02. The Energy of Each Season & How to Embrace It to be More Creative Today!

 Okay, this is really exciting for me, but, you know what, this is my first real episode, and You got the nerves, you know, it's kind of, um, exciting, but also potentially traumatizing. I guess we'll find out. It's like, um, if you're one of those people who gets really hyped on public speaking, but you still get the tummy, , clenching feelings.

It's probably like that a little bit. So, all right, let's dive in. So for this first real episode of the Dream Season, I wanted to talk to you guys about, The energies of each season and what, , themes, energy, elements, experiences, uh, vibes, colors, activities, emotions, imagery, and just overall creativity exists within each season.

And I also wanted to give an overview of what I mean when I say season. So, of course, I mean. Winter, spring, summer, fall, or autumn, but I also mean the season of your life or the season of your business, or if you menstruate the season you're in, in the month, or, , the season of the day, even because it can change throughout the day.

We start the day, , with one side, one kind of energy and we end the day with a different kind of energy. So, um, each of these. kind of elements of time, these small pieces of time, or large pieces of time, are seasons. And they all have different vibes to them. So, let's talk about first why this podcast is called The Dream Season.

I asked so many people what they thought about this title before I went with it, and I will say 60% of people that I asked about this,, title told me the name, the dream season is maybe kind of too slow or too soft, not active enough to inspire action.

And. And it really made me think about it and say, is that the right title? Do I want a podcast that tells people to not take action? And that's not what this podcast is about. But in the end, I decided this is the right name for the podcast, at least for this season of its life. And there's a reason why.

So let me tell you what that is. So first of all, each season to me has , an overall theme and winter is the dream season. So we start our year in winter, uh, here in the Northern Hemisphere anyway. And so we start our year in the dream season. And then in spring we have the magic season. And summer we have the grow season.

And fall we have the flow season. And especially for us creatives and creative entrepreneurs. I feel like a lot of us have really embraced that hustle culture and me as a Capricorn, I have over embraced it for many years and, , now I have to stop because it's too much. And for the past few years, few years, I've been looking at ways that I can reclaim the alignment that I need to really be creative and to get things done.

In a way that is not making them take longer because I'm burning myself out and making them less enjoyable, too. So, the name of this podcast, The Dream Season, is called The Dream Season because I want you to remember that it doesn't matter how much you have to do today. It doesn't matter how much you have to do this week.

It doesn't matter how much you have to do this week. It doesn't matter how much you have on your plate. You need to remember that we all need to spend time in the dream season. We can't spend all of our time in the magic season or the flow season. And that's a reminder that I want everybody to have daily.

At least weekly, when this podcast is coming out. So, let's talk about, , we'll start with winter, and I'll tell you about What it means to be in the dream season, then we'll go into spring, summer, and autumn. So let's talk about the themes. So winter is a season of introspection, stillness, perseverance, and then of course, death and rebirth.

And that doesn't mean physical death necessarily. It means change.

, And that is why I call it the dream season, because we need to be introspective sometimes. We need to give our bodies and our minds and our spirits time to... Come inward and and be still. We need to have the energy of calmness and thoughtfulness and determination that gets us through these hard winters, but reminds us that there is no harvesting to do in the winter.

There is no planting to do in the winter. We need to take a break. We are supposed to hibernate metaphorically. And there are some elements of winter that I want you to keep in mind because they can help you Really connect to the season. So think about elements of snow, ice, cold, wind, and bare trees, and think about how that could relate to your creativity or your creative business.

And then think about the experiences of sledding and snowball fights and skiing and curling up by the fireplace and the holidays and just coziness. How can you bring that into your business, into your creative pursuits? How can you make your passion projects feel like curling up by the fireplace every now and then?

Because everything we do needs to have that, that period of rest. As for Winter's creativity, it is a conceptual creativity. It's visionary and experimental. It's not active in the way that we are putting pen to paper or paintbrush to canvas or, uh, finger to keyboard. It is that, again, n word stillness, that conceptualness of being someone who envisions what's to come.

And then we have vibes of gentleness, being, going inward, and uh, hygge, which I hope I pronounced right, because I've only actually seen it. It's spelled out phonetically, and I've heard everybody else say Higgie, and I've also heard that it's not pronounced Higgie, so I'm going to go with Hooga.

And then when we have winter colors, think about sparkling whites, icy blues, and rich jewel tones. And how can you bring those colors into your life during the dream season to really align better with the season so that you can get better? You could get more into that calm, thoughtful, determined energy of the dream season.

We also have calm, peaceful, thoughtful, and focused emotions. It's a slow season. It's not a fast paced season. These emotions are emotions that you need to tap into every now and then so that you can effectively embrace the dream season. And I'll leave you with a little bit of imagery for the dream season.

Think about snow falling, think about fireplaces, think about evergreen trees, and candles that all smell like holiday heaven or, well, pumpkin spice. I will burn that one all through January, even though it is the October one. Okay, let's talk about spring now. Spring is what I consider to be the magic season.

It has themes of renewal, rebirth, fresh starts, youth, fatality, hope, and new life, and This is the season that I feel has the most forward momentum energy. Um, you may hear my cat in the background, she can't read. I put the podcast recording sign on the door and she doesn't read , so she's still yelling at me because she wants to come in, but we're going to ignore her for now.

And just talk about, uh, the magic season. So spring is the magic season, and as I said, this is the season that I believe has the most forward momentum. And what do I mean by that? I mean that you've been hibernating, , all winter, and now as the snowdrops start, and crocuses start pushing up through the ground.

As the camellias start blooming, this is when we begin to feel renewed ourselves. This is when we start to feel that energy that kind of dissipated during the summer or the winter. This is when we feel that energy return to us. And with it comes fresh ideas, it brings excitement for a new year with it.

And this is when we get a lot of our really good ideas. This is when we get the magic, the magic that brings the fresh ideas and the, the desire to just really dive into a project and, and go at it full force that comes in spring, and that's really exciting. So, when you think about how do you use the spring, think about energies of renewal, liveliness, restlessness even, and optimism.

As the weather starts warming up, as the snow starts melting, we start to feel restless to get back and enjoy life again. We feel optimism for the warm weather approaching, and that translates and kind of winds its way into our. Our inner lives, our, , our emotions and our own energy, it's, it's really kind of phenomenal how it happens and how, how clear cut it is.

You know, it seems like sometimes, , we go from the kind of, I feel, I mean, personally, I feel drab in winter a lot of days. Uh, I'm not. I'm not a big cold person. I am always freezing even, even when the ambient temperature is like 72 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm still cold most days. So in winter it's I just want to like curl up in bed and never get out of it, but there comes like the one day and as spring starts approaching Where you have that first kind of bright crisp snap and it doesn't feel warm exactly But it feels like the potential for warmness is there and that day It's like a light bulb of just turning on and my energy goes from zero to like a hundred.

And I bet that's probably true for you too. I bet you can think about that and remember times that that has happened for you too. So think about elements of new growth, rain, flowers blooming, mild weather, and sunshine. All of these things spark our creativity. How many of you just love to have the window open when it's raining or thunderstorming and just listen to the rain as you work or read a book or something like that?

It's, it's just so invigorating. You know that the rain is bringing, , water that the plants need to start growing again, and it's like it waters you too, doesn't it? Think about experiences of planting gardens, spring cleaning, celebrating Easter or, , Ostara, perhaps, rain showers, and all the animals having their little cute babies.

How many cute babies are born in the spring? So many fuzzy lambs and chickens and things like that. All of this new life, and new life to your creative projects, new life to your business, , that spark to jump back in and start working again after a long winter. Your creativity in the spring will explorative.

And colorful. All things that just jumpstart creativity. Think about colors of pastels, bright primary colors, green, yellow, and pink, and see how you can incorporate those into your environment during the spring so that you can really align better with it. There's activities like gardening, hiking, spring cleaning, and Easter egg hunts.

And you have emotions like hopefulness, optimism, cheerfulness, and sentimentality, which

And finally, images, imagery of baby animals, flowers blooming, rain showers, and umbrellas. And perhaps an image of yourself just working away at a passion project that you were really excited, excited to finish. Okay, let's move into summer. So summer is the growth season. And what does that mean? It means that You've gone through your introspective winter and done your dreaming.

You've had the magic of the spring to get you started. And by the time summer comes, things are growing. You're starting to see progress, but there's actually not a lot to do in the summer. You just keep things watered and scorched by the sun in my case anyway, because it gets really hot down here.

There's no planting to do. There is perhaps some weeding, but the summer is a time for relaxing. It's kind of the opposite of spring. I mean, they're opposite on the wheel of the year in that it's warm versus cold, but it's also the same in that they're both times to slow down. Summer is slightly more active than winter because you're keeping things going, but you're not really starting anything new.

We've got themes of adventure, fun, nostalgia, childhood, relaxation, and happiness, and just having a really great life. Just the theme of life in general, the life of your passion project, the life of your business. And if you are a writer, this is the point where you just You've really started going really well on your book, and now we're just coasting along.

But you're also taking your summer Fridays to relax, and You're not overextending yourself. That's so important for summer. Um, people push themselves too hard in summer. It's one of those seasons that kind of intuitively you want to play, but at the same time, off school, if you're a teacher, you're off work.

And you might think this is the only time I have to, to really get forward momentum going on whatever project I'm working on. But that's not the case because It's the season when your body wants to play, and you should allow that play to happen. It has that energy of playfulness, and energy of adventurousness, and of being laid back.

And those are energies that you need to embrace, because if you don't, that's when overwhelm starts to occur, and then you start wearing yourself out for the whole year. It also has elements of heat, sunshine, fire, water. Vacations are holidays, and no school, and if you're a parent like me, summer may be really the opposite of relaxing.

So I have a, uh, she'll be 5 in 12 days, and she just started kindergarten this year, so this past summer, I... I tried to make up for my mistake the previous summer by making sure she had a summer camp to go to every week. And I thought, this is going to keep her entertained, this is going to keep her from, like, just laying on the couch watching Gabby's Dollhouse every single day.

But what it turned into, actually, was all of us just being exhausted because we were running her to basically a three hour play date. in a different place every week, and she enjoyed them, but it was a lot of work for everybody. And I probably should have slowed down more and let her have more, more freedom, but I had worried because the previous summer when she was three going on four, I'd only put her in like two things over the summer and she was so bored.

So finding that balance during summer is important because we all need to keep growing, but we don't start a lot of new things. So, keep that in mind. We want to have experiences during the summer, like beach days, camping, amusement parks, summer camp, road trips, and hiking. Being outside in nature and enjoying the things that have grown during the spring, and enjoying the seeds that we planted, and everything coming into existence that we created from our imaginations in the winter.

We have creative... We have creativity, oh, we have creativity, um, vibes like imaginative. We have creativity in the form of imaginative creativity, inventive creativity, and being flexible. This is the kind of creativity and work style that you need to lean into during the summer. Be imaginative. Be inventive.

Be flexible. Be flexible. And, Make sure that you're taking your summer Fridays. We have vibes like childlike joy and not having any boundaries. It's really exciting. Colors, uh, that are bright, fiery, neon, watery blues and greens. And we do activities like swimming, camping, amusement parks, and going on vacations.

Then we have emotions like being carefree, being playful, being relaxed, and being nostalgic. And how can you bring those emotions into Your self, your day to day during the summer, and then think of imagery like beaches, sailboats, fireworks, road trips, and nature. Keeping those images around you will help you align better to summer energy.

And then finally, we have fall or autumn, which is the flow season, and anybody who's ever done NaNoWriMo knows that this is the one time a year when the words seem to just come out of you like magic, and that's because this is the flow season. And while we have themes of change, letting go, coziness, preparation, aging, and the latter parts of life, We have energy that's focused, productive, and nostalgic, and all of those things come together to bring us to the flow state more easily.

Something about that coziness of, like, crunching leaves and a little bit of chill in the air. Again, like, summer being the opposite and the inverse of winter. Fall is the same with, with spring. Spring is the magic season when your forward momentum really takes off. And fall is the season when all that growing and magic that you did earlier in the year comes together into flow, and you're able to really finish projects.

This is a great time for finishing things up before we go back into our dream season. So think about elements like changing leaves, cool air, , harvest, and early dusk, like My favorite word, gloaming, which is such a beautiful time of day, and it's really beautiful in the fall when the sky gets so dark, that navy blue and purple earlier in the day, and everybody's awake to kind of witness this.

It's a cozy feeling. And we have experiences like leaf peeping, apple and pumpkin picking, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and cozy sweaters. And jumping in leaves and unfortunately raking leaves, which brings out creativity in us like reflectiveness and expressiveness and introspectiveness, just like, uh, in the dream season.

So we need to start finalizing things before we head into that dream season. And the earliest parts of it will start filtering into us in the autumn. We have cozy, pensive, and preparatory vibes. And we have colors like reds, oranges, yellows, and earth tones. And bringing these vibes into your environment will help you embrace this fall season.

And focusing on being expressive and introspective and flowy during the autumn will help you embrace the fall season's energy too. Then try to enjoy some activities like apple picking and going to fall festivals, baking, and hiking. And lean into the emotions of coziness and being wistful, sentimental, and introspective.

All of these things will help bring out your creativity, and that helps bring out the flow. And we have imagery of leaves changing, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and cozy sweaters. And here in the U. S. anyway, pumpkin spice lattes. So... All of these things come together, help you bring the flow to you. And so fall is coming up as I'm recording this.

It's August 18th and we've got about a one month left of summer. After that, we're going to be right in the fall. We're going to see pumpkin spice lattes everywhere. And we're going to see pumpkin patches opening up, even though it's still blistering hot down, down here. But people already start feeling that, that energy, the energy just comes.

It's like when you start seeing. Um, the holiday decorations up in grocery stores and the Home Depot two months before the holiday comes, it's just this collective consciousness of energy that brings us all kind of together as a community and I want you guys to all think about how we can embrace that better, how we can connect better with our communities and ourselves and the community.

The energy of fall, the energy of summer, the energy of spring, the energy of winter. How can you grow for the remainder of the summer? How can you prepare to flow for the autumn? What will you be dreaming about in winter? And what kind of magic are you going to make in the spring? So these are all different ways that we can look at the energy of the year, the energy of a month, the energy of a day, a week.

We're going to go through these highs and lows, not sad or happy highs and lows, but highs and lows of energy. And the point of this podcast is to remind you to Work with that energy, not against it. Do not try to force yourself to plant in summer. Do not try to force yourself to flow in winter. There will be days when you have those energies, but it's not gonna be the majority of those days in each of these seasons.

And this, knowing this allows you to plan your year so that you can get what you want to get done, done. Without burning yourself out and after what are we up to 10 years of girl boss and and hustle and all of that I mean how many of us have just I mean I have a Cruella DeVille streak of gray hair right now That is in one spot of my hair and how much is that from hustling?

It's 100% from hustling and And motherhood, of course, too, but we all need to say, I'm done hustling. I am anti hustle. There are seasons for me to get a lot done. And when it is that season, this will come naturally to me. When it is spring, the magic will come. When it is autumn, the flow will come. And there will be days in summer and winter when I have those energies.

But it may not be the whole day. It may be for an hour. And it is okay to say, I am not doing that right now. It is the wrong time for that. So, I'm going to leave you guys with something that I think we should all be doing more of. And that's showing gratitude. So, I'm going to tell you one thing I'm grateful for this week.

And that is that my daughter is loving kindergarten. And she is so happy to go to school every day. And I am grateful. that she is enjoying learning. So what are you grateful for today? And what is one thing you can do to embrace the season that we are in right now so that you can better exhibit your creativity without destroying it by burning yourself out?