Consume+Create
Embracing the “Rebirth” Energy of Spring
Consume and Create ~~~
Spring’s sun breaks through winter with undeniable comfort. To walk outside, feel warmth return to your skin, see green, smell flowers — it feels like life is starting over. A well-deserved beginning.
Somehow, Spring can also arrive with a strange discomfort. There can be an expectation that we should be happy now. Everything is blooming, the light is returning, so why do some of us feel… tense? Irritable? Restless? Sad?
All of a sudden, there is more light in the day to reveal how overgrown our “garden” has become. For whatever reason, we can take it personally. It can feel overwhelming to see how much work lies ahead of us. It is easy to feel impatient with or even hurt by nature’s timing. But, because we care, we get to work, carrying all of these emotions on our shoulders while we’re on our hands and knees weeding. Sometimes it feels like this work will go on forever.
And in what feels like just another instant, we find ourselves sitting in a well manicured garden. The plants are happy. The flowers are blooming. Life is buzzing. This is powerful energy of spring in action. We’ve let go of the past and we’re feeling positive about the future. This is the lesson spring is trying to teach — not only will everything begin again, but it will do so by consuming what came before it. In Taoism, this idea is sometimes called the Consume & Create energy of spring.
Spring belongs to the Wood Element, which isn’t just about beauty and growth — it’s about movement, direction, assertion, and force. It’s a rising energy. Wood wants to push forward, to break out of the shell, to grow. It is the tree stretching toward the sun, the sprout cracking the soil. It is the energy of desire — not desire in the consumerist sense, but in the cosmological sense. The desire of a seed to become a tree.
When this energy flows smoothly, it brings inspiration, momentum, vision. But when it gets stuck — when the path is blocked — Wood becomes frustrated. In Chinese Medicine, this is referred to as “stagnation.” It shows up in the body as tension, inflammation, and pain. In the mind, it manifests as irritability, indecision, and mood swings.
What Spring Teaches About the Inner World ~~~
As Nature begins to bud, all that has been stored in our depths rises with it. The long days shine new light on our past choices. Old thoughts, desires, and unresolved emotions that sat dormant all winter begin to stir.
But unlike in winter, this is not a season for stillness. Wood does not rest. Wood moves. In this season, we must begin (over and over).
Wood is the phase of “Consume and Create.” It eats light. It converts matter. A tree consumes sunlight and carbon and turns it into wood and leaf and blossom. This is metabolism. This is vision turned into form.
Here we are, in the last few weeks of spring. This is the PIVOT. Like the weather bouncing between hot and cold, we too must fight for the light.
As Spring rises to Summer, be brave. Try new things. Do things differently. Explore all directions. There is still time to experiment with our directions before the course of our year gets set.
Consume, create. Consume, create. Consume, create.
WHEN IT DOUBT, DANCE IT OUT ~~~
One way I’ve been working through Spring Stagnation is making music. When thoughts and emotions feel overwhelming, I grab an instrument. Oftentimes, when I initially start playing, I hate what’s coming out of me. But I found that, if I stick with it, I eventually discover a sound that resonates with me. Soon, my thoughts and emotions melt into music. Instead of thinking, I’m moving. Instead of “finding the right answer” or “making the right decision,” I’m expressing myself through music.
And it’s not like I all of a sudden “know what to do.” Rather, I feel “unstuck.” I’m literally MOVING thought my processing. This clears the way for the Way to reveal itself.
Even if you can’t play an instrument, shake off stagnation by DANCING. Don’t problem solve, find a groove that moves you. As you dance, ket the energy of your thoughts and emotions move through you. Let loose. When you’re done, rest in a settled mind. When you’re ready, begin again.
It’s not like making music or dancing is going to give us all the answers, However, it offers a chance to literally move instead of getting stuck.
Here’s some music I’ve made this spring — moments I caught myself dancing and hit record. Thanks for letting me share with you 🌻 keep going!
