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The Courage to Be Happy It's All in the Perception A Moment Like This The Train We Ride The Winter of Our Discontent Standing on the Edge As the Days Shorten A Moon That's the Colour of Bone An Attitude of Gratitude Belonging to Tomorrow, Missing Today
When the Weeds Take Over the Garden Practising Who You Are What We Get is What We Are Lighting A Candle The Blues of Spring The Path of Change Beating the Valentine's Day Blues A New Year, A New You 
The Blues Of Spring
Once more April is here and spring is most definitely in the air. All around us the greys, blacks and whites are giving way to the brilliant greens and yellows of daffodils, primroses and other springtime flowers. Blossoms and buds are busy announcing that winter is in the process of becoming a memory. Indeed, there is a sense that the whole world of nature is being renewed and coming alive.
Almost paradoxically, though, April is also the month that finds many people feeling blue and struggling with difficult feelings – feelings of melancholy and downheartedness. For some, as the poet said, April truly is the cruellest month*.
But what is it about April and spring that can leave so many feeling down and depressed?
Well, when the external world lacks colour and the sky is grey, as it so often is in winter, then it’s almost as though we have a justification, a rationalisation for feeling down. We have an almost tangible explanation for feeling ‘under the weather’, as it were. Yet when these depressed feelings persist inside us, and all around us we see that the whole world is coming alive and starting afresh, then we can all too easily fall even deeper into the gloom of melancholy.
It’s almost as though spring is a stark measure, a yardstick that plainly points to the distance between how we think we should feel and how we really do feel.
And this, of course, is why we have rituals such as spring-cleaning. Something inside us knows that as we clean away the cobwebs of our personal space, we are symbolically cleaning away many of our internal cobwebs, too. Indeed, giving our personal environment a thorough cleansing provides us with a sense of control and empowerment.
If you’re feeling blue or melancholy because spring is here, then there really is no need to sit back and play victim to the seasons. Here are just a couple of things that you can begin to do right away, in order to empower yourself and put your house back in order:
Focus on positive self-talk. What begins in your mind ends up in your life. Every thing you say to yourself about yourself is a message to your subconscious mind to make whatever you tell yourself come true. Put things into the positive. By monitoring self-talk and thinking continually of the way you would most like to be, your reality will reliably fall in line. Listen to your feelings. When you feel doubt, or fear, or anger, or frustration, or sadness, listen to what the feeling is trying to tell you. Once you’ve identified the cause of the feeling, do something about it. Denying it or attempting to distract yourself from it by overeating, drinking, popping pills or any number of other self-defeating strategies simply won’t help for long because sooner or later the feeling will return with a vengeance, leaving you as uncomfortable as ever. Learn a new skill or develop a fresh interest. Learn self-hypnosis or meditation; begin a regular exercise regime – walking, or taking up a sport, or perhaps joining a gym and making sure you stick with it; challenge yourself to learn something new, whether by attending a course at your local college of perhaps joining an internet group of others whose interests you share.No-one was born to feel bad about themselves or about their life. Each and every one of us has the power to become what we were born to be – a whole person, a positive person, a person who feels good about him or herself, a human being who appreciates the gift of life and isn’t afraid to express and enjoy it.
I hope you will keep your life focused on your most treasured dreams and brilliant possibilities. And who knows, maybe we’ll meet – in my office or out somewhere looking at those wonderful blossoms.
Until next month, I wish you the very best as you step forward into your own personal spring.
* T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
Copyright © 2008 Peter Field - All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any form is prohibited
Reproduction in any form is prohibited
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