Hey there,
I hope this article finds you well, and finding some inner nourishment in your corner of the world.
I’m aware that the start of the year can often feel jolting, with the pressure to have everything in our lives figured out & your plane ready for take off.
While the energy was not entirely mine (because I can often tap into the energy and inner state of those near me), I’ve recently experienced some level of anxiety that can come with a new beginning such as a new year. And, if this is something you might experience in your life, I hope you may prioritise some supportive practices to help you through this time of year in a grounded way.
The New Year & your Inner Spring
(how you can support yourself)
If you might’ve engaged my work on the Inner Seasons of your Woman Body, you might recognise that the beginning of the year is quite synonymous to your Inner Spring – with its energies of feeling tender, innocent, playful, full of energy, full of new life, full of possibilities etc. Actually, in many indigenous traditions (including my own Setswana/ African tradition), the beginning of the year is marked by the beginning of Spring.
And, I’ve found that the very same invitations & challenges we might be confronted with in our Inner Spring are similar to what we might find ourselves negotiating with at the beginning of a new year, by virtue of both being new beginnings.
And, just as you might in Inner Spring be invited into:
– pacing yourself – moving tenderly & emerging slowly
– holding the tension, for this new life as it emerges within you
– keeping open & curious, and allowing a sense of playfulness with your ideas and intentions, without an attachment to outcome
… I find these invitations to also be held within the beginning of the year.
And so, when we deeply consider the essence of a Spring; it isn’t quite yet time for full-on action mode. And, I think this is where the pressure and anxiety that some of us might feel at this time of year is coming from – feeling like you have to know already what you’re going to do with your year AND already taking action to make it all happen. No. This doesn’t have to be the case. And, you totally have the permission to allow this beginning to be a time of slow dreaming & visioning for you, and a time to stay open and playful with the intentions you’ve set for the year.
And, in case you missed my email on “Setting womb-led intentions for the new year”, you may find its linked blog article here.
And, quite similar to an Inner Spring, we might at the beginning of a new year find ourselves challenged with:
– emerging slowly. because such a slow emergence goes against the general conditioning of our world.
– holding the tension for new life. and wanting to immediately and fully hit the accelerator.
– allowing time for containment & not moving/ coming out too quickly. The challenge here is wanting to action all your ideas and intentions all at once.
– the vulnerability of that new life within you, and that might still need a moment of confinement.
– allowing time for the new ideas to brew/ take form, before they are brought out into the open.
And so, the sacred task for a “Spring” such as this one or any new beginning is to allow yourself to move tenderly AND set an intention (for the great Summer ahead), and then allow yourself a slow emergence as this new idea/ intention takes form and shape before it is brought out into the open. This slow emergence also allows you an opportunity to begin to focus your energy for the Summer ahead and to decide on a plan of action that feels most aligned for your intentions.
I often think of Inner Spring as similar to that time in a woman’s life when she’s just given birth to a new baby and might need a period of confinement (“Botsetsi” as we call it in Setswana) for this new life to take form and find its roots in the world. And, this doesn’t mean we don’t take any action, because there’s a lot happening within that house of confinement as the Elders tend to the needs of that woman and her baby. There’s also a lot that the new mother is moving through and growing into during this time. And, it is this more inner / internal / contained action which is of a slightly different energy & feel to that of Inner Summer, that we want to bring to the beginning of a new year, for a more grounded & “in your body” start.
To hear more on all that I’ve written here and specifically on the invitations, the challenges and the sacred tasks of Inner Spring, which you can apply to this beginning of the new year, please check out a podcast episode I recorded on the wisdom of Inner Spring at the link below:
Inner Seasons (Part 4): The New Life of Inner Spring
I hope you might find this helpful as you navigate the energies of the new year.
And, I’m wishing you everything of the very best for 2023!
Warmly,
Tumelo.
