The Minnesota Moment That Changes Everything (And What Ayurveda Says About It)
How spring energy, ancient wisdom, and a burned CD from high school all point to the same truth
There's a specific moment every Minnesota springtime when something shifts.
The air changes. The light changes. And after months of gray, you suddenly remember what it feels like to be alive again.
That moment is here. Or at least I'm willing it to be.
The Burned CD Era and Why It Still Matters
If you're of a certain age, you remember making burned CDs. Carefully curating the perfect playlist, writing the tracklist on the disc in Sharpie, and popping it into the car stereo like it was a sacred ritual.
One of my core memories from high school is driving to the softball field for practice, windows down, blasting Sunshine Day by The Brady Bunch on my spring vibes CD. Singing at the top of my lungs. Feeling completely, effortlessly light.
That feeling the lightness, the lift, the urge to turn the volume all the way up wasn't random. It wasn't just teenage joy or a good song.
Ayurveda has a name for it.
What Ayurveda Knows About Spring Energy
In Ayurvedic philosophy, everything in nature including the air, the seasons, and your body is made up of qualities called gunas. These qualities are constantly shifting around us and within us, and they follow a simple but powerful principle:
Like increases like. And opposites heal.
Think about winter for a moment. It's heavy. Dense. Still. Cold. Stagnant. After months of that energy, your body and mind absorb it. You move less, go inward, slow down. That's natural and even necessary.
But spring arrives as the antidote.
To counteract the heavy, dense, stagnant energy of winter, we need the opposite lightness, movement, warmth, brightness. We need to put on the happy mixtape. We need to dance, shake, and move our bodies back to life.
This is something I've been teaching at both my retreat and workshop this past week, and it never gets old watching people feel it click into place.
Nature Is Already Showing You the Way
You don't have to go looking far for this shift. It's right outside your window if you're willing to slow down enough to notice.
- Do you see the sap on the tree bark?
- Watch a small bug move throughout its day
- Listen to the birds, really listen
- Observe the movement of water, a puddle, a stream, rainfall
- Feel the earth beneath your feet
These aren't small things. These are invitations from nature to come back into your body, back into the present moment, back into the season you're actually living in.
The Quietest, Most Powerful Practice
At our recent retreat, one of the most beloved activities was forest bathing simply walking in nature with no phone, no agenda, nowhere to be. Just noticing.
One woman told me afterward that she hadn't been that quiet in years.
That's the power of stopping and noticing.
If you're craving more connection to nature and to yourself, try carving out even 15–20 minutes to walk or sit outside without your phone. No content to consume. No notifications to check. Just you, the air, and whatever is alive and moving around you.
The seasons are shifting. Your body wants to shift with them.
Two Ways to Go Deeper This Season
🌲 Spend a day in the forest with a group of women If something stirred in you reading this and you want to experience forest bathing, seasonal living, and real connection in community join the waitlist for the next retreat here.
💪 Move your body with the season, not against it If you want a movement practice that honors where you are physically, energetically, and seasonally Seasonal Strength is the 12-week program I'm personally doing right now. You can find it here.
