Ostara : Welcoming in Spring 2025 as a Yogi

After the cold winter, we shift into the light of spring. We begin to make our way out of hibernation, find our way to new life and renew what faded in the winter months.

The Significance of the Spring

The earth went to sleep 3 months ago. Every now and again the sun would pop its head out and remind us that he was still there, but he is helping out the people on the other side of the world. Whereas, our mornings have been cold and quiet. Dark and dormant.

Now there is a buzz in the air, and greenery popping through the ground. The earth is warming up for its rebirth, Ostara is a time to celebrate and start feeling the charge in the air, which new life creates. Also known as the spring equinox, Ostara can be a moment to notice the rhythm of the seasons.

Taking a moment to appreciate this shift and adjusting your daily habits, can help you be grateful for all that nature has to offer you. Spring is in between the restorative inter and the energetic summer. Spring allows you to prepare for the fast-paced summer and is a great time to take in the sun and showers that help us grow during the year. It is a time to enact the resolutions you have for the year. Maybe start by adding one new habit a week or make your morning routines 15 minutes earlier every day.

The Nature Cycle for Yogis

In Ayurvedic practices, following the natural cycle of the seasons, is an integral part of healing and living more organically with nature. As well as taking a time to connect with the ancestral practises, like Ostara. If you are religious or have key cultural events that happen, during this time, feeling connected with them may help you truly embrace the season.

This also may mean that you feel more compelled to eat with the season and move with it too. Your energy may increase, and this may be a time to introduce working towards harder postures or practising asana more playfully. You may bring in more heated breath work, like Kapalabhati. It is natural to feel this energetic shift, with the sun coming out and this side of the world warming up.

We are now going into Aries Season, which is more chaotic, but can also really light that fire within you to get up and go.

Ways to approach the New Season

Spring Clean

• Declutter - Get rid of those things that you found over winter did not serve you. For example, the least favourite cup in the cupboard or that old blanket that no-one likes to use. I would not even consider replacing them even, once you get things out the house, keep it that way. Be a mindful consumer, if you weren’t using it before, would you really need to buy it again.

• Wash - Physically wash your space. Spring is a beautiful time to bring water into your cleaning practise, to wash away the stagnant energy of the last year and of the cold winter. Also, get that deep clean of this year over, before you find the more filled up summer months come in and fill your time.

• Open the home - It is recommended when you clean to always open your windows, but I definitely have more open windows in spring. This can clear the energy and encourage the warmth of the sun and the song of the bird to filter in and increase our joy. (Obviously allergy season is also coming upon us, but make your own judgement, I would rather take an antihistamine, than have my windows and doors closed.)

Spend time exploring the spring

• Go into nature - This one is very clear. Get out in the springtime, you have been inside for too long. You can spend far more time in nature, and you don’t probably have to go far to fully experience springtime. Go to your local park, go to the woods or to a body of water.

• Take a dip - Go wild swimming. As I said before, water is a key part of spring, as you wash away the sleepy vibrations and recharge your soul in the water. Water is incredibly grounding, and while you have been inside for the winter, grounding yourself to the earth should be a high priority.

• Find some new life - I recommend finding some baby animals to appreciate, maybe a local farm or on your nature walk. It can make you realise how new life is everywhere and a huge part of the spring.

Eat in season and eat local

• I encourage you to shift your way of eating to be in line what is available this time of year. Spring fruits and vegetables are more nutritious for you, this time of year. Also, they are going to be local or home grown, which makes them more connected with the energy that is around us.

• Some of those foods will be sprouting broccoli, chard, new potatoes, spring onions, kale and carrots, as well as rhubarb.

• Shop locally when you can, at markets and green grocers. It is also the most environmentally conscious way to live, really connecting you with the roots of nature.

Inviting Spring into your Practise

When practising around the time of Ostara, the energetic shift of nature isn’t going to just be outside, it will also be internal.

Here are the 3 things I would include in your yogic practises -

• Bring more fire to your practise – Do stronger flows that focus on the Solar Plexus Chakra. These are more core exercises and include long holds of postures. Also, maybe, include hot yoga in your weekly rotation. Rather than just doing it in the more yin time of winter, bring in some heat before it gets too hot in the summer to feel comfortable.

• Become playful in flows - If you want to start the exploration of new posture this is a perfect time to. Find playing in arm balances or variation in posture, you do not normally try. Or. if your flow isn’t what you want to change, but you would like to find some playful energy- dance. It is time to become connected to the Sacral Chakra, which creates life and expression. You then may see a shift on the mat in your movements.

• Detox - Kapalabhati (Fire Breath) and hot yoga are two ways you can get rid of that stagnant internal energy that the winter has created. For the prana to flow freely for the rest of the year, cleanse the energy. One way which can be good to stop allergies from weighing you down is using a neti pot. I also like to do a digital detox. Give yourself a break from digital devices in order to tune into what you really need going into this spring and summer.

Hope You enjoyed this one! xx

The Light in me sees the Light in you!