Spring May Cause Depression

Last year I posted to instagram that spring may cause depression. According to Ayurvedic wisdom, springtime is governed by the earth and water elements, so it’s a time of great turnover and churning, but it's also very heavy and slow-moving.

What has this got to do with depression, you ask? Think on this for a moment, especially you Canadians or friends in cold climates like Sweden or Minnesota … what does everyone talk about right now? What are they looking forward to? Summer. Where I live, summer is a few months, many rainstorms, and lots of muddy dog paw cleanups from now.

Everyone pitches forward to this season that is months away, which demonstrates an inability to be with what is happening right now, with contentment. It’s seeing your wellness or happiness in the future beyond the moment that needs to be endured. The question of present moment assessment asks what do you need to be OK in springtime? Ayurveda recommends balancing the cumulative moisture and heaviness through warming, strong practices, connecting with friends, and drying herbs.

This season of earth and water affects us all, but aggravates those of us with earth and water in our embodiment - those of us who find it easy to "stick" (since earth and water make mud, which is sticky!). Sticky people have good memories, difficult times letting go of stuff (get Marie Kondo in there!), and are excellent friends.

This stickiness can cause earthy people to hang on for too long. (I resemble this quality.) Sometimes we're trying to figure out how we can make a difficult situation more bearable, rather than making the situation change. Especially if we've been on the path long enough, we know that we're capable of change, so we just keep sticking it out in the hopes that we'll hone our strategy or the thing will change in itself.

Learning to let go is a difficult practice, but I find it is one where we have to look outside ourselves. Ask yourself, "what would you advise a loved-one to do?" If you know that you would tell a loved-one they were spending too much precious time and energy on a situation that was not supportive and was unlikely to become so, you know it's time for you to make a break.

Much as this time of year can aggravate our stickiness, it's a terrific time of year to do some goal-setting. Since spring's stickiness can cause some resistance and depression, it's best to give strong parameters to what we're going to do in spring.

If you know me in my local yoga and meditation community, you know that I've made some big changes. I've pared down my public classes dramatically, and will be the first to let you know when I've decided on what's next. Changes are not easy, but as one of my teachers once said so appropriately, "stick around when the pros outweigh the cons, and if that changes, re-evaluate".

This springtime is my time for evaluating and re-directing. It's churning, it's difficult, it's muddy, but like spring, I suspect it will give way to beautiful growth when my energy is put toward building something rather than holding on.