Embrace the rejuvenating power of spring to ignite your inner intensity, transforming it into a source of strength and clarity for personal growth and renewal.
This is the third of a series on our month's theme of The Spring of Healing.
Winter is gone; it has been inward and reflective. The equinox has come, bringing a new season. Spring's longer sun and warmer days are releasing the ability to make your natural intensity your focus. Intensity, like a clear, delicious water being that clarity of intensity that nourishes you. Intensity, as a nourishing factor that infuses your life now. The clear, crisp winds of spring, the ability to get outside more depthfully and extensively, all allow intensity to be restored to your life and propel you forward.
In this part of the Spring of Healing the goal is to identify where you find intensity most nourishing, and focus on cultivating it.
Intensity as a Healing Force
Intensity is a very healing force. It is not understood by everyone, perhaps not by most people. Many of the efforts of our lives are required to be diluted to be acceptable. We live in a world where intensity and excellence are not respected -- where you don't want to be the "A" student or the high performer because most people don't understand or desire that themselves, or even actively mock you for being such a person. Your intensity and endurance are labeled as overachieving, a term that implies that your craving for excellence, impact, and production are all "abnormal" and "different from the herd".
Yet, intensity has the power to fulfill and heal your life. Much of the wounding I've encountered in those I work with stems from actually being denied their natural level of activity, intensity and dedication, by people who, as a condition of dispensing affection or approval, needed to exert a limiting and stagnating level of constraint and control. Returning yourself to your natural levels of passion, production and focus restores your alignment with your deepest self.
Restoring your intensity also means restoring your time to work in deep flow. So intensity in its fulfillment requires the time and commitment to truly delve into its depths. It's like training for long athletic distances. It is not something you do in fits and starts, in mini-sessions and occasional tries. It is something you engage with in a way that rolls its energy around in your life and fulfills your deep need to exert yourself towards true excellence.
Guess what? THIS is the energy also found in spring, this energy of intensity. The first spring flowers rising and opening, the abundant sun, brighter days, all the green leaves sprouting into being where a day or two ago there were bare branches: intensity personified. Take hold and ride that energy!
Metaphors for Healing Intensity
Metaphors are a fun and powerful way to play with these ideas and surface unexpected insights. They allow you to interact with your inmost thoughts in an insightful, yet indirect way. Here are a number of metaphors you can play with as you explore this important life area. Get out your favorite journaling method, and work with the following questions. Let answers come up as they will.
"If Your Life's Intensity Were a Spring Dawn, How Would It Unfold?"
Imagine your intensity as the first light of dawn on a spring morning. Does it gently coax the world awake, spreading light gradually, revealing colors and shapes with tender patience? Or does it burst forth, a fiery orb proclaiming the day with undeniable power, setting the sky ablaze and casting long shadows that retreat in its brilliance? This metaphor invites you to consider how your intensity manifests in your life. Is it a nurturing light that slowly warms the ground, inviting new growth in its time? Or is it a force of nature that transforms everything it touches, driving back the darkness with the promise of new adventures and discoveries at every turn?
"If Your Spirit's Renewal Were a Mountain Stream in Spring, Where Would Its Waters Lead You?"
Visualize the renewal of your spirit as a mountain stream, high and fast with the fresh snowmelt of spring's warmth. Is it a meandering brook, taking its time to nourish every nook and cranny of the forest floor, whispering secrets to the roots of ancient trees? Or is it a rushing torrent, carving its way through stone, unstoppable and free, eager to merge with rivers and oceans that lie beyond the horizon? This metaphor challenges you to explore the paths your renewed intensity might take. Does it seek to quietly replenish and connect, enriching the soil of your soul in subtle ways? Or does it yearn to explore vast, uncharted territories, propelling you toward grand destinies with its vigorous currents?
Future-Focused Questions
You can also use these future-focused questions to realize where you might be "sleepwalking", i.e. allowing an unintended negation of intensity to coast on and on, even when your Inner Self knows you want and need to take action.
"If Your Current Level of Intensity Remains Unchanged, How Will Your Life Look When Next Spring Arrives?"
Envision your life one year from now, with your intensity for work, passions, and personal growth held constant at today’s levels. Reflect on the landscapes of your life that this sustained intensity has cultivated. Are you surrounded by a flourishing garden of achievements and fulfilled dreams, or does it feel as though you've been stuck in a perpetual winter, where growth is stunted, and potential remains dormant? This question invites you to evaluate the role of intensity in driving meaningful change and progress in your life, prompting you to consider if you're nurturing your passions and goals with enough zeal to truly transform your reality by the next spring.
"How Will Amplifying Your Intensity Today Reshape Your Endeavors by the Time the Trees Bloom Again?"
Imagine intensifying your focus, passion, and energy starting today. Fast forward to the next season of renewal when the trees are in bloom. How has this heightened intensity reshaped your professional projects, personal aspirations, and overall life dynamics? Has it led to a landscape rich with the fruits of your labor, marked by achievements that seemed distant dreams before? Or are the changes more subtle, yet profoundly rooted, like the deepening of relationships and a more vibrant engagement with life's daily rituals? This question encourages you to explore the transformative potential of embracing and amplifying your intensity now, to harness the spring's promise of growth and renewal for your own life's seasons.
If intensity appeals to you, reach out to cultivate, nourish and nurture it. Find the balance that lets you relax and recover as balance to engage with the highest level of your own personal intensity and exellence. This defines the richness and fulfillment of your life's narrative.
Key Learning Points
Intensity is a Catalyst for Growth: Recognizing your personal intensity as a force that can drive significant growth and transformation, especially when harnessed with mindfulness and purpose during the spring's natural period of renewal.
Balancing Intensity with Restoration: Understanding the importance of balancing your intensity with periods of rest and reflection, mirroring the natural cycle of spring, where growth, recovery, and more growth go hand in hand.
Channel Intensity Towards Meaningful Endeavors: Learning to direct your intensity not just into your work but into all areas of life, treating each aspect as a sacred space for expression, creativity, and impact.
Action Steps
Reflect and Prioritize: Take time to reflect on where your intensity is currently directed and identify areas of your life or work that could benefit from more focused energy. Prioritize these areas to align with your goals for personal and professional growth.
Create a Ritual for Intensity: Establish a daily or weekly ritual that symbolizes your commitment to harnessing and channeling your intensity. This could be as simple as a morning meditation focusing on your intentions or setting aside dedicated time for deep work in your area of passion.
Assess and Adjust: At the end of each week, assess how effectively you've been able to channel your intensity into your prioritized areas. Adjust your strategies as needed, whether that means reallocating time, setting clearer boundaries, or incorporating new practices to sustain your intensity without burnout.
Your journey towards growth and renewal is as unique as the path of the sun across the sky — ever moving, ever brightening. The insights and practices shared here aim to guide you towards a season of newly vibrant transformation and profound healing.
You alone have both the choice, and the responsibility, to make the radical changes in this area that create fulfillment and recraft your personal and professional life.
How will you embrace the rising energy of spring's healing intensity as you #reclaimyourwildness and #healworklife?
See you in the next post.
Be well,
Katherine
