Cultivating Curiosity for New Growth
The upcoming spring equinox on March 20th signifies the arrival of spring, and a time of new growth. This equinox aligns with the dark/ new moon, a time of the lunar cycle that corresponds to rebirth and new growth. So we have lots of natural energy supporting us to enact new growth!
Gathering ideas and building out the elements of this season's bundle was a generative, meandering process– which feels appropriate given the theme: Cultivating Curiosity for New Growth.
How do you relate to new growth?
It can be an invigorating, vibrant space. It can also be messy, disorienting, undermining one's self-confidence and identity. Anything but controlled. Sometimes we get to choose it, often it is forced on us or intense beyond what we expected.
There is no such thing as controlling growth, and no such thing as control in general. No such thing as controlling yourself, other people, a situation, any of it. Any time we try to control, we undermine authentic connection.
However, power is very real. We absolutely have the ability to influence, shape, and guide ourselves and some of the forces around us. The most real, sustaining, expansive power is rooted in fully feeling and knowing your own body–and from here, building healthy connections in all directions- with yourself, everyone around you, Earth, ancestors, spirit, and so on.
It is very powerful to hold space for your vast emotional landscape, allowing emotions to flow, be felt and seen and heard, and transform into growth and wisdom. Emotions are not just in the head, they are experienced throughout the body– as muscle contractions, breath changes, temperature shifts, and more. On top of this, if your self-protection mechanisms are activated, the physical effects are even stronger. For folks with trauma history or compounded stress, these sensations may be especially intense and/or ongoing
Feeling life is… sometimes exhausting, terrifying, disorienting, but ultimately– feeling life is living. Many of us have habits around disconnecting from intense sensations in our bodies. Figuring out what you need to stay present is of course an ongoing, meandering journey without an actual destination or stopping point.
Often we don’t realize the vastness of sensation that could be available to us, and that simply feeling it is enough to transform it. Take a moment to feel your body. Scan from head to toe and notice what wants to be noticed. Take a sip of a warm beverage and trace the liquid down through your throat into your belly. Feel your feet or seat in contact with the Earth.
Notice anything? Sometimes a simple body scan is enough to shift my state of being. Often I need more— and my key tools are breathwork, pilates and tarot. Today I’ll focus on breathwork, and below you’ll see a free breathwork recording!
Breathwork may seem like the simplest idea, because it is— it’s just breathing. It is also extremely powerful. Before engaging with breathwork, I thought that substances were the only way to shift my state. Caffeine to wake up, alcohol to relax, and so on. I felt at the mercy of my body. This was late 2020/ early 2021, my anxiety was more volatile than I had experienced before, my gut was very unhappy, and I was losing weight from not eating.
Fast forward to now, and I feel partnership with my body. My body’s cues give me valuable information about what I want and need, and having a diverse toolkit to rebalance my nervous system helps me feel equipped to care for myself. There is no one-size fits all solution even for a given person. But the starting point is clear—give your body the attention it deserves, and listen.
Your complexity is powerful. You hold multitudes, waiting for you to be curious.