Spring - The Living Experiment
This week on The Living Experiment, we’re talking about Spring — the essential nature of the season, and the shifts your body wants to make in keeping with it.
In a continuation of Dallas’s Seasonal Model of Health, and the season-by-season series we started this winter, we talk about the value of adjusting your eating, activity, sleep and social activities in ways befitting spring.
We also explore the energetic and psycho-emotional dynamics you might be noticing this time of year, plus some insights from Chinese Five-Element theory, and the value of integrating rather than fighting your body’s natural rhythms and desires.
Finally, we offer up some experiments that can help you get your own body and mind in sync with the gifts of this spring season.
“Spring” Episode Highlights
The true and essential nature of spring, contrasted with its oversimplified “spring forward!” media hype
Dallas’s description of the seasonal shift from the quietude and darkness of winter to the increased energy and light of spring
A recap of Chinese Five-Element theory that Pilar introduced in our “Winter” episode, with a focus on the movement and decisiveness of spring
Why spring — rather than January — is the optimal time to launch into the action phase of resolutions
Nutritional elements of the change of seasons: taking advantage of what’s growing locally, and the role of plant-based carbohydrates in a seasonal diet
How sleep, social and hormonal patterns naturally shift with the lengthening daylight, and the importance of listening to what your body wants (regardless of what experts say “should” drive you seasonally)
Act on the plans you’ve been ruminating on over the winter. Choose one change you’d like to make and move into action now.
This morning or as soon as possible, step just outside your door and simply take note of the season’s light, smells, sounds, and the feel of the air on your skin. Observe what is new and different with spring’s arrival. If you enjoy this practice, do it every morning.
Our episodes on “Seasons” and “Winter”, about simple lifestyle shifts that can help you stay in step with nature’s cyclical rhythms.
A seasonal approach to fitness from Experience Life magazine.
Also from Experience Life – “Stuck Inside”, hints for getting some quality outdoor time this season.