What If “Spring Fever” Is Not Actually A Fever At All?

Have you ever considered the concept of “spring fever?” That feeling of needing to burst out of doors, and run through fields of daisies, waving your arms heavenward? Those fresh days where a permanent, ridiculous, smile resides on your face, as you bask in the sun? Where the energy is all crackly and you feel just a little crazy? Ah, “spring fever,” a condition that plagues many of us as we welcome the newness of the pre-summer months. Wait, what if we are wrong?

What if spring fever isn’t a fever at all?

I was walking near my sister’s house in Calgary, Alberta, during a crisp, gorgeous, sunny day last week.  The air was scented with the delicate fragrance of bursting buds. As I walked, I grinned like an idiot. With a wee crocus in my hand, I got to thinking. Not thinking exactly, more like dozens of bright new ideas, similar to floating seeds off a dandelion, swirling about my consciousness – ideas about writing, concepts for the blog, solutions to longstanding problems, new recipes, and trips and adventures to take. I suddenly realized that this bubbling of ideas and thoughts were the same every spring. I looked back over the last several “spring times” and remembered moments of great creative clarity, and sense of purpose.

It is as though, for that short period on the calendar, a floodgate opens. For several weeks my creativity is so heightened I can hardly pay attention to my normal surroundings. I am thinking and creating all the time, while outside, daffodils are poking their buttery heads up through the ground, and birds are anxiously looking for a mate to start “creating” their legacy. (Yes, clever use of the word creating, foreshadowing a “nature vs. ideas” connection. Wait for it.)

During this walk, I was struck with the hypothesis that “spring fever” is legit. But, it is not the condition we thought. “Spring fever” is actually a collision of fresh ideas, and its timing is not a coincidence.

I suspected I was not alone in this experience of dense “mind-work” during the months of April, May and June. Doesn’t it just make sense? What is happening in the environment during those months? Spring is a time filled with renewed energy, new life and “creation”! It is inherently conceivable that our bodies, and brains, as part of nature, would be deeply connected participants in this process.

I hear you, naysayers! Lovely concept but there is a problem – our lives do not suddenly change during this time. We cannot drop everything, and sit on a rock, with the sun beating down on our upturned faces, postulating deep thoughts about the universe, and our purpose in the world. We still have to rise for work, get the kids to sports, and tend to our daily rituals. So then what happens to that whirling creative magma of thoughts, flowing through our brains during this very special time? Sometimes, nothing.

We ignore them, move on, without giving them credence. Or we cast them aside, as unworthy of our attention because we are late, and the bank might close before we get there. HOLD ON! If those ideas are not grasped fiercely and examined, they can slide beneath the surface of our consciousness, possibly, never to rise again. That song won’t get written, that painting not painted, that new idea for a business? – just, gone.

I have talked to other creatives, (I am convinced we are all creatives, some have just tapped into, recognized, or given creativity a place in their life more than others). They, the creatives, (i.e. writers, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, philosophers and the like) passionately agree that “springtime” is by far, their most prolific time for new ideas and unique thoughts.

So, if we acknowledge that the spring months are naturally a time of growth and newness, then we must passionately respect those ideas and thoughts that are brought forth during those moments. Do not for a second say, “That is a fantastic idea, I am going to write that down, and ponder it when I have time.” STOP just for a few seconds and write down the flow of ideas until you cannot possibly write another word. Whether it is a concept for an innovative business, an invention, or a poem, don’t analyze it, or judge it. Just explore it. Give those tiny seeds of ideas a little of your time and a lot of your respect. They are more than deserving. You have no concept what you are capable! None of us do.  These “spring-time” thoughts may be the start of a tremendous new path in your life.

Some of the great innovators of our time have created masterpieces that were conceived during springtime. (Okay, I don’t know that, and have no way of checking it, but I am SURE I speak truth). So if a mental flash comes to you as you walk through the park, or take out the trash, clutch those ideas in your palm and run with them – “Hey, I should go to Bermuda deep- sea fishing”, “I think I should change jobs”, “I want to try doing some pottery”, or “we should move to the country and farm the land”. Do not let them go. They are a gift of spring and once lost, may be lost forever. And, by the way, this “idea-fervor” is not a fever. It is your brain on spring.

Do you allow your creativity to flow through you or do you stuff it and get on with your day? I encourage you for one week to do this. Journal or draw every morning for five minutes before you do ANYTHING else. This is a VERY powerful practice to starting opening the floodgates of inspiration. 

If you liked this post, you would snap twigs over these! 

THE TRUTH ABOUT HOW BRAIN CANCER CLEARED MY MIND

MAYBE THE SOLUTION TO YOUR PROBLEM IS AS SIMPLE AS A SEASHELL