Nature offers us such encouraging reminders of new beginnings as we watch the cold, seemingly-dead winter transform into budding, flowering, lively spring. We can work with the rising-up, new-life energies of this inspiring season to bring in the changes, flowering, and new growth we need in our own lives.

This simple ritual only takes a few minutes, but it is surprisingly powerful. Step across the threshold of change and find out how to harness the begin-again power of spring here:

1. Choose a pleasant day and find a place in nature that feels safe to you. It could be your own back yard or a nearby park: whatever feels right.

2. Now find or imagine a threshold in front of you. (If there are two trees growing fairly close together they will work beautifully, or if there is an arbor or other door-like structure in your place feel free to use that, but imagining will work just as well.)

3. Stand in front of your real or imagined threshold. Close your eyes and take a moment to really feel the seemingly endless stasis of winter, the cold, the stillness, the lack of growth or movement. Think of any situation in your life that has felt this winter-like sense of stuckness and deadness. Take a moment to honor periods of rest, pause, and stillness in your life.

4. Now imagine that your soul-season is shifting; a warm breeze is beginning to move in your life, bringing in seeds sprouting, twigs budding, leaves and flowers unfurling. Where in your life would you like to apply this new-growth energy?

5. When you are ready, take a deep breath and step through your threshold. Open your eyes and look around you. Notice any signs of new life that you can see. Really sense how the past is behind you, while in front of you lie all the promise and opportunity of spring.

6. Take a walk in your new spring landscape, noticing and appreciating all the new life that is burgeoning around you. Decide on one simple action that you can take to help to encourage new growth in your own life. When you get home, do it.

Inspired by Earth, Water, Fire, and Air, by Cait Johnson (Skylight Paths, 2003).