Sometimes we find ourselves in a place where things feel heavy. Our hearts are more anxious, thoughts, a little more full of worry, and we wish it were possible to truly just breathe of fresh air to soak up more peace and more joy for everyday living. But the thing is, that actually is possible. We can do just that in honor and celebration of the welcoming of the season of spring. Let us take a moment to feel more refreshed, more alive, and well again, sharing with you the ingredients to your spring refresh to get back to the self you once were and feel more alive.

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The Only Spring Refresh You Need to Feel More Alive and Well Again

I am a big fan of new seasons and fresh starts. Especially when it comes to spring, which is the season focused on renewal, rebirth, and life. I am declaring all of these things for us as we head into this spring season of the year. The season where we anticipate more daylight, sunshine, and more warmth. The season that brings more fun living outdoors, and just more feelings of freedom and joy. Spring, turning to summer and all the lovely things that sunshine brings. A glimpse of there are going to be brighter days ahead. Days full of more warmth, joy, and sunshine. Good things are coming! 

 

In Honor of All Things Spring

In honor of all of those things, I am so excited to bring you the essential components needed for a complete spring refresh. Often times, when thinking of a spring refresh, the focus is placed on our wardrobe, or home decor. Or the focus turns to decluttering and cleaning out our home to make room for a new season. Any chance to start fresh and begin anew again.

Or maybe a spring refresh makes us think of our outdoor area or the plants that need tending too. Or the aromas we want to soak up this season. A spring refresh can mean so many different things, except we often tend to forget about our actual selves. We don’t really focus on the the work that we need to do on the inside to actually live out each day in a direction where we can be proud of.  A place where we can feel like confident that we are living in our best day. 

 

The Essentials to Your Spring Refresh – How to Live as Your Best Self This Spring

 

I love the concept of a refresh and I love the concept of a renewal. When I think of something being refreshed I think of a boost. A fresh start. I think of the simple act of your computer. When the computer is running a little slow and the browsers are getting a little weary,  you close everything out, right click on your home screen and click refresh.

This is the exact refresh I envision for us all this spring. Literally, take a moment to refresh and reboot yourself. All to feel like you can work at full speed again. That’s what we need. We need a refresh. Our bodies need a refresh, as well as our mind and our hearts. 

 

Practical and Encouraging Tips to Embrace the Season of Spring

 

The whole intention for this message today is to give you practical and encouraging tips in order to embrace this new season of spring. In order to feel refreshed and more alive and well again. So that you can start feeling these things right now. To allow you to move through the next few months and reach sweet summertime in a place of contentment and peace. All before life moves even faster as we cruise through the crazy second half of the year.

Envision a place where you are doing the things you need to do in order to truly take care of yourself. That’s a good thing and a really great position to be in. You deserve to be in that position! So a personal refresh. When I think of a personal refresh, I think of really, truly a conversation you have with yourself to hit that reset button, to take a deep breath and allow it.

 

Cling to Life and Joy 

Bring life over your entire being, that you would feel hope and that you would feel joy, and that you would feel excitement. That you would be truly re-energized and find more joy in the things than ever before. More hope than ever before. And that this refresh would truly allow you to wake up each day feeling that even through the hard things that will test and challenge me, even through those moments, I am eager and willing to embrace it all head on exactly what it is that I am capable of.

 

Five Essential Steps to A Complete Spring Refresh 

 

In order to live as a better version of yourself this season, I have five specific things to focus on. Five essential components for a spring refresh. All for you to really give yourself the reset that your body needs to be more alive and more well. Within each of these items on this spring refresh, you have the ability to take what you want from it. There might be one thing you think of instantly when you read through these essentials for your spring refresh. Whatever that first thought is, that’s what you should go with. While there might be another that might be a little bit more challenging to pinpoint as what is needed. Either way these five things are essential to taking care of you. 

 

The Importance of Taking Care of You

 

Regardless, use this as actual encouragement to put the priority on taking care of you. And don’t feel bad about that. Don’t feel bad about putting your needs first. There’s a lot of conversation out there. There’s a lot of talk about how it’s selfish for you as a human to focus on you. But the reality is you have to do the things your body needs and your heart need and your spirit needs.

It is important for you to do that stuff because if you don’t, you are going to pour out for everyone else around you in a deficit. Unfortunately, that will be detrimental to everybody else. For me personally, I have noticed a very, very drastic difference in where my heart is and when I am doing the things that I know I need to do for me to be.

 

Prioritize Wellness This Spring

 

Therefore, make your wellness a priority this season. When I am actually making an effort to exercise and try to be more mindful of what I’m eating. Followed by the times where I prioritize getting sleep. When I’m actually doing theses things, I feel more confident in my role as a mother, as well as my role as a wife and teacher. 

When I take care of myself I can be more encouraging. Additionally, I find myself more purposeful in the classroom. This is something that I’ve learned a lot recently. Truly, it is a world of difference when I’ve actually emphasized to myself to take care of me. I can actually see a really clear difference in how that pours out on everybody else around me.

So truly take a moment, do a spring refresh, and put the priority and the emphasis back on taking care of you. Taking care of the core needs that you have. All so that you and everyone else that you interact with can be better off for it. It is absolutely possible to do just that, especially with these five essential steps to your spring refresh. 

 

The #1 Step to Your Spring Refresh – Listen to Your Body 

 

The very first thing essential to a spring refresh is to listen to your body. It is so incredibly important to take the time to actually listen to your body and listen to yourself. What is it that your body is telling you that you need? Take the time to be more in tune with who you are and where you are. Quiet the distractions. Sit with the uncomfortable for a moment to figure out what it is that is causing the discomfort, and then once you figure it out, adjust. This is so important.

 

Our bodies talk to us all the time. They tell us what’s going on. They tell us when we need something or when we need less of something. Therefore, take the time to listen to your body. About two weeks ago, I felt as if my body was telling me that I needed to run. I needed to move my body outside, and I needed to put the priority back on movement.

 

Listen to Your Inner Voice 

 

And I kind of ignored the voice for a few days, but the voice kept getting louder. It was as if literally the bones of my body were telling me this. Finally, the internal motivation became so overwhelming. I went home from school one day, stopped by the house, grabbed the jogging stroller, and changed into running clothes. Picked up my son from daycare, and went straight to the park and we ran. It was a short run, maybe 20 minutes, but it was revitalizing. In that moment, I realized just how much I needed that. I needed to run so I could think more clearly. Additionally, I needed that so I could feel more like my best self.

For so much of my life since I was a freshman in high school. All the way through college and through majority of my years as a teacher, I have been surrounded by running. There is a very large percentage of my life that has always been filled with routine exercise, specifically running and time spent outside and in nature.

Recently, my body was screaming to find that time again and find that movement again. So I did it, and since I went on that first run, I have run six more times and it is changing things within me, and it’s good. Yes it is challenging. Of course it is hard. And absolutely it hurts. However, it is what I need and I know that it is a key step into allowing myself to have the spring refresh that I need to be more in tune with who I am at the very core.

 

Listen to Your Body and Listen to Yourself 

 

Simple encouragement for you to listen to your body and listen to yourself. And if there is something that you know deep down that you need, but you are ignoring it because it’s difficult. Or you don’t think you have the time. Maybe you’re not sure what it’s gonna look like. Either way, find a way and you’ll be better off for it. Complete your ultimate spring refresh by listening to your body and listening to yourself, trust me, you will be so happy for it! 

 

#2 – Nourish Yourself Properly 

 

The second essential component to your spring refresh is to nourish yourself properly. Properly nourish your body.  Focus on hydration. Work on incorporating more greens within what you eat in a day. Try to incorporate more smoothies. Smoothies are fantastic to add in your daily dose of spinach, chia seeds and Greek yogurt, combined with your favorite frozen fruit and protein powder. 

There are so many fun things you can pack into a smoothie. And of course my biggest challenge is just taking the time to make the smoothie, but that is something every single week I’m am working on within my planner among my routines and habits. Every week I focus on trying to make it a habit to incorporate a smoothie a day. 

 

Nourish Yourself This Spring 

 

A great way to nourish yourself is by swapping the extra coffee for more water. Nourish yourself properly, hydrate, do the things you need to do. The reality is we feel better for it when we put the right fuel in our body. By fueling ourselves properly it makes more parts of us come alive. It allows us to have more energy. To be more optimal in our thinking throughout the day and our decision making. Proper nourishment really truly allows us to be in a place where we can be the best for ourself and everyone else around us.

 

Your Spring Refresh #3 – Be Still. 

 

The third essential component to your ultimate spring refresh is to be still.  This is so important for a spring refresh. Don’t fill your day with all the things. Don’t always feel as if you have to go and go and go and do and do and win a prize for having the most complicated, busy schedule. Be still. Focus on moments of quiet and stillness.

 

Spend More Time Connected 

 

Spend more time together as a family. And so I encourage you to do that too. Be still more, sit in the stillness more. Do not feel as if you have to always be in a race to accomplish all the things and to see all the things, and to do all the things. Truly focus more on that stillness.

 

#4 – Remove the Expectation

 

The fourth way to really give yourself the only spring refresh you need to be able to feel more alive and well again is to remove the expectation. Remove the expectation. Get rid of the pressure. Stop thinking things need to be perfect. Remove the added expectation of what you think things should look like or how you think things should feel.

Instead, simply be and show up in that moment. Be honest with yourself. Be okay with just letting things happen as they are. There is so much goodness in store when we take away that added weight. Usually, when we find ourselves full of disappointment, it’s because we created an expectation that didn’t happen, and therefore, based on that false expectation, we now are disappointed. Therefore, remove the expectations. 

 

 

Remove the Expectations and Feel More Life 

 

I know for me, I always try to think that I can get way more accomplished in a time period. Or, I think I can get to an event or an appointment way faster than I really truly can. If I actually think through the time it takes to drive places, then I would realize that I am setting myself up for a crazy, unrealistic expectation. Yet, I’m always doing this. 

My intentions are always pure. However, I have these crazy, unrealistic expectations. When I live in a place of crazy and unrealistic expectations the consequences are always the same. Being disappointed, full of more stress, more overwhelm. I get consumed with more anxiety, because it’s always like I’m trying to play catch up. Therefore, get rid of the expectation, remove it, and instead just focus on simply showing up in the moment as you are. That in itself will give you so much more life and more good feelings will reside within you.

 

Your Complete Spring Refresh #5 – Be Intentional With Your Thoughts 

 

Finally, the fifth essential element to your complete spring refresh is to be intentional with how you talk to yourself and how you think about yourself. Focus on cultivating uplifting encouragement that starts from your heart. Allow the things you think about and the things you say, and the conversations you have about yourself, allow them to be affirming. Make sure they are calling out the best of you. Giving you a solid ground to stand on. So that you can continue focusing on the good things. It’s easy to think poorly about ourselves. It’s easy to play pity parties when we take a circumstance, or a stressful situation, or a feeling of not being understood and not being appreciated, and allow those feelings to impact what we think about who we are.

 

When we take the hard moments and allow those to impact our view of our true worth. Be mindful of just. And mindful of how you are thinking for yourself. Truly, focus on creating a more encouraging environment for your thoughts. Be intentional with those moments and the words you speak and the things you say about who you are because they have the ability to give life or to destroy it. Why not use your thoughts to give life to you and everyone around you and to instead call out the goodness within you and think about yourself in that way. 

 

Spring Refresh Bonus Tip – Don’t try and do everything right 

 

Finally, an extra bonus for this spring refresh. Don’t try and do everything right. Stop trying to do it all. Be careful when you sit down and plan your week ahead to not create every ambitious plan of how you are going to perfectly do it all. Don’t try and do everything right because you won’t be able to do it right. You’re not going to, unless you have a hundred percent of your time devoted to being able to do just those things. Instead, focus on trying to do one thing really well and make that your intention. Make that your focus.

 

Focus One Thing At A Time 

 

Focus on one thing, one week at a time. Establish one thing as your weekly intention to allow you to live in this spring refresh. Whether your intention is to focus on listening to yourself or nourishing your body properly. Maybe your weekly intention includes finding more moments in the day to be still. Focus in on trying to do one thing really well. And then as you move on and as it becomes more second nature, then focus on adding something else. Simply, take it week by week, or day by day even. Starting with what is it that you know you need the most in this moment.

 

Feel Encouraged This Spring

 

I am fully believing that these five ways can truly bring you the spring refresh that you need. Believing that there is so much for you to gain when you can truly live from a place of a spring refresh. Therefore, slow things down, and listen to yourself. Take the time to listen to your body, and adjust based on what you do each day. According to what yourself is telling you to focus on. Properly nourish yourself in order to fuel yourself correctly. Practice being more still and not always feeling like you need to constantly be on the go. Embrace the stillness and rest in it.

Finally, remove the expectation and be intentional with how you talk to yourself and think about yourself. I’m excited for you as we welcome in this brand new season of spring and really believing that there’s a lot of good things in store for. It’s all there right within your reach and you are gonna have a great day. This week is going to be a game changer for you as you truly take the time to give yourself the refresh that you need so that you can thrive. And that you will feel more alive and well again.