something you would like to happen, for example: ‘I am confident’, ‘I am healthy’, ‘I can ride this storm’. Affirmations must not contain a negative and must be in the present tense.
• Start to say this affirmation to yourself several times a day.
• Behave as if you are, stand back and watch the results!

5. Plan step by step

With Nature starting to come back to life and the emphasis of the season being on fertility, now is a good time to make detailed, step-by-step plans of the ideas you visualised and planted as seeds at Imbolc. What you need now are determination and focus; doubts and fears must be left behind. It is time to mirror nature’s decision to grow, and to make judgements, decisions about the future.
Try the following:

• Take one of the fantasies you created at Imbolc and write down the numbers 1 – 5. (You may need more)
• Write your goal at number 5 and work backwards, jotting down the steps you need to reach it. If any one step seems too difficult, think how you might break it down further. For example – if your aim is a qualification but you can’t afford a course, consider what grant you might apply for, or what job you could take to raise the cash. The first step may be as simple as to make a phone call. It is, nonetheless, a first step.
• Now repeat the process with two or more other projects.

6. Reflect on the balance in your life

Even with its emphasis on simple steps, the previous exercise may still leave you feeling that you are not making any immediate difference to your life. Working through the following process may help you do this.
Think about the areas of your life where you feel harmony and those that still feel unbalanced. What steps can you take to create a more harmonious balance between your personal needs, work, relationships, and self-care?

• Without thinking, write down all the activities you have ever done and then beside them a rating out of ten on how much you have enjoyed doing them.
• Look to see if there is a pattern? Do you prefer being outside? Are you more inclined towards creative or artistic pursuits, or is it anything to do with sport which inspires you? Are you more comfortable being alone or do you enjoy the company of others? Be honest. Only you need know the answers.
• Over the next three months aim to bring your life more into balance by letting go of some of those activities you don’t enjoy and look to taking on more of those you do.

If you would like to know more about how to live more naturally in sync with your own rhythms and those of nature, take a peek at my book Writing in Rhythm
by visiting my website page: www.pennyannmcfarlane.com/books

References
Gilbran, K. (1997) The Prophet. Teddington Middlesex: Senate Press