Each year, when the early spring comes around, I get excited.

I get excited because this time of year symbolizes new beginnings, fresh energy, and the joy of birthing new things into the world.

You see it everywhere—the days are longer, the birds are chirping, and there are even tiny little buds on the trees.

And I know it’s a powerful opportunity to bring new energy into my own projects, relationships, and life, as well as the perfect time to step more fully into bigger and better possibilities for myself and my future.

What I often find, though, is that it’s difficult to transition into springtime energy if you are still stuck in wintertime mode and feeling tired, unmotivated, and frustrated. This is especially common if you haven’t made the time to clear out the dust and stagnancy that can sometimes settle and take hold in the colder months.

That’s why it’s vital this time of year to intentionally cleanse out the emotional, mental, and spiritual blocks that might have built up over the winter months in order to then be fully prepared to open ourselves up consciously to the curiosity, joy, and freshness that is so readily available to us this time of year.

Here is a ritual we can do to cleanse, renew, and then open up to our full potential to help prepare us for this magical season:

(In order to do this ritual, you will need paper and pen, a feather duster (optional), and a potted plant.)

1. Take 10 minutes to journal on all of the things that have become stagnant and dusty for you during the wintertime. Get clear for yourself where the cobwebs need to be swept away to make space for new energy. Consider all areas where you could bring new energy in, including emotional, mental, and spiritual areas: larger things such as particular relationships and work and then details within those such as “making the same dinner night after night” or “haven’t created a new sales page in a long time.”

2. After you’ve gotten super clear on all the stagnant areas of your life, take some time to feel yourself under their weight. Really feel in your body what it’s like to be under the dust and cover of those stagnant things. You can close your eyes and visualize yourself covered with snow or dust.

3. Then, literally “dust” the stagnancy and old issues off your body. You can use an actual feather duster or simply use your hands. Start at the top of your head and dust off any old energy there, move to your face, and then your neck, removing and dusting off whatever got stuck during the winter season, then move down to your shoulders and so on, all the way down to your toes. Really take the time to shake off, let go of, and release all that has become sluggish, inactive, and old, dusty weight.

(This can work really well with a partner too. You can have your partner clean the dust off of you and then switch.)

4. If you do the dusting and clearing to completion, you will feel an incredible sense of openness and freedom in your body. Now that you’ve cleaned out the old winter energy, you can really align with and leverage the newness of spring. Take some deep breaths in and deeply inhale the spring air.

5. From this place, choose one thing that you would like to start right now. Perhaps it’s a certain project for your business, or perhaps you’d like to attract in a beloved, or perhaps it’s a certain lifestyle change, or perhaps it’s simply a new way of “being”—for example, abundant or open or healthy.

Whatever you choose, get focused on it. Close your eyes and visualize this thing that you would like to plant in your life, and in your mind’s eye, watch it grow and flourish. As you visualize this, hold the potted plant in your hands and let the plant come to symbolize this new thing that you would like to initiate in your life right now.

6. Water your plant, and as you do it, allow it to be a ritual of watering your new project, relationship, or way of being. Then place this plant somewhere prominent in your home so that you remember to literally and metaphorically water it and care for it consistently.

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