In the inner spring, pre-ovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle, you get an opportunity to start afresh. Particularly if you’ve been able to get some good menstrual rest, you resurface in the world innocent and pure, a clean slate. Everything is possible once again: the old skin has been shed; you’re born anew and free to re-choose your life.
Today’s article is an ode to the beauty of inner spring, and is a companion to today’s podcast episode which is all about the most common challenges that pre-ovulation can bring. So, whether you love this cycle phase, or it’s your nemesis, we hope that our offerings help you to gain new insight about what inner spring can teach you about how to step more into your power.
There’s lots to love about inner spring. It can awaken a sense of being footloose and fancy-free, especially if you feel cloaked in the love and affirmation you received at menstruation. One of my (Sjanie) clues that I'm entering my inner spring is a natural sense of rising affirmation, which is the first of our five reasons to love this season:
One: Rising affirmation
The feeling of rising affirmation is central to the pre-ovulatory cycle phase. A deep inner yes, the possibility of hope, a renewed sense of dignity. While it’s great to be inspired and motivated by others, it’s sublime to discover that you have a natural motivator within. This is one of the great gifts of the preovulatory time. All your deepest desires and longings are rolled out from the winter into the spring, laced in natural motivation. There’s a rise in desire and an increasing appetite to make real the ideas and visions you receive at menstruation. It’s as if those visions come with their own built-in jetpack and enough fuel to land them in the world.
Two: Lightness and optimism
Inner spring can be a very sweet time, filled with a sense of lightness. If I have bled well, I feel quite unencumbered in this season, liberated, free, playful and willing to just try things out. ‘Willing’ is a good word for the season, and also there's a lovely excitable energy. So, even as you may feel vulnerable coming out of menstruation, this rising new life can help you to bring a positivity and openness to the vulnerable parts of you. Cynicism is likely to sneak in in the inner autumn, but for now, you can often tap into a natural optimism and lightness of being.
Three: Natural enthusiasm and focus The first half of the cycle is a rising current of natural motivation, focus, and enthusiasm to recommit to your life activities. The inner ‘lights’ are dimming more and the outer ‘lights’ are increasingly becoming stronger and brighter. This rising inner spring energy can be quite intoxicating and it requires skill and practice to be able to hold this energy as it comes through. I (Alexandra) found it helpful to have something and somewhere to direct this energy towards, which would wake up a natural sense of focus that can arise through experimentation, inquiry, and curiosity.
Four: Innocence
There is a precious innocence at the heart of inner spring. It’s priceless, and it’s needs to be cherished and cared for. It allows you to be foolhardy, and every creative project needs a little fool-hardiness to get off the ground! So dare to take a chance, and pay no heed to the voice of reason; this need go no further than the safe confines of your imagination. It’s the ‘let’s chuck the paint at the canvas and see how it lands’ kind of energy. Allow yourself this abandon and freedom so the innocence of inner spring can be preserved.
Your inner spring is right, exactly as it is
What we’ve been describing are some of the archetypal possibilities of the cycle, however your experience of it is going to be affected by your character, your nature, your overall health, your life circumstances, and how much you are able to care for the cycle and pace it, as well as how you deal with the levels of stress in your life. It can also be connected to your life phase, the season of the year or the moon phase.
So please do not think that what we’re describing is something you have to live up to or a formula that you have to fit your cycle experience into. This article and our podcast today are in service of you unearthing the potential of your inner spring and to get more understanding about what your version of this is.
