Imagine you are walking along the shoreline of a body of water. You see a vast expanse of blue sky above the water. You feel the warm sun upon your skin. You feel a gentle breeze as it brushes your cheek. You note the ebb and flow of the water. First one wave, then another, gently caresses the shore. You see and feel the water mingling with the warm, white sand beneath your feet.

As you walk along the shore, a woman of light approaches you. In her hands, she holds a cage with a bird inside. She opens the cage door, releasing the bird. Opening its wings into a full wingspan—the bird flies gracefully above the waters.

The woman says,

“Leave the cage that contains and constricts you. Be free like the bird.”

Are you feeling it? The constricted energy loosening its grip on you? Things ending, being released, an opening to something new…

Spring is upon us, and last weekend we celebrated the Spring Equinox, the opening to the new buds peeking up from hibernation in the ground, the bears yawning and in search of food, the days getting longer and brighter? Spring is here and it is a sacred time that invites us to find balance and harmony inside, in order to energize and shift into what we are growing. Transformation is stronger this year than ever, as this is a new astrological year as well as what feels like the beginning of a recovery from a year-long hibernation.

In the Spring we also celebrate Easter and Passover, two spring holidays about rebirth, renewal, freedom, and transformation. Healing is upon us and the awakening to new life is portrayed not only in the spring holidays but also in the flow of the seasons. Winter is an invitation to get quiet and go into the deeper recesses of our bodies and souls to heal the small child within that needs love and attention. The quiet of winter allows for us to warm our hearts and our inner child and stoke the flames of our intuition.

This enables us to go out into Spring, ready for renewal and rebirth, alive and awakened and ready for change.

It can be an exciting healing time for all of us. And, yet, doubt, fear, and old beliefs can cloud our healing and our transformations. Doubt is a normal emotion that arises when we open our hearts to new life. When we open to new life, we also open to vulnerability. It’s common to find ourselves slipping backward before moving forward.

So, how do we combat the potent power of doubt?

First, the energy of doubt is constricting, enslaved, and painful. Doubt calls to us to stay in our fears, unhealed and in the known, because it is safe. Doubt closes down our hearts begging us to stay in our brokenness and not move to the unknown, even when that unknown may be so much brighter and better than our known situations.

Second, doubt runs through the lines in our family history like wildfire. The seeds of doubt are planted and travel through generations until someone decides that life is not worth living constricted and fearful. Vulnerability and freedom come when we take a stand to heal the lines of doubt that travel and say yes to the choice to heal.

There is a beautiful Kabbalistic teaching that can guide us to the root of doubt and the discovery of taking action and releasing the shackles that bind and constrict us.

1. Don’t be afraid

The kabbalists teach us to feel fear but to act anyway.

“Be brave. Remember that bravery is not the lack of fear but the ability to move forward in spite of fear.”- Anonymous

Yes can let our past, our doubts, and our fears run our life – or we can be brave. We can feel into the fear and then trust. Trust, just as the deep roots of a tree nurture, and ground it. We too can ground ourselves when we feel fear. When doubt clouds our trust, we can remember that deep down we have seeds of trust that have allowed us to change and grow throughout our life – even during challenging times. Each of us has limiting beliefs – but we also have soul threads: the threads of light, and trust, and love.

Remember the changes you have made in your past to help you take steps towards freedom in your future.

2. Breathe

Bring your awareness in from all the corners of your mind where it is usually scattered.  Gather yourself, find your stillness, notice and acknowledge the scattered thoughts, and your mind running with anxiety and fear. This is a type of meditation: we sit and notice where we feel scattered and be here now with all of it. It is the breath that is our teacher in finding ourselves back to center and leading us to the pathway of freedom and transformation. Inhale, bring in all your scattered places and be here now. Exhale, surrender to the moment, let go of everything that is not true, and experience what is right in front of you.

 3. See

When we slow down and stop running, we see what we need to do, we see with

Divine eyes the truth of our doubt and how to release it, we see our situation for what it really is. Allow life to emerge as it is, even when we want to hide. When we see, open our eyes to the truth, we are transformed.

4. Be Still

When we are still, we can hear the still, small voice, inside of us – our intuition. When we are still we can see our doubt and fear for what it is, and as we calm our nervous systems we can release it. The doubts and fears become smaller as we face them, and we can become more present with ourselves. Being still may not answer all of the questions, but being still allows us to sit with ourselves until we find the answers from within.

5. Just Get Going

After facing our doubt, facing our life as it is, we can then act. We act in the face of doubt and fear and we do it anyway. Why? Because once we find our stillness, we can risk being more vulnerable and can open our hearts. In this action, we gain new life, we feel renewed, open, less constricted, ready for change, and a new sense of purpose and freedom. We can surrender and trust in ourselves and the Universe.

This is the lesson of this Spring Season:

• Feel the doubt, and the old ways of being.

• Feel the fear and face it.

• Slow down, and find your still, small voice.

• See your life for what it really is, the good, bad, and the ugly.

• And finally, just get going.