Spring is here! Can you feel it? Longer days and more light, new growth and blooms, warmer days. Everything is coming alive all around you. This is usually the time of year when people start getting gardens ready for planting and thinking ahead about what they want to grow and harvest.
I think of Spring as an opportunity to tend to your personal gardens as well. What is your personal garden? Your personal garden is you, your physical body, your inner world, your feelings and thoughts, your dreams and desire. Simply put, your personal garden is your life. And doesn’t your life deserve to be thought of? Planned for? Cared for? Nurtured? And don’t you deserve to grow and harvest the blooms of your life?
What women often tend to do is tend to other people’s gardens, compare their gardens, put down their gardens, and sometimes down right neglect their garden. It’s what we’re trained to do; to focus on what’s outside of ourselves rather than to focus ON ourselves.
When you have spent the winter months moving slowly, wanting to lay low and not do a lot, not having a lot of momentum or energy, Spring then presents you with an opportunity to come alive, to Spring forward, to start planning for what you’d like to create for yourself. What you’d like to grow and harvest.
What does WILD Art have to do with Springing Forward?
WILD art is art making without thought, without focus on outcome. It’s a process of letting go, being mindful, and trusting yourself and the process. It has nothing to do with art experience, training, or ability. It’s a process that helps you connect more deeply with yourself that offers you information about your inner world and experience, and how to externalize that and manifest it into your life.
When you sit in front of a blank page, you are invited to see every possibility of what you can create, what you can bring to life. It parallels the newness of Spring and all the possibilities it offers us. WILD Art can help you get excited about what you want to grow and help you tap into your deepest inner knowing and build trust and confidence.
How to Spring Forward and Into Action
Use the momentum of the Spring season. Spring is about new life energy. Feel yourself coming to life as Spring moves in. Notice the new growth around you and use mother nature herself to inspire and motivate you. Notice what fresh “seeds” are starting to sprout. What are the seeds you’re sprouting? Get excited about all of the growth possibilities!
Plant your life garden. Now is the time to plant your personal life garden. What do you want your garden to look like? What do you want to grow? What would you like to harvest? The sky is the limit! Allow yourself to feel the infinite possibilities of a fresh garden. Take some time to set some intention about what you want the next year to look like and then plant away!
Care for it with love. In order for your garden to grow and thrive, you need to care for it with love and nurturance. Once you’ve set your intentions about your life, once you’ve decided what seeds you want to plant and grow, it’s time for action. It’s time to commit to creating space for the care of your garden and putting in the effort it takes to get things to grow. You have to tend to yourself, to your hopes, your dreams, with love and care.
WILD Woman Art Tip
Materials needed:
Watercolor or acrylic paint
Watercolor paper or mixed media paper
Close your eyes. Connect to Spring new life energy. Envision your favorite flower.
Paint an image of the flower. All you need to do to start is paint one line.
Remember, it does not matter what the flower ends up looking like, it’s about your expression of the flower. Don’t judge your art.
See yourself as the flower. Imagine the watering, fertilizing, and care you need to help your garden grow.
Journal prompt: What will it take for me to commit to my personal life garden? What would I like to watch grow?
Taking charge of your life by making active, conscious decisions about what you want for yourself, by having a vision of where you want to be, and then taking the action steps through care and nurturance is a way of getting your personal life garden to look exactly the way you want.
Myriam Martinez is a Women's Mental Wellbeing Coach, Creativity Mentor, Art Therapist, and stick figure artist based out of Northern California. She gently guides women to embrace their Woman-ity© and love themselves fiercely through the power of the creative process. Her calling in this life is to teach women the power and importance of putting themselves first, loving themselves fiercely, and tapping into their creativity in order to bring more happiness, success, and ease into their lives.
To learn more about Myriam click here: https://www.myriammartinezcoaching.com/
mental health for women, art, midlife, creativity, confidence, self-doubt, imposter syndrome, life coach