February 15, 2025 • 29 mins
What if you could align your life with nature’s rhythms and experience deep renewal—right now?
As spring awakens, so can you. In this episode, we explore the essence of the season—its rituals, symbolism, and the wisdom it offers for personal transformation. Discover how to welcome spring’s energy with meaningful practices, from nourishing foods and seed symbolism to ideal sleep patterns and spontaneous movement. We’ll also explore ancient insights from the Tong Shu, reflecting on how time and nature shape our well-being. To close, enjoy a guided meditation designed to help you release the past and embrace new possibilities.
🌱 Understanding Qi and its connection to time and health
📜 Unlocking ancient wisdom from the Tong Shu for seasonal alignment
🌸 Rituals to welcome spring and cultivate deeper relationships
🌾 The symbolism of seeds and their role in nourishment
💤 How sleep and dreams shift with the season
🌀 Movement as a way to sync with spring’s energy
✨ A guided visualization to release the past and embrace renewal
Step into spring with intention and let its energy support your growth.
- Book an online wellness session with Bronwyn
- Please support this show! - Your support makes this happen in a good way!
- See all of Bronwyn's offerings - Register for free online events & other in-person events
- Study Reiki with Bronwyn in Person in the Bay Area - The 6-month comprehensive Training begins this Spring. Secure your spot today and save big with our limited-time early bird discount!
- Join my weekly live call for a deeper dive into how to activate our life force in accordance with the seasonal qi. The first 2 weeks are FREE, cancel anytime. Yes, I want to join Bronwyn Live!
- Study Reiki with Bronwyn Online
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bronwyn Ayla (00:00):
This is Bronwyn Isla, and I'm going to be
talking today about thebeginning of spring and about
the inspiration there, somedifferent rituals you can do to
help bring spring more fullyinto your life, and how to renew
relationships, the symbology offood and seeds, the kind of
(00:21):
sleep that is best this time ofyear and the dreams that can
accompany that sleep.
And then I'm going to end upwith a guided meditation to help
let go of last year'shappenings and bring in the new
year.
That will be the most highestmanifestation of consciousness
for you in this moment of time.
This is usually the time of thenew moon in February and the
(00:46):
Chinese New Year, and in manytraditions it's the new year
actually, as it's a time whenthe seeds are just beginning to
stir underneath the earth.
And these teachings are basedon the Tong Shu, which is the
most published book in the worldmuch, many, many more copies
(01:08):
than the Bible and it's actuallyan almanac which talks about
the timing of things.
So qi in the West is oftentranslated as energy or qi.
We say energy, but actuallyit's more about time.
Qi is based on notions of timeand cycles as well as energy,
(01:33):
but not only that, and myteacher Lu Ming would say that
there's two major causes ofdeath.
The first major cause is birthand the second one is a failure
to live in accordance with thecycles of time, with the cycles
of chi and the cycles of theearth and the stars an
(02:05):
agricultural society's idea ofthe correct time for planting.
But it's actually a timing ofeverything from weddings to
social gatherings, to burials,to signing contracts, to a type
of conduct that's appropriate.
And failure to live in thisappropriate conduct can cause
many kinds of disease andpatterns of imbalance in the
body.
So this is mostly Tong dynasty.
(02:36):
That's like 600 AD Chinamedical theory.
But as we begin to work withthese qi nodes and this timing
of things, it's not really likeso much a shitting on ourselves,
as it is a deep listening tothe earth, to nature, to rhythms
, and kind of a welling up of aknowingness inside ourselves
about conduct that helps us growand evolve and step into the
(03:02):
next level of consciousness thatwe're ready for in our lives.
Actually it's a practice ofcultivation.
So the idea being that health isnot simply a measurement of our
levels of blood, it's not abiomechanical level of health
(03:22):
that you can go get lab testsfor.
It's actually like are we goodpeople in the world?
Are we behaving well?
Are we kind to our neighbors?
This is actually what is betteror more appropriate indicator
of our health.
So spring, so we're coming outof winter time.
(04:02):
So spring, so we're coming outof winter time, which has been a
deep time of hibernation andlistening and inwardness and
nothingness, a time void ofmanifestations and doing and
being busy and more a time ofsilence and quiet and listening
to the water element.
And at the end of winter, ifthe yin that is so pervasive in
winter, this powerful yin quietquality, does not at some point
yang up, it is more of a spacedout spiritual vision.
It doesn't have a lot of yangbasically.
(04:24):
So spring is characterized bythe element of wind.
In this way, spring is wind,wind is a kind of a spring tea
and this is a invisibleinspiration.
Wind is like a breath or aninvisible inspiration that
initiates change in ourselves.
(04:44):
Breath or an invisibleinspiration that initiates
change in ourselves.
And we can't really quite seethe change yet of spring.
The seeds that are stirring arestill underground or underneath
the snow.
They're just sort of beginningto become less acidic and more
alkaline and preparing to sprout.
And the invisible inspirationof the wind is that which
(05:05):
initiates this change.
And it's unstable by nature.
It can be quite stormy, we'veseen lots of storms, and the way
that this is mitigated isthrough gentleness, modesty,
practice, patience and actuallyeducation.
These are the ways that we candevelop and stabilize spring chi
(05:28):
.
The spring chi wind is naturallyarising out of the quiet and
activity of winter and it'simportant that we don't move too
quickly towards the vitality ofsummer.
And this is very endemic inWestern culture.
There's a tendency toimmediately and as quickly as
(05:50):
possible escape the winter andcelebrate the spring, and this
can mean becoming excessive, tooearly.
But the wind?
We can think of the wind asthis sudden but gentle, warm,
descending spring quality that'sspreading in all directions.
(06:13):
It's like a thawing of the ice,a relief from the cold and the
stillness.
And this pattern of ascendingyang of spring and summer is
accretion, it's acquiring andgrowing.
So the true conduct of springis unpretentious.
(06:39):
It's a modesty, a freshness andan openness to life.
In the wintertime we talkedabout the dragons that were in
hibernation and the shamans thatrode on their backs into
hibernation, into the NorthAlpine lakes, where the dragons
then froze, and now they'rethawing and they're breaking the
ice, that stagnancy and thelack of movement, and are
(07:00):
beginning to move, which is whatcauses these lakes to thaw and
the dragons rise up and breakthe ice and bring thunder and
rain and the floods of therivers of spring.
So the three months of spring,according to the Neijing, are a
time of birth and pervasiveness.
(07:20):
Grasses, sprout and trees budand all living beings flourish
in the new dynamic qi that opensup and outward, and people,
like all phenomena, are included.
The Neijing says that oneshould breathe in the freshness
of spring qi.
Since spring is the season ofrenewal, one must not interfere
(07:43):
with new growth.
One should offer one's chi tohelp the new and weak survive
and not kill.
One should give, not takereward and not punish.
We're transitioning from thisenormous yin at the end of
winter to a more diminished yin,and there can still be cold.
That permeates our weatherbecause we're not yet.
(08:04):
The Yang Qi is not reallyvisible quite yet, but the yin
is exhausted and lacks a kind oftexture or a boundary.
My teacher Lu Ming, wouldcompare the cycles of the
seasons to that of people andsaying that now, this time of
year, the grandmother, the yin,is old and senile and has
(08:26):
already begun talking to theother world.
She's already starting totransition into speaking with
ancestors and ghosts and maybeshe's calling you by a different
name and she's not quite inthis world.
But yang is infant.
It's infantile and doesn't havea lot of ability yet to
(08:48):
actually take shape and form,and it's impulsive, and so we
can't really expect an infantileyang to actually do things for
us.
We're more still cultivating it.
So in this way, yin isexhausted and yang is infantile,
so there's actually not quiteyet a lot of qi available to us.
(09:13):
So the year begins withtremendous vacuity, and the
wisdom of this time is torealize there is very little yin
or yang available, and if weact as if there is, it can be
very expensive to ourselves andto the planet.
If we race around and try toget things done at this time of
year, there's a tremendouspotential to create chronic
(09:35):
deficiency in our bodies.
We are all in this situation.
There's no one who is exemptfrom the rules of nature.
So this tiny bit of yang thatis available to us, the seeds
that are stirring underneath theearth, perhaps just starting to
poke their heads out, are weak.
However, if we cultivatedwinter well, the yang qi is
(10:01):
beginning to become available.
The springtime is how we getout of any negative things that
happen to us in the winter.
And the intelligence?
This time of year?
It doesn't know anything, it'stoo little, it's too tiny and
fresh, it's simply inspired.
This time of year is aboutrecalibrating our sense of life.
(10:21):
Like being a child, it's veryfresh, and so the conduct that
is sensible this time of yearall begins with the word modest.
So the main caution is to nottry and use the yang.
Even though it may be giving afew signals that it's back, it's
not really ready to be usedfull steam ahead, and partly
(10:43):
this is because we want to staya little bit with habits at this
time, to give continuity to theyin and not waste this tiny bit
of new yang energy.
On discipline, it's more aboutinspiration than discipline, and
the exhaustion that we can getfrom overexerting ourselves now
can last for years.
So the counsel is to go back toa childlike quality of openness
(11:08):
, as we are still in the firstmoon of February, and train our
impulsive qualities a little bit.
We don't want to have this kindof attitude, like I'm going to
take over the world with thislittle seedling sprout that I
(11:28):
just dug up out of the ground.
If we dig up our seedlings now,we destroy them.
There's very little nutritionalvalue that will sustain us for
a long time, although it willgive us the sense of freshness.
We want to find ways to feel andencourage the growing of spring
(11:51):
in our lives.
This is a kind of sense ofinspiration and morning rising
up inside of ourselves.
So spring chi has a hope in it,and we can find this hope
(12:11):
within our own lives.
We can seek inspiration withreading, studying and going to
new places, or simply withwaking up early, going outside
and breathing in the morning air.
As we evolve in our lives, weneed to let go of old patterns
in order to break into higherlevels of consciousness.
So this is the time for our newyear's resolutions.
If we don't shift the stale andoutmoded ways of being from the
(12:37):
winter time, the summer will bedifficult and tiring and
patterns of illness that we havemay harden.
There's a wonderful suggestionto build a fire the night before
Imbolc, before the new moon,and throw away all of the old
patterns that no longer serve us.
This is a kind of ritual In theChinese ancient culture people
(13:03):
would walk around with a pretendmoon at this time of year.
These lanterns were originallycircles of light and everyone
would go out at night with thefull moon lanterns on the full
moon in February and there was aritual to have.
The poets would talk abouthaving a big enough cup that the
moon will be in the cup, andthen you drink this moon.
(13:23):
This is a reset button for thenew year.
All the past negativity now canbe gone.
Wonderful time to renewrelationships.
It's potent time to practiceany kind of acts of renewal and
generosity, and this willrecalibrate the entire year.
(13:44):
So invite over all of yourfriends and families, host
dinners with the people you careabout the most.
This definitely does not meanpartying to excess, but simply
eating with the people that youlove, and the opposite of this
can instigate patterns ofillness and arguments.
So it's important that everyoneis friendly with everyone and
no one gets angry or fights andharms anyone else around them
(14:08):
During the full moon on February.
It's a great time to go out andmeet new people and generally
give people the benefit of thedoubt.
Seeds are symbolic of this chinode.
This time of year, the whitesesame seeds were especially
seen as beneficial for the bloodand black sesame seeds for the
(14:30):
heart, and in Taoist ritualsblack sesame seeds are presented
as the food that will placatethe demonic.
Basically, that means it wouldcontrol fire, heart fire, any
kind of out-of-control blazingliver fire.
In India they use black mustardseed instead of the sesame seed
and to this day in Taiwan theexorcists will throw black
(14:53):
sesame seeds at your house ifthere is thought to be a
possession in the family.
So they basically would walkaround the home looking for
things and throw black sesameseeds at them.
Seeds are an important imagefor this chi node and
macrobiotic practices.
They sprinkle sesame salt oneverything and this is the Gao
Mao's Gan Ma Zao.
(15:15):
Food-wise, one wants to eatsmall meals more often rather
than big meals, and what isavailable to us now is still in
stored food from the autumn andthe winter.
There's still the bone brothsand the beans and the nuts and
the grains, so there's notreally a special food this time
(15:35):
of year.
But microgreens can bewonderful.
They have this juvenile young,as well as arugula and mustard
greens.
You can also eat seeds that aretoasted and soaked in
moderation.
The idea is to refresh yourappetite, so eat things that are
outside of your habits, becurious and modest, but allow
(16:00):
there to be a certain kind ofrecalibration like oh, I didn't
realize, I liked driedcranberries, or whatever the
thing is.
As far as sleep goes, thecounsel from the Nei Jing is
that, to be synchronized withthe seasonal qi, one should
retire when night turns dark andrise early in the morning.
The qi at this time of year ismost vital at three in the
(16:23):
morning.
So if you wake up at that timeit's fine, but one would ideally
be able to go back to sleepquickly.
So it's not a medical problemif you wake up in the middle of
the night, if it's at three inthe morning.
But if it takes a long time toget back, it could indicate a
yin deficiency, and the longerit takes to get back to sleep,
the more of the yin deficiencythere could be.
(16:44):
It's good to experience the qiat three in the morning though,
because it's very potent, and ifyou slept through it then you
wouldn't experience it.
The possibility forinspirational dreaming is coming
back after a long time of moredeep ancestral dreaming that now
(17:09):
the dreams will have lessinfluence from the matriarchal
ancestors and more coming in,with the patriarchal ancestors
influencing our dreams with moreinspiration.
Patriarchal ancestors tend tospeak more lucidly.
With the beginning of spring,the liver, or we say the hun,
(17:31):
the spirit of the liver, comesalive, and in the early parts of
spring the dreams can be veryrevealing of our physical and
spiritual condition as well asthe state of our ancestors.
As for exercise, the Neijingstates one should practice
Neigong in the courtyard,wearing loose clothing and
(17:52):
untied hair.
One should breathe in thefreshness of the spring qi.
It should always be done inmodesty, sessions of 10 to 15
minutes at a time, facingnortheast in the morning, and
you don't need to follow setmovements of qigong or yoga or
these habituated patterns orsequences that are, they say,
(18:15):
been handed down.
It's really about learningsomething new and about doing
what's appropriate for your body.
Then the counsel is not sweatnecessarily, but do it more
often.
Do it in the morning, bespontaneous, just do a little
bit of whatever.
So it might be like oh, I'mgoing to do a headstand and I'm
going to do some downward dogand I'm going to do a little
(18:35):
qigong and then do a littlepranayama.
I feel like dancing, just like.
Let let it unfold what youwants to happen so your appetite
can be refreshed, you canrecalibrate what actually is
what your body wants, and ittakes the ability to trust
oneself in order to do this.
So just be spontaneous, alonein your bedroom or out in the
(18:57):
courtyard in the morning andmake something up.
Go out on your deck, mix it up,go for a walk.
So the idea is to let the yangchi play rather than
overexerting yourself, and inthis way you won't need to do
any more exercise than youactually need to and you won't
end up lying to your friends orworrying about your finances.
It's like a recalibration ofwhat's actually in alignment for
(19:19):
ourselves with food, withexercise, with movement, with
our friends, with what we wantto actually be doing with our
lives.
And if we practice too much ortoo excessively with anything
eating, moving, dancing it canmake everything else in our life
feel excessive.
(19:41):
And I offer a finalvisualization to help you move
through into the new year Find acomfortable place to be able to
sit or lie, take three deepbreaths and, as you exhale,
imagine yourself in a quietplace in nature.
(20:07):
You can feel this freshspringness of wind in your face
and a gentle, calm energy.
And begin to walk through theforest, through the forest, and
(20:29):
as you walk you notice thatthere is a rabbit hole you
decide you'd like to explore andyou go down, down down the
rabbit hole until you findyourself in the depths of the
earth, in the depths of yourselfand your consciousness, and you
(20:50):
enter through a door into aroom, a beautiful room, and in
this room you find an altar withtwo giant crystal balls on them
.
Them and in the bowl on theleft you notice, is a your
(21:44):
winter things that happened, allthe things from the last year,
your experiences, the joys, thegrief, the patterns, all of the
things from the last year as yougo back through that year and
you place them all into the bowl, all of the wintry stillness,
(22:10):
that quiet, that deep,nourishing yin time.
You place all these occurrencesand experiences in there and
you let them go.
And you tap the bowl again withthe wand and it turns dark.
(22:40):
And then your attention goes tothe bowl on the right and you
look at it and you imagine allof what can be sprouting forth
this spring, all of the beauty,the liveness and the things that
(23:04):
you want to cultivate.
And you pick up the wand andyou know that not yet, but when
you do tap the bowl, a symbolwill emerge that will guide you
(23:32):
into the spring and the summer.
And so you bring your head overthe bowl and you gaze into it
and you tap the bowl, see thesymbol and, if you're happy with
it, take the symbol and placeit over your heart.
And if you're not happy with it, go ahead and tap the bowl
(23:56):
again and do that until you feelsatisfied, but no more than
three times.
(24:28):
And then you take that symbolthat you've placed in your heart
and you bow your hands to thealtar and to your inner self and
to your guides that helped youon this journey, and you begin
(24:54):
to walk out of this temple ofyour inner self, out through the
magical door that you opened toget into this inner chamber,
(25:15):
and you find you can quiteeasily climb out of the rabbit
hole all the way until you findyourself in this beautiful
expanse of nature and you goback to where you were sitting
when you first arrived there,and then you allow yourself to
(25:42):
arrive back to wherever it isthat your physical body is now
sitting and, as you're ready,you can allow your eyes to open,
and I invite you to bring out apiece of paper and paint your
(26:08):
symbol.
Do it now rather than wait.
Paint your symbol and put it upon the wall somewhere by your
altar, and allow this to guideyou in the coming months.
(26:29):
Thank you so much for listening.
I wish you a beautiful springof the next three months.
May it be alive and renewed andrecalibrating and fresh and
gentle, and may you, if you'vebeen listening to Bronwyn Isla
(26:54):
this is my spring begins podcastand you can find more at the
website on this link.
I love you, happy spring.
This is Bronwyn Isla, and I'm going to be
talking today about thebeginning of spring and about
the inspiration there, somedifferent rituals you can do to
help bring spring more fullyinto your life, and how to renew
relationships, the symbology offood and seeds, the kind of
(00:21):
sleep that is best this time ofyear and the dreams that can
accompany that sleep.
And then I'm going to end upwith a guided meditation to help
let go of last year'shappenings and bring in the new
year.
That will be the most highestmanifestation of consciousness
for you in this moment of time.
This is usually the time of thenew moon in February and the
(00:46):
Chinese New Year, and in manytraditions it's the new year
actually, as it's a time whenthe seeds are just beginning to
stir underneath the earth.
And these teachings are basedon the Tong Shu, which is the
most published book in the worldmuch, many, many more copies
(01:08):
than the Bible and it's actuallyan almanac which talks about
the timing of things.
So qi in the West is oftentranslated as energy or qi.
We say energy, but actuallyit's more about time.
Qi is based on notions of timeand cycles as well as energy,
(01:33):
but not only that, and myteacher Lu Ming would say that
there's two major causes ofdeath.
The first major cause is birthand the second one is a failure
to live in accordance with thecycles of time, with the cycles
of chi and the cycles of theearth and the stars an
(02:05):
agricultural society's idea ofthe correct time for planting.
But it's actually a timing ofeverything from weddings to
social gatherings, to burials,to signing contracts, to a type
of conduct that's appropriate.
And failure to live in thisappropriate conduct can cause
many kinds of disease andpatterns of imbalance in the
body.
So this is mostly Tong dynasty.
(02:36):
That's like 600 AD Chinamedical theory.
But as we begin to work withthese qi nodes and this timing
of things, it's not really likeso much a shitting on ourselves,
as it is a deep listening tothe earth, to nature, to rhythms
, and kind of a welling up of aknowingness inside ourselves
about conduct that helps us growand evolve and step into the
(03:02):
next level of consciousness thatwe're ready for in our lives.
Actually it's a practice ofcultivation.
So the idea being that health isnot simply a measurement of our
levels of blood, it's not abiomechanical level of health
(03:22):
that you can go get lab testsfor.
It's actually like are we goodpeople in the world?
Are we behaving well?
Are we kind to our neighbors?
This is actually what is betteror more appropriate indicator
of our health.
So spring, so we're coming outof winter time.
(04:02):
So spring, so we're coming outof winter time, which has been a
deep time of hibernation andlistening and inwardness and
nothingness, a time void ofmanifestations and doing and
being busy and more a time ofsilence and quiet and listening
to the water element.
And at the end of winter, ifthe yin that is so pervasive in
winter, this powerful yin quietquality, does not at some point
yang up, it is more of a spacedout spiritual vision.
It doesn't have a lot of yangbasically.
(04:24):
So spring is characterized bythe element of wind.
In this way, spring is wind,wind is a kind of a spring tea
and this is a invisibleinspiration.
Wind is like a breath or aninvisible inspiration that
initiates change in ourselves.
(04:44):
Breath or an invisibleinspiration that initiates
change in ourselves.
And we can't really quite seethe change yet of spring.
The seeds that are stirring arestill underground or underneath
the snow.
They're just sort of beginningto become less acidic and more
alkaline and preparing to sprout.
And the invisible inspirationof the wind is that which
(05:05):
initiates this change.
And it's unstable by nature.
It can be quite stormy, we'veseen lots of storms, and the way
that this is mitigated isthrough gentleness, modesty,
practice, patience and actuallyeducation.
These are the ways that we candevelop and stabilize spring chi
(05:28):
.
The spring chi wind is naturallyarising out of the quiet and
activity of winter and it'simportant that we don't move too
quickly towards the vitality ofsummer.
And this is very endemic inWestern culture.
There's a tendency toimmediately and as quickly as
(05:50):
possible escape the winter andcelebrate the spring, and this
can mean becoming excessive, tooearly.
But the wind?
We can think of the wind asthis sudden but gentle, warm,
descending spring quality that'sspreading in all directions.
(06:13):
It's like a thawing of the ice,a relief from the cold and the
stillness.
And this pattern of ascendingyang of spring and summer is
accretion, it's acquiring andgrowing.
So the true conduct of springis unpretentious.
(06:39):
It's a modesty, a freshness andan openness to life.
In the wintertime we talkedabout the dragons that were in
hibernation and the shamans thatrode on their backs into
hibernation, into the NorthAlpine lakes, where the dragons
then froze, and now they'rethawing and they're breaking the
ice, that stagnancy and thelack of movement, and are
(07:00):
beginning to move, which is whatcauses these lakes to thaw and
the dragons rise up and breakthe ice and bring thunder and
rain and the floods of therivers of spring.
So the three months of spring,according to the Neijing, are a
time of birth and pervasiveness.
(07:20):
Grasses, sprout and trees budand all living beings flourish
in the new dynamic qi that opensup and outward, and people,
like all phenomena, are included.
The Neijing says that oneshould breathe in the freshness
of spring qi.
Since spring is the season ofrenewal, one must not interfere
(07:43):
with new growth.
One should offer one's chi tohelp the new and weak survive
and not kill.
One should give, not takereward and not punish.
We're transitioning from thisenormous yin at the end of
winter to a more diminished yin,and there can still be cold.
That permeates our weatherbecause we're not yet.
(08:04):
The Yang Qi is not reallyvisible quite yet, but the yin
is exhausted and lacks a kind oftexture or a boundary.
My teacher Lu Ming, wouldcompare the cycles of the
seasons to that of people andsaying that now, this time of
year, the grandmother, the yin,is old and senile and has
(08:26):
already begun talking to theother world.
She's already starting totransition into speaking with
ancestors and ghosts and maybeshe's calling you by a different
name and she's not quite inthis world.
But yang is infant.
It's infantile and doesn't havea lot of ability yet to
(08:48):
actually take shape and form,and it's impulsive, and so we
can't really expect an infantileyang to actually do things for
us.
We're more still cultivating it.
So in this way, yin isexhausted and yang is infantile,
so there's actually not quiteyet a lot of qi available to us.
(09:13):
So the year begins withtremendous vacuity, and the
wisdom of this time is torealize there is very little yin
or yang available, and if weact as if there is, it can be
very expensive to ourselves andto the planet.
If we race around and try toget things done at this time of
year, there's a tremendouspotential to create chronic
(09:35):
deficiency in our bodies.
We are all in this situation.
There's no one who is exemptfrom the rules of nature.
So this tiny bit of yang thatis available to us, the seeds
that are stirring underneath theearth, perhaps just starting to
poke their heads out, are weak.
However, if we cultivatedwinter well, the yang qi is
(10:01):
beginning to become available.
The springtime is how we getout of any negative things that
happen to us in the winter.
And the intelligence?
This time of year?
It doesn't know anything, it'stoo little, it's too tiny and
fresh, it's simply inspired.
This time of year is aboutrecalibrating our sense of life.
(10:21):
Like being a child, it's veryfresh, and so the conduct that
is sensible this time of yearall begins with the word modest.
So the main caution is to nottry and use the yang.
Even though it may be giving afew signals that it's back, it's
not really ready to be usedfull steam ahead, and partly
(10:43):
this is because we want to staya little bit with habits at this
time, to give continuity to theyin and not waste this tiny bit
of new yang energy.
On discipline, it's more aboutinspiration than discipline, and
the exhaustion that we can getfrom overexerting ourselves now
can last for years.
So the counsel is to go back toa childlike quality of openness
(11:08):
, as we are still in the firstmoon of February, and train our
impulsive qualities a little bit.
We don't want to have this kindof attitude, like I'm going to
take over the world with thislittle seedling sprout that I
(11:28):
just dug up out of the ground.
If we dig up our seedlings now,we destroy them.
There's very little nutritionalvalue that will sustain us for
a long time, although it willgive us the sense of freshness.
We want to find ways to feel andencourage the growing of spring
(11:51):
in our lives.
This is a kind of sense ofinspiration and morning rising
up inside of ourselves.
So spring chi has a hope in it,and we can find this hope
(12:11):
within our own lives.
We can seek inspiration withreading, studying and going to
new places, or simply withwaking up early, going outside
and breathing in the morning air.
As we evolve in our lives, weneed to let go of old patterns
in order to break into higherlevels of consciousness.
So this is the time for our newyear's resolutions.
If we don't shift the stale andoutmoded ways of being from the
(12:37):
winter time, the summer will bedifficult and tiring and
patterns of illness that we havemay harden.
There's a wonderful suggestionto build a fire the night before
Imbolc, before the new moon,and throw away all of the old
patterns that no longer serve us.
This is a kind of ritual In theChinese ancient culture people
(13:03):
would walk around with a pretendmoon at this time of year.
These lanterns were originallycircles of light and everyone
would go out at night with thefull moon lanterns on the full
moon in February and there was aritual to have.
The poets would talk abouthaving a big enough cup that the
moon will be in the cup, andthen you drink this moon.
(13:23):
This is a reset button for thenew year.
All the past negativity now canbe gone.
Wonderful time to renewrelationships.
It's potent time to practiceany kind of acts of renewal and
generosity, and this willrecalibrate the entire year.
(13:44):
So invite over all of yourfriends and families, host
dinners with the people you careabout the most.
This definitely does not meanpartying to excess, but simply
eating with the people that youlove, and the opposite of this
can instigate patterns ofillness and arguments.
So it's important that everyoneis friendly with everyone and
no one gets angry or fights andharms anyone else around them
(14:08):
During the full moon on February.
It's a great time to go out andmeet new people and generally
give people the benefit of thedoubt.
Seeds are symbolic of this chinode.
This time of year, the whitesesame seeds were especially
seen as beneficial for the bloodand black sesame seeds for the
(14:30):
heart, and in Taoist ritualsblack sesame seeds are presented
as the food that will placatethe demonic.
Basically, that means it wouldcontrol fire, heart fire, any
kind of out-of-control blazingliver fire.
In India they use black mustardseed instead of the sesame seed
and to this day in Taiwan theexorcists will throw black
(14:53):
sesame seeds at your house ifthere is thought to be a
possession in the family.
So they basically would walkaround the home looking for
things and throw black sesameseeds at them.
Seeds are an important imagefor this chi node and
macrobiotic practices.
They sprinkle sesame salt oneverything and this is the Gao
Mao's Gan Ma Zao.
(15:15):
Food-wise, one wants to eatsmall meals more often rather
than big meals, and what isavailable to us now is still in
stored food from the autumn andthe winter.
There's still the bone brothsand the beans and the nuts and
the grains, so there's notreally a special food this time
(15:35):
of year.
But microgreens can bewonderful.
They have this juvenile young,as well as arugula and mustard
greens.
You can also eat seeds that aretoasted and soaked in
moderation.
The idea is to refresh yourappetite, so eat things that are
outside of your habits, becurious and modest, but allow
(16:00):
there to be a certain kind ofrecalibration like oh, I didn't
realize, I liked driedcranberries, or whatever the
thing is.
As far as sleep goes, thecounsel from the Nei Jing is
that, to be synchronized withthe seasonal qi, one should
retire when night turns dark andrise early in the morning.
The qi at this time of year ismost vital at three in the
(16:23):
morning.
So if you wake up at that timeit's fine, but one would ideally
be able to go back to sleepquickly.
So it's not a medical problemif you wake up in the middle of
the night, if it's at three inthe morning.
But if it takes a long time toget back, it could indicate a
yin deficiency, and the longerit takes to get back to sleep,
the more of the yin deficiencythere could be.
(16:44):
It's good to experience the qiat three in the morning though,
because it's very potent, and ifyou slept through it then you
wouldn't experience it.
The possibility forinspirational dreaming is coming
back after a long time of moredeep ancestral dreaming that now
(17:09):
the dreams will have lessinfluence from the matriarchal
ancestors and more coming in,with the patriarchal ancestors
influencing our dreams with moreinspiration.
Patriarchal ancestors tend tospeak more lucidly.
With the beginning of spring,the liver, or we say the hun,
(17:31):
the spirit of the liver, comesalive, and in the early parts of
spring the dreams can be veryrevealing of our physical and
spiritual condition as well asthe state of our ancestors.
As for exercise, the Neijingstates one should practice
Neigong in the courtyard,wearing loose clothing and
(17:52):
untied hair.
One should breathe in thefreshness of the spring qi.
It should always be done inmodesty, sessions of 10 to 15
minutes at a time, facingnortheast in the morning, and
you don't need to follow setmovements of qigong or yoga or
these habituated patterns orsequences that are, they say,
(18:15):
been handed down.
It's really about learningsomething new and about doing
what's appropriate for your body.
Then the counsel is not sweatnecessarily, but do it more
often.
Do it in the morning, bespontaneous, just do a little
bit of whatever.
So it might be like oh, I'mgoing to do a headstand and I'm
going to do some downward dogand I'm going to do a little
(18:35):
qigong and then do a littlepranayama.
I feel like dancing, just like.
Let let it unfold what youwants to happen so your appetite
can be refreshed, you canrecalibrate what actually is
what your body wants, and ittakes the ability to trust
oneself in order to do this.
So just be spontaneous, alonein your bedroom or out in the
(18:57):
courtyard in the morning andmake something up.
Go out on your deck, mix it up,go for a walk.
So the idea is to let the yangchi play rather than
overexerting yourself, and inthis way you won't need to do
any more exercise than youactually need to and you won't
end up lying to your friends orworrying about your finances.
It's like a recalibration ofwhat's actually in alignment for
(19:19):
ourselves with food, withexercise, with movement, with
our friends, with what we wantto actually be doing with our
lives.
And if we practice too much ortoo excessively with anything
eating, moving, dancing it canmake everything else in our life
feel excessive.
(19:41):
And I offer a finalvisualization to help you move
through into the new year Find acomfortable place to be able to
sit or lie, take three deepbreaths and, as you exhale,
imagine yourself in a quietplace in nature.
(20:07):
You can feel this freshspringness of wind in your face
and a gentle, calm energy.
And begin to walk through theforest, through the forest, and
(20:29):
as you walk you notice thatthere is a rabbit hole you
decide you'd like to explore andyou go down, down down the
rabbit hole until you findyourself in the depths of the
earth, in the depths of yourselfand your consciousness, and you
(20:50):
enter through a door into aroom, a beautiful room, and in
this room you find an altar withtwo giant crystal balls on them
.
Them and in the bowl on theleft you notice, is a your
(21:44):
winter things that happened, allthe things from the last year,
your experiences, the joys, thegrief, the patterns, all of the
things from the last year as yougo back through that year and
you place them all into the bowl, all of the wintry stillness,
(22:10):
that quiet, that deep,nourishing yin time.
You place all these occurrencesand experiences in there and
you let them go.
And you tap the bowl again withthe wand and it turns dark.
(22:40):
And then your attention goes tothe bowl on the right and you
look at it and you imagine allof what can be sprouting forth
this spring, all of the beauty,the liveness and the things that
(23:04):
you want to cultivate.
And you pick up the wand andyou know that not yet, but when
you do tap the bowl, a symbolwill emerge that will guide you
(23:32):
into the spring and the summer.
And so you bring your head overthe bowl and you gaze into it
and you tap the bowl, see thesymbol and, if you're happy with
it, take the symbol and placeit over your heart.
And if you're not happy with it, go ahead and tap the bowl
(23:56):
again and do that until you feelsatisfied, but no more than
three times.
(24:28):
And then you take that symbolthat you've placed in your heart
and you bow your hands to thealtar and to your inner self and
to your guides that helped youon this journey, and you begin
(24:54):
to walk out of this temple ofyour inner self, out through the
magical door that you opened toget into this inner chamber,
(25:15):
and you find you can quiteeasily climb out of the rabbit
hole all the way until you findyourself in this beautiful
expanse of nature and you goback to where you were sitting
when you first arrived there,and then you allow yourself to
(25:42):
arrive back to wherever it isthat your physical body is now
sitting and, as you're ready,you can allow your eyes to open,
and I invite you to bring out apiece of paper and paint your
(26:08):
symbol.
Do it now rather than wait.
Paint your symbol and put it upon the wall somewhere by your
altar, and allow this to guideyou in the coming months.
(26:29):
Thank you so much for listening.
I wish you a beautiful springof the next three months.
May it be alive and renewed andrecalibrating and fresh and
gentle, and may you, if you'vebeen listening to Bronwyn Isla
(26:54):
this is my spring begins podcastand you can find more at the
website on this link.
I love you, happy spring.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com