In the northern hemisphere,
Spring is approaching.
Spring is traditionally a time of transitions,
Of change.
Today I want to guide you through a journaling exercise for you to pause and reflect and see which transitions lie ahead of you in the upcoming season of change.
First take a couple of minutes to prep.
Make sure you have something to write next to you.
Journaling is ideally done by hand so we actually feel the words coming from our body and can integrate our body wisdom in what we are writing.
So find a journal,
A piece of paper and a pen and get ready for this upcoming journaling exercise.
When you have prepared everything,
Start settling in.
Find a comfortable position in which you can relax and listen but then can immediately switch into writing.
In this case I recommend a sitting position.
I will guide you through a little introspection exercise first and then give you a prompt to journal on.
So settle down to actually take stock and turn inwards.
As always we start settling in with focusing on our own breath.
Let's take three deep breaths together to arrive in this journaling exercise.
Take a deep breath in through the nose and let it go through the mouth.
We will do this two more times.
In through the nose,
Deep into your belly and out through the mouth.
And one more to fully settle and arrive in the moment.
In through the nose and when you let the breath go through your mouth,
Relax into the situation,
Feel your body in the here and now,
Feel it being supported by the seat or the ground below you.
If you're comfortable,
Close your eyes or assume a soft gaze and we start observing our body in this transitional period of spring.
Winter is dark and we oftentimes turn inwards.
The image that I always have in mind is that of a little animal protecting itself in the darks of winter,
Hiding in a dark corner,
Safe from the cold and the winter outside.
So the feeling in winter oftentimes is very closed in,
Very inward focused,
Almost a bit protective towards outside influences.
Feel into your body if that is something that you are perceiving as well.
This moment of still being most comfortable with yourself,
Protecting yourself a little bit from the things that are happening out there from the influences.
Feeling into those perceptions,
See whether this feeling of inwardness,
Of protectedness is sitting in your body.
Is it something that is happening in your chest or in your belly?
Can you feel it in other parts of your body?
Consider this perception,
The winter you,
And now feel spring approaching.
The days are getting longer.
At the morning,
There's more light.
It is this feeling of light returning and nature reacting to that light.
First flowers coming through the dark earth,
First green leaves appearing,
The birds singing loudly in the morning.
And see what that visualization does with your body.
If you think about spring approaching,
About feeling the first rays of sunshine that is like properly warm again on your skin,
And there's more light and you're a bit more awake and you feel a little bit like that flower that is poking its head through the dark wintry earth.
It is a return.
It is a opening up,
A moving towards something.
You're opening up your flower leaves and turning towards the sun.
Oftentimes thinking about that kind of makes us open our body instinctively and be more open to change into the things that are about to happen.
Feel that in your body.
If once you start thinking about those details of spring,
If you feel that openness approaching as well,
Where in your body does that feeling of openness start and can you make it bigger and let it spread through the rest of your body?
If it starts in your belly,
Let it extend into your legs,
Into your chest,
Into your shoulders,
Into your arms.
And with this feeling of openness,
I want you to go into the journaling exercise and see what comes to mind.
If you turn towards this period of transition of spring with that openness,
Take one more deep breath feeling into your body and then open your eyes and get ready for the journaling.
For those of you who haven't journaled much before,
I'm going to give you a five minute period to write now.
And there's only one advice,
Start writing and continue writing for the whole five minutes.
Do not take your pen off the paper.
Just let the thoughts stream and see what happens.
There's no right or wrong way of doing that.
Nobody but you is ever going to read that.
If you don't know what to write anymore,
Then write exactly that.
I don't know what to write anymore.
And then continue and maybe a new thought will arrive.
The magic of this exercise is in the continuity,
Which lets us accept things that might not have been clear at the surface at the beginning.
So you have five minutes from now on and I'll bring you back after five minutes.
Start now.
Thank you very much for taking those five minutes.
Welcome back.
So really stop writing now and leave it as it is and take another little moment to reflect and be grateful to yourself for having done that.
And after we close that session,
Maybe go back and read through what has come up and see if there are any thoughts that you want to pursue and want to consciously take into that season of change that is happening right now.
Have a good day and see you soon.
