Since the start of the pandemic, it’s felt like everything has changed. And indeed it has. However, the world continues to turn and change its relationship with the sun. And the season continues to offer its infinite wisdom for us to learn from.

It is Spring. And with it all the joys of re/birth, creativity and potential, as well as its coordinated emotion of restless frustration. In this time of uncertainty and as our usual rhythm has been disrupted, it may be even more imperative than ever to lean into the laws of nature and the lessons of each season.

Chinese Medicine views health vs. illness, or peace vs. suffering, less as destinations and more as phases or processes. In fact, there are five phases that we can use to identify where a person is in their personal rhythm and how to nudge that cycle back to a generative or healing cycle.

At any time, we can apply the intelligence from each “season” or phase to our collective (and unique) experiences of how our worlds have been turned upside down in an effort to prevent the spread of a serious virus.

We collectively experienced a tragic “Fall”, cases of COVID and inclining death tolls spread daily on the east coast. The only correct response is to restrict activity, meaning letting go of life as we know it.

Many of us are touching experiences and asking questions we historically thought were just for our ancestors: Do we have enough food and supplies to get through the “Winter?” What do my resources look like? Where is my family’s next dollar coming from? As we pare down, slow down and redefine, we ask ourselves, “What is essential? What is the essence?”

In the stillness, all the unknowns and uncertainties feel uncomfortable. But also touching “worst case scenario” leads us to touch the other side of fear: courage.

We’ve let notions of “normal” go, perhaps we’ve begun to touch a simpler life with the essentials and not much else. And soon we will confront a different sort of Spring. When the restrictions relax, what will your future hold?

Spring is for visioning and planning. Farmers make a new plan every year based on what was learned the year before.

Spring invites us to ask the following questions:

  • What did you let go of that perhaps you don’t want back in your life?
  • What do you determine now as essential vs. not?
  • What is your vision? (go big here)
  • What is your plan? How do you execute your vision?

Plants only head towards the sun, while their roots reach deep in the ground for nutrition and stability of the earth that came before it. Can we be so clear in ourselves? What are we growing towards?

If this conversation interests you, please know that such Five Element thinking is something you can discuss in your teleconsults. Give it a try.