Cultivating the energy of Spring cleaning allows us to let go and release.
At a certain point in our lives, those of us on a conscious path realize that escaping things or running away from them doesn’t really work. This doesn’t truly free us from the negative experience or feelings that situation engendered. We will find ourselves in similar situations, yet with different variables. In these moments we think to ourselves, “How did I end up here again?”
Simply ending the relationship, leaving the job, or moving aren’t necessarily real solutions.
Evaluate your Choices
The real solution is to change ourselves. This begins with becoming more aware of how we act day-to-day and then evaluating our choices. We examine how we respond to situations. How we choose to view them and talk about them. Where we choose to focus attention. What situations we allow ourselves to be in. And what we choose to embody and therefore attract.
Any cycle of change creates the need to examine even our thoughts surrounding change. The following attitude can leave us stuck in unhealthy situations. “Shouldn’t I be able to be happy no matter what?”
Ideally, yes, we can build our own strength and resiliency to be happy in any situation. Cultivating this may take some time. We are human, and by nature, we are easily triggered by emotions. (One of my mentors once told me that the purpose of 90% of human behavior is to avoid certain feeling states.)
So making choices that support a healthy external environment while we shift our internal environment is paramount to support change. Examples would be making sure to not stock the cabinet with cookies when you are trying to cut back on sweets, or not following your ex on Instagram when you are trying to get over him or her.
It is always necessary, and a practice that requires a great deal of attention, to find the balance between running away and staying in an imbalanced energetic environment expecting yourself to magically not be imbalanced. Finding this edge and balance for you is what I call a cycle of shedding.
Tap into Natural Cycle for a Spring Cleanse
We can tap into the natural cycles and rhythms of the universe to fortify both the shedding process and our own connection to nature. Every month, the waning moon (from the Full Moon to the Dark/New Moon) is a time to release emotional baggage along with anything that is no longer serving you.
Every Spring, when we are supported by nature’s abundance and the predominance of the kapha dosha, is the most balancing time for us to shed anything. Personally, I prepare for this for months, first evoking the sensitivity of the fall vata season to learn what I want to release. Then I align myself with that choice in the beginning of the New Year, and allow the shedding to take place in the early Spring.
How do you shed something? There are as many methods as there are energetic releases. You just have to have a ritual that symbolizes the transition for you. That could be a fire ceremony, a cleanse, sweat lodge, or simply journaling.
With every death, there is a birth. As I kill off the depleting relationship (I’m really killing off the pattern in myself that chooses to be depleted in relationships), I birth the me that follows through on choosing nurturing relationships. As something is shed, something new is inevitably picked up. I shed that old pattern of choosing depletion and birth the pattern of choosing nurturance. Birth and death always happen simultaneously.
Incorporate Ritual to Support a Spring Cleanse
How are you going to symbolize that energetic shift in practice—what’s your ritual?
To me, a ritual is the comprised set of tools that support you to release/birth. What will support you in making this turn of the cycle? For example, if you want to exercise more (or shed inactivity), perhaps part of your ritual is to make a mix of inspiring music to get you up and at it in the morning. This ritual does not have to be esoteric. Allow the ritual to be about knowing yourself and your blocks, and attending to them.
Only you can know how to best support yourself through any shedding process. As transition, letting go, and death are all vata energetics (the dosha of air, space, movement, creativity, and change), this support is key to not let these processes imbalance you and to pay close attention to nurturing yourself throughout the process.
What did you notice over the last few months as no longer serving your greater good? What will you birth in its place? Now is the right time of year to do it.
Dr. Siva Mohan integrates Ayurveda with modern medicine in her Ayurvedic wellness practice and educational programs to define and achieve whole-being wellness. Dr. Mohan specializes in addressing the psychospiritual basis of healing. svasthahealth.com.