After Loss, Comes Life

How to welcome in fresh energy

Peace of Mind is a reader-supported newsletter. Here, you have free access to 15+ guided meditations, as well as newsletters and journaling prompts. If you’d like to receive new content and/or support my work - I invite you to become a free or paid subscriber. Thank you for being here.

---

spring from a new perspective

Today (the day I’m sending this newsletter out) is the Spring Equinox - the official start to the new season, marking new beginnings and an opportunity to plant seeds to bloom in the coming months. For me, and maybe for you too, this winter season was marked by much loss, and as spring rolls in, I’m reminded that after loss, comes life.

A few years ago, I learned from a friend that in Hindu cosmology, there are three essential phases of existence, which act as a cycle: creation, maintenance and destruction - only for creation to come again, and the cycle continues.

This truth reminds us of the inevitable, that everything changes and is inherently fleeting, but it also infuses some extra meaning into it. As we are losing something, grieving something, shedding something, we’re moving closer to creating something new. Loss, naturally, invites more life in. Morel mushrooms (Google them! They’re so magical looking) are known for appearing in burned forests, especially in the first spring after a wildfire. They thrive in the nutrient-rich, disturbed and ashy soil that’s often left behind by the destruction.

Winter is about death and deep rest, and spring is about rebirth, planting seeds in preparation for bloom. Nature has these seasons, and so we do, and sometimes our internal winters happen in summer, and our internal summers in winter, but seasons of loss and creation are always happening.

signs of life

As we welcome in the spring season, I’m sitting with the daily practice of creating life. Contrary to how we narrowly talk about it in society, creating life isn’t just about bringing new beings into the world; it’s also about bringing ideas, art, and meaning into existence. We’re creating life all the time: conjuring up a thought in our notes app, whipping up a new recipe for dinner, transferring a vision from our minds onto paper, onto a canvas, out in the air via our words.

In the winter, I lost my dad, and messy hopes that went with it. I lost my mom, in a different and seemingly smaller way, when one day I visited her in the memory face facility and she didn’t register who I was. And in the spring, life is emerging again. I’m getting ready to launch my book, which has been years in the making. I’m preparing to enter into a new decade of life. I’m planting seeds for a future that I hope that would make my past self proud, in non-attached hopes of seeing those seeds sprout. The loss is still there, and life can exist with it.

A book is born! Well, almost:

Today on the Equinox, day and night are nearly equal, and it reminds us that we can hold both. We can hold the loss of winter, while moving forward with spring. Honoring loss doesn’t mean we need to shove away any joy and warmth, and welcoming in joy and warmth doesn’t mean we can’t also feel waves of loss.

• What’s something you lost, grieved, shed, hid, in the winter months?

• What’s something you are hoping to give life to in the spring? What seeds are you planting?

Practices & rituals to honor the Spring Equinox

• Plant seeds, whether that’s literally or spiritually by setting intentions. What are you hoping to harvest in a few months time?

• Light a candle and visualize your intentions blossoming

• Clean up and declutter your physical space

• Open windows and welcome in fresh air

• Sit in nature - a park, a forest, looking up at the moon - and be with the quiet of your breath. Leave an offering for this nature spot

• Take a walk and observe signs of spring - flowers blooming, birds returning

• Buy yourself flowers and adorn your space with them

• Take a cleansing bath with flowers, herbs and sea salt

• Sing, dance, allow yourself to feel and express joy!

Whatever you’re welcoming in, I hope you can do so with ease and patience. Remember that the equinox is also about balance - trusting that we have enough time and space to lean in and take initiative, while also carving out time to quiet down.

Thank you for reading and receiving! If you’re craving some quiet but want some guidance, a reminder that I have 15+ free guided meditations on my Substack. No catch, just vibes! Type “meditation” into the search bar and they’ll pop up.

Happy spring! I hope it brings you everything you’re envisioning and more. Thank you for being here, exactly as you are.

Until next time,

♡ Meg