Last June, I set the intention of launching Willow & Thyme Therapy in January 2023. I spent the rest of the summer drawing on the energy of the longer days to complete most of the active, tangible legwork. Permission was the theme of the 3 months that followed: permission to rest, permission to let go, and permission to hope while the world and the sun hibernated. Since January, permission has evolved to planting the seeds of ideas and cultivating connections. I could not think of a better way to allow myself a moment to pause and appreciate the season of growth than kicking off the long bank holiday weekend with the ladies of the Organic Family Collective.
On Thursday, 6 April 2023 at Brasserie Blanc in Cheltenham, Dr. Kylie Foster, Practice Experience Director Lottie Keble, and I sat with a group of women to focus on the spirit of Spring in a panel discussion on manifesting positive change.
Kylie and I shared our feelings on manifestation as a buzzword: that the power of any given tool or technique is found in the meaning and usefulness it holds for you. In other words, if the concept of manifestation adds to your life and helps you make sense of your experience in a way that feels empowering, that’s fantastic. However, if you’re feeling shame, blame, guilt, or doubts about the concept, it’s relevance to your experience, or it’s efficacy in making a positive impact on your life, that’s okay too. Not every tool, philosophy, or idea will resonate with every person.
So, if manifesting and the law of attraction aren’t the only answers, what else can be done to break down barriers to help you reach your goals? The common thread throughout your life and your experiences is you. You have the power to make small, sustainable changes in your life when you’re ready. Sometimes we need help to make these changes happen; that’s where your community comes in! Your friends, your family, your favourite author’s new book, the person who watches your dog while you’re on holiday, mothers you met at nursery, your therapist, your GP, your coach, your chiropractor. We live in an increasingly individualised world, but humans have not evolved to be solitary—we need balance.
So where does Spring come into all of this? Well, the world around is one of the most significant ways through which human beings have made meaning in their lives for millennia. Whether you celebrate Ostara, Easter, Passover, Ramadan, or have your own way of honouring the change of the seasons, springtime represents a time of rebirth, renewal, increased energy, and change. If you don’t have a religious or spiritual story that resonates with you, just take a look around you next time you go outside: trees budding, grass growing, fowl creating new life. Although our lives and communities can feel like they are something apart from nature, we as humans are a part of nature. The changes in the earth can help us change our perspective.
At Cocktails and Conversations we encouraged each other to think about our goals, potential barriers, sources of inspiration, and the stories that inform how we think about the role of change in our lives. What’s more is that we cultivated a community of women who wanted to have this conversation and lean on each other for support. Everything we discussed by no means accounts for all nuanced perspectives, ideas, and challenges. The point of this event was to start a conversation, what do you have to say about Springing into a season of change?