ELEMENT: AIR
Newness, cleansing, blooming, erratic, growth, exposure, awakening, revealing, hectic, overflowing, vibrant, reckless, eager, frantic, loud, fertile, cacophony, propagation, acceleration
- Go slowly! Be tender
- Harness with deliberate intention
- Time of rigorous balance
- Remain grounded. Focus on magic of emergence while embodying carefulness
Practices
- Patience, slowing down
- Post it above workspace that says SLOW
- Meditate on a single plant that takes time to grow
- Create reasonable pace for spring projects
- Give yourself lots of time to work on things rather than rigorous deadlines. Do you need to rush?
- Breathe!
- Take a walk, take a nap, look out the window
- Cultivating outward awareness
- Witness changes in the park or gardens
- Notice trees, puddles, stoops, skies. What is alive around you?
- Exposure and vulnerability
- Choose trusted friend or two and share project ideas
- Any areas you’re holding back, some ideas you were excited to share but now feel shy about?
- What are some things you’re rigid about regarding creative practice?
- Where do you feel most tender?
- Grounding movement
- Dedicated stretching
- Dancing, cardio
- Hikes
- Rebirth
- altar of flowers
- bulletin board as creative altar: organizing research, making map to follow for future work
- get studio and desk in order
- ceremony around setting things up
- choose cadence, e.g. number of words or finishing goals
- Remember darkness in light
- Tangible manifestation
- Sometimes have to start work on multiple projects to know which one will truly take the lead
- not every seed is usable
- Typing up poems in journal → making homemade zine to mail
- Picking out color palette
- Move from mental to physical state
- Sometimes have to start work on multiple projects to know which one will truly take the lead
- Pick a project
- Move beyond the outline into the heart of the work
- Where in life do you feel satisfied?
- Write pep talk for yourself on area that feels lacking
- For an area in alignment: what can you do to nurture and celebrate this feeling?
- Energy schedule - how can you dip in freely without draining yourself too quickly?
- Inspiration list: What best informs your spring practice?
- Envision most ideal outcome for projects
- Praise
- lists of gratitude
- complimentary poems
- lyrics of rapture
- Communication: get loud
- Reading aloud
- Turn music up, sing and dance
- Find new person to talk to, potential confidants and collaborators
Month by Month
First half of spring: take note of direction and make gentle plan of action
Second half: bring designs into fruition
March: “month of the Monk” - biggest vacillation between introspection and outward pull of growth. Don’t ask too much of yourself
Spring equinox: let in feelings of sunshine, potency of growth. Set up to shift from slowness to new speed
April: Second act begins - can be overwhelming! Start to sink into practice
May: Full swing of spring. Start reaching out to people, thinking about what wants to be shared. Body, mind, and spirit are at height of creative potential if you’ve taken good care to rest and restore
May Day: halfway point between spring and summer
Spring → Summer: More people! Take walks with people, reconnect. Spring is beginning, gradual reintroduction. Slowly ease back into socialization - don’t rush or you will get distracted and overwhelmed