Embracing Spring’s Invitation to Renewal and New Beginnings
When you think of Spring, what comes to mind? Blooming flowers? Shedding layers?
There are many metaphors associated with the Spring season. This blog explores a few to inspire your renewal and new beginnings.
New Beginnings
As spring approaches, people begin to tire of being sequestered in their inner sanctums.
- They want to rush outside and enjoy the warmth of returning sun rays.
- A sense might be felt that, after all the time spent looking inward, now is the season to see the beginning of the new phase of life we have craved.
Early Growth
Before we enjoy the fruits of our hard work, we must tend to the emerging shoots of new growth.
- This can be a frustrating period, and we must face it with grace and perseverance.
- Consider how this work can be made more empowering by creatively looking at your situation to see the possibilities.
- While you are working to heal and reclaim your voice after sexual abuse, you can use your hobbies and creative outlets as tangible manifestations of the growth process.
Activity One: Mindful Gardening
Tidying Your Landscape
As the winter thaws, you might see residual leaves from Autumn around your lawn. This is a good time to go outside and tidy your landscape.
- Find a place you want to cultivate and infuse it with your hopes and dreams for the coming year and the next chapter of your life.
Begin by mindfully clearing away the debris.
- As you do this, think about rounding up layers of beliefs, emotions, thoughts, and patterns that no longer benefit you and discarding them.
- Pay attention to any natural new shoots beginning to spring forth from the ground.
- Meditate on their journey from seed to seedling, and the resilience they show against the temperamental elements.
- Think back to how you have been reborn after pain and how you, too, have persisted in the face of both internal and external doubts and hurdles.
Envision your vibrant creation that will become a home for birds and bugs while providing you with a feast for the eyes. Notice how the garden you picture is similar to the many facets of your story.
- Dahlias can be your determination.
- Pansies can represent your goals of inner peace.
- When you look at the irises flourishing, you can draw inspiration to blossom through even the most trying of times.
Consider how this activity can be broken up into multiple steps, which give you multiple opportunities for reflection and self-growth.
- From planning to tilling, to planting, to tending, your garden will give you a plethora of moments to turn your inner world outward and receive the blessings of each lesson.
Make sure that you include a space in or near your garden for a sanctuary of self-care to promote moments of quiet contemplation and rejuvenation.
Activity Two: Cairn Building
For millennia, Cairns have been used as attention-getting markers that highlight sites of importance, and they guide weary travelers to a reliable trail.
Cairns help those feeling lost and disoriented find safe haven. Use this exercise to build a cairn that celebrates the journey you are making from victim to survivor to thriver!
Preparing
Select a space outdoors that best honors your spirit. It can be in the woods, in your backyard, or near a body of water.
Next, you can choose to buy or collect items that you use in making your cairn.
Begin by selecting either rocks or pieces of wood to build a mound. You can also choose to either leave the items in their natural state or paint them with words or images that spark joy in your soul.
Creating Your Cairn
Journey to your outdoor space and begin to assemble your cairn.
- Start the process with a deep, cleansing breath.
- Think about the story you want the cairn to tell about your journey towards wholeness.
- Let the creation process honor your pain, strength, and vision for tomorrow.
- As you establish the base, reflect on the sexual assault survivors who are further back on this voyage towards healing and will need guidance.
- Allow the artistic spirit to move within you.
- Let the various angles the items produce help provide those survivors with light and hope, guiding them into the serene harbor they deserve.
Expressing Gratitude
When you feel you are done, show yourself and your guiding Force gratitude for this moment to reconnect with yourself and to provide hope for those feeling lost and alone. This simple act of “paying it forward” is the best way to honor all the ways your trauma changed you and enabled you to be the beacon of light, inspiration, and action you are today.
Nurturing Hope with Your Garden and Cairn
With gardens:
In our gardens, the results might be slower to unfurl than we would like.
- Remember, as new life emerges through the cold, hard ground, these shoots are still vulnerable.
- With time, energy, and mindful tending, we can redirect ourselves towards the next phase of our lives.
With cairns:
Just because you ventured out into the woods and created a cairn, it doesn’t mean that you don’t run the risk of getting turned around.
- Focus on the forces in your life that help steer you around the potholes of life, and remind you that you are more than someone who was violated.
- When you look around, you will see signals and helpers along the way that can help you adjust your sails and guide you through the rough waters.
- When you get to shore, rest awhile, honor your voyage – but then take up the mantle and usher the other pilgrims of trauma into this harbor of peace.
- Share how moments of clarity help us reconnect with our inner wisdom that will provide insight into ways for us to thrive.
Share Your Stories
We encourage you to share stories of how tending your garden or creating your cairn aided in your thriver story. Email us, engage with our social media channels, or leave a note in the blog comment section.
Thank you for being an integral part of this uplifting and loving community.
At Survivors to Thrivers, we seek to first let you know you are not alone. We are all trying to navigate and become our best thriving selves.
Second, I would love to hear which ideas were particularly helpful for you. If you have additional ideas, please let me know and I will include them in future posts.
Holding you in light and love,
Here’s to Thriving! Tambry
Talk To Tambry
I am glad you have taken the time to engage with this blog. Sometimes it is helpful to process new insights that emerge. If you would appreciate brief time with a someone who understands, our Talk to Tambry offering is for you. For 30 minutes, you can receive support from Tambry who is a certified life coach, spiritual director and a survivor who has been on the journey as well. This is offered at a reduced rate of $50.
