Spring is a season for new life after a sequestered winter. In spring 2019 my thoughts were wrapped up in my daughter’s graduation from both high school and dance company, and my impending graduation from Yoga Teacher Training. At that time, my brain tingled with the germination of my sprouting new business.
I can’t believe it’s almost a year since I established HoneyButterflyz and eight months since I quit my job as a Financial Advisor. COVID-19 made this winter feel longer than usual. Now I feel the tingle of spring again with all its beauty and potential. Our extended winter, even though uncomfortable, gave us an opportunity for even more growth and rest during our hibernation.
Even children grow when they’re sleeping.
All growth causes some pain.
I’ve always been an 8-hour sleeper from when I was a kid. Now, sleep and stillness have become an even more integral part of my life – that’s when my mind clears and I get my best ideas and solutions. My self-help memoir, Thinking Outside the Chrysalis: A Black Woman’s Guide to Spreading Her Wings, came from a note I jotted in my iPhone at about 3am last August. I was planning a retreat of the same name and it popped into my head that I should offer a self-help book to my retreat participants. From there, I realized a lot of my advice would come from my own journey, so I later decided it would be a self-help memoir.
I go into pre-sales next month for a July 4th book launch. I couldn’t think of a more fitting launch date than Independence Day, for a book that I believe will free millions of black women to live their most joyful and abundant lives.
I don't usually offer new businesses or books in the spring. Most of us don't, but we do come alive in other ways. In many ways we are reborn about every 30 days: our skin regenerates, we digest new books, films, activities and ideas. During spring we have the additional inspiration of the budding flowers and the buzzing bees, all sending messages of new life and rebirth if we take the time to listen.
If you’ve ever taken a yoga class, you know our final resting posture is savasana, or “corpse pose.” That’s when we rest and allow the body to process the work that we’ve done. It’s also a time of stillness and contemplation. Before we come out of that posture, we roll into a fetal position for a few seconds. This position symbolized the rebirth we experience every time we participate in a yoga session. It’s a comforting position before we reemerge in a seated posture ready to enter the world again in our usual way, but perhaps subtly different.
I encourage you to consider what’s rising in you this spring. Has there been a subtle shift, like a sprouting seed or a baby repositioning in the womb?
What did you plant this past winter? Was it intensity, focus, hope or fear?
What has rejuvenated in the past 30 days? Are you caring for your body, mind and spirit?
Where can you forgive and encourage yourself? Do you speak gently in your self-talk like you are sharing secrets with a friend?
What can you do to support yourself with love and kindness so the next 30 days are full of personal joy and growth?
I know this global quarantine that we’re all experiencing is difficult. I hope that somewhere in the disconnection, you’ve found some stillness. I hope in the quiet, you've found some peace.
I wish you Freedom, Alignment and Effortless Abundance!
Trish
P.S. The photo is the book cover for my self-help memoir. Pre-sales begin June 4th. If you’d like to join the community in my new Facebook group, “Black Girl Butterflyz” click the link here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/blackgirlbutterflyz/
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