94. Patience (And Playfulness) In The Process
Today we’re taking inspiration from the Spring season to chat about fresh starts and new beginnings.
I share some of my own struggles when it comes to planning my routines, and how I’ve intentionally created more support to nourish myself as I plant new seeds.
***
FREE WORKSHOP
Interested in the “Spring Focus: Planting Seeds + Playing with Priorities” workshop? Learn more and register here: springworkshop.meghanjohnston.com
***
GET IN TOUCH
Did this episode spark an interesting reflection or a question stirring in your heart? I love hearing from you!
Instagram: @meghanljohnston
Email: hello@meghanjohnston.com
Website: meghanjohnston.com
Episode Transcript
Meghan: [00:00:00] This is episode 94 of With Heart and Wonder. As always, I'm just truly grateful that we get to spend this time together. It has been, like a week or two of just feeling like I am re-awakening.
Where I live here in Canada, there has been a lot of warm weather and just up and down weather, which truthfully I find terrifying because of what it means for our changing climate and all the work that is needed to care for our planet. Um, but I also in spite of all of that fear, I really do love the time of year when we move out of winter and towards spring.
And so I also have just been feeling gratitude for the energy that seems to come alive inside of me when the weather starts to get warmer and the sun starts to shine brighter and you can hear the birds sing again. And the snow starts to melt. There's like a freshness in the air I find that just, I don't know, it just stirs something [00:02:00] inside of me. And I've been just enjoying, soaking up that energy.
So it's really one of those, both and situations, you know, terrifying that, um, that at this time of year, we're already transitioning into spring when normally would be like four to six more weeks before that happened. Uh, but also just the gratitude for the joy that I feel in this seasonal transition, whenever it happens in the year. And I wanted to talk a little bit about this seasonal transition today.
If you've listened to the podcast for a while, um, you know, that I am just so passionate about looking to the natural world and to the seasons and the cycles in our lives and just sit there so much richness and so much that we can learn from taking a more cyclical and seasonal approach to our growth, our healing, whatever it is, that's happening inside of our lives and this like spring chapter. Is a beautiful metaphor for thinking about fresh starts and new beginnings and like that playfulness that can come when we start something now. So we're going to come back to that. But I want to share as a little bit of context. What I'd really like to talk about today is I think that spring. Or any time that you are in the energy of spring.
Because again, that I say this all the time, but the seasons in the natural world don't necessarily. Map onto what is happening in our inner worlds.
But any time that we're in a spring or any time that we're in, in this, like, phase of [00:04:00] new beginnings. To me it always strikes me as it's a really, really potent time to get curious and explore and get playful with what our daily routines look like. Daily or weekly you can choose, but the regularity with which we are making time and space for the things in our lives that feel vibrant and alive and pulsing with opportunity and possibility it's a time for planting seeds.
So. I said, I wanted to give some context and the context that I want to gather is; one of my biggest personal hurdles in this wild ride of life um, has truly been, I spent a lot of years. Many many, many, many years where I was searching for almost like the magic key like the perfect formula, for how to structure my day, how to structure my week so that it felt supportive, but I didn't do too much.
I didn't burn out. So that I could kind of get off of what felt like this roller coaster of high highs and low lows, where my energy would just spike and then drop. And I got kind of obsessed with like finding the perfect solution, finding the magic key. Expecting that if I could just crack this problem if I could solve it. Everything would fall into place after that.
If I could find the perfect formula, the exact things that would support me and encourage me and help me stretch, but not too far then, like, I'd be golden. I'd be set for life. And at the, I kind of laugh thinking [00:06:00] about it now because I, I really do see how that is problematic thinking and just unrealistic in many ways.
But is this something that I absolutely was like really fixated on, especially in, in my late teens and early twenties, and I see this show up in different, in different places, just in, in our world when it comes to this idea of like hacking our productivity. And what, what strikes me about that is that it's an approach to our routines and our rituals that takes things really seriously. That expects that we get it right. The first time. And that really doesn't make that much room for play or for patience in the process. And of course this absolutely relates to spring.
Like my goodness. We can plant seeds in the ground and we can want them to grow right away. I'm the type of person who will plant seeds outside in my backyard and I'll go every day to check and see how they're doing. And there's like a big part of me that wants those seeds to grow more quickly. But there's also so much beauty. And so much nourishment that happens in that process of waiting. What it makes me think of is the way in which I myself have had a pattern in my life of starting things and then giving up too easily. Starting a new routine or a new habit, and then giving up when it doesn't work right away. Or giving up when it starts to feel uncomfortable.
I even, if we go back to planting seeds have totally been the person before who has planted seeds outside. Watered them and [00:08:00] taken care for like about a week and then sort of gotten bored and forgotten all about them. I don't do that anymore. But it has been an experience that I've had and maybe you have two. And so there's this question for me around, like, what does it look like to find gentle momentum where we can stay in the process, even when it starts to feel sticky or boring, or like it's taking too long, but what does it look like to bring a more playful approach? To really crafting a day or a week that allows us to feel like our most aligned and vibrant self. What does it mean to carve out time and plant seeds that may take a bit of time to grow? But seeds that are really aligned with the vision that we have for our life.
Those big, bold, beautiful dreams. What are those little things that we can play with in this process of living that move us closer. To that vision that we have for our life. And that, let us just take it a bit less seriously. Have more fun along the way.
There's so many areas of life where we focus on, you know, it's it's about the process, not the destination. Um, and yet we may have heard that idea. That cliche so many times before. And we might need to hear it again. For me that especially shows up like, I really do expect when I start a new routine or rhythm that like, I'll get it right the first time. And it's been a huge, a mindset shift for me in terms of like, [00:10:00] thinking about how do I set myself up well, so that when I am going into a fresh start, a season of spring, a season of a new chapter of new beginnings.
How do I set myself up well, so that I don't start and then stop.
So that I don't get impatient, or let the not knowing that messy middle, mean that I've stopped before I even let things go. Like really get going.
This idea of like, really thinking about how I can nurture and nourish these little seeds so that I can care for them enough to grow and blossom. Has been a huge thing that I've been playing with in the, in the last few years. And, and I have noticed how now. There's still like the, the, the tendencies that are deeply ingrained, of wanting to push and rush things. But there also, again, the both and; that is true and there is also more patience in the process and more of a willingness to, to get curious and to play. And to really embrace that energy of spring.
If this is feeling aligned for you, and if you are listening close to the time of recording, it is March 2024 I wanted to tell you I am hosting a free workshop. I'm so excited about it. Um, and it is going to be about exactly all of this. We're going to be diving into the energetics of the spring season, and we'll be looking at planting seeds and playing with our priorities. And we'll talk about some of the unique opportunities and obstacles of the spring season. We're going to talk
about my ice cream shop method. For getting [00:12:00] clear on your priorities in a way that feels playful and expansive. And we're going to explore how to align your daily routines with those big dreams and the vision that you have for your life. So that you're really planting the seeds for what it is that you really want. And this workshop is going to be happening live. And it'll be recorded. But the live workshop will be on Tuesday, March 19th at 7:30 PM eastern daylight time.
You can sign up for the workshop by going to
springworkshop.meghanjohnston.com and that link will be in the show notes or the episode description, wherever you're listening to this podcast. I'm so excited to share this workshop. If you're able to come. And if you're listening to this at a later time, um, I feel like there's still some really juicy questions here, just thinking about even just for yourself, like, what is that energy of spring or that energy of like fresh starts, new beginnings. And, and how can you approach that and really harness that. In ways that feel playful and vibrant and nourishing. But that set you up for that gentle, sustainable moving forward.
If this episode sparked an insight for you, I would absolutely love to hear from you. I can reach out at @meghanljohnston on Instagram or hello@meganjohnston.com. And if you've signed up for the workshop, go ahead, send me a DM on Instagram. Let me know you're coming. I am so, so excited to share it with you.
And again, you can sign up for that at springworkshop.meghanjohnston.com until next time, keep living With [00:14:00] Heart and Wonder.