The spring equinox is a moment of equal day and night. It might look like balance as the two are equal, but it is instead an inflection point, a tipping point of one into another.
Moving from the longest dark of winter to the longest light of summer, the spring equinox is that half-way point, the tipping point in the flow of seasons.
Attuning to this tipping point in the flow of seasons at this spring equinox can attune us to the flow of interwoven currents in our own bodies.
Attune
Notice what time the sun comes up and what time it goes down. If you have a regular schedule, notice how light it is when you get up, go to the office or a class and come home. How has it changed in the last few weeks?
At the equinoxes, the changes accelerate as we are moving through this tipping point.
Spend time outside. Do you notice birds arriving and their bird song? Listen in for a while.
Smell the air and the Earth. It is especially fragrant after a rain. Or you might be smelling trees and plants as they pop out and bloom.
Use all your senses, physical and non-physical to detect what is happening right now.
Lack of flow creates illness
One of the most common misperceptions about our health is that it is static. I see some people looking to establish a certain lifestyle or certain regimen of supplements and think they are then good to go. They want a balanced diet, a work-life balance, a balanced exercise regime, and think that when they achieve it, they are set.
But real balance is dynamic balance, not a single set of equal parameters. instead, it is a flow of one thing into the next as it is presented and you respond as life asks.
Day to day, hour to hour, season to season, year to year, we are not the same! You wake up each day a new and different person.
Acknowledging this and responding to the flow of life creates the flow which creates health.
It’s when we try to do the same thing when circumstances have changed that restricts or blocks flow. Let go and see what is here for you.
It’s when something dramatic happens and we are stunned; we can get stuck unless we find a way to adapt. Let adaptation be your guiding principle.
Not being able to adapt to a change in flow restricts that flow, and it can create illness.
For example once you get a diagnosis, you believe you have a certain illness. But all the circumstances and your responses to them leading up to that point of diagnosis is also the restriction of flow leading up to the illness. What you can create, you can re-create in a new image. It all can change when flow is redirected and restored.
Assess yourself
When you are unable to adapt, this flow gets stuck. Where might you be stuck right now?
- If you don’t have enough nourishment, rest, safety, or movement, the flow may be diminished.
- If you have excess stress, stimulation, inflammation, or high demands, the flow can be too strong, too much.
- If your energy or emotions are held in place, that can create tight tissues leading to decreased circulation with coldness and swelling, resulting in a stagnation of flow.
- If you are unable to regulate, swinging between extremes, then flow has become disorganized.
- Or a physical restriction such as an injury, infection causing inflammation or a digestive blockage can restrict flow.
But funny thing, since we are systems woven together, this stuckness can ripple out affecting many aspects of our being.
For example, pain results in shallow breathing. Shallow breathing decreases oxygen exchange. Reduced oxygen changes the way cells function. Cellular stress affects the nervous system. Nervous tension affects meridian energy flow. This shows up in behavior changes.
Where do you start?
As everything is interwoven, where do we start to regain balance?
That’s where assessing the situation and intuition come in.
Asses: is it physical? Perhaps better food. Hydration with better and more water. Movement. Plant medicine. Medical treatment. Structural balance.
It may be nervous system regulation: Calming and establishing safety. Connecting to the ground. Practices to moderate hyper-reactivity.
It may be energetic: Gentle healing hands. Acupuncture. Bowen bodywork. Qi gong.
It may be with your relationships: Speaking the truth for once. Having someone listen to your experience and being seen. Restoring trust.
When we begin in one place, this first restoration of flow begins to reorganize the next flow, then the next, then the next.
This natural reorganization occurs when flow is restored, rippling across your interwoven systems.
When flow returns, healing happens.
At this tipping point
As we observe the spring equinox, the tipping point of more darkness flowing into more light, we can pause and observe ourselves.
Where are we flowing?
Where is more flow asking to be facilitated?
After assessing where you might begin, use your intuition. Let that flash of awareness guide you. Take the first step to restore flow in one area, so it can ripple into the others of your whole.
Feel it in your physical body. Feel it in your nervous system regulation. Feel it in your energy body. Feel it as you relate to others and the world.
Can you feel your health reorganize as you restore flow?
Healing is here – in the flow.
