Harnessing the Energy of Spring
by Thomas Capshew • New York, NY

Spring is the time when entropy takes a back seat. Entropy, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, tells us that everything in a closed system tends toward disorder. Entropy helps explain why, over time, clothes become thread-bare, food spoils, and we get wrinkles. Physicists have told us for years that entropy is an unavoidable fact in our world.

But in Spring, something else takes over, something opposite of entropy. This opposite force is so little studied by scientists that they cannot even agree on a name. Some would call it negentropy; others propose ectropy, syntropy, and extropy. I call it life. In Spring, life overrides entropy, bursting out in all its forms. We see it on the ground with new tender shoots of green, we hear it in the air as birds sing their territory into place, we smell it in the air as flowers open and share their sweet smells, and we feel it in our bones as our hearts quicken and our thoughts turn to possibilities.

In Spring, as life overtakes entropy, we are all provided another opportunity to grow. Spring provides us the conditions we need to start again, to harness and organize the energy around us in a positive, healthy direction. To do this, we look to the future, the past, and then the present.

First, the future: if we cannot imagine what our life can become, we cannot live into that vision. What vision do I have for my life? What would I like to start, or renew, this Spring? Once I have chosen something, I take some time to feel in my body what it is like to be living that vision - feeling it, seeing it, tasting it, hearing it - fully sensing the vision. For example, if my vision is a new, more fulfilling job, then I imagine six months from today having manifested that new, more fulfilling job and I use all my senses to experience that reality, focusing on gratitude and contentment.

Next, I look to the past. Here I will find a part of my life that feels like it has given way to entropy – some part that is disordered, dying or decaying. Am I ready to clean it out? How might I move out that part of my life in a way that respects the part it played in getting me to this point? When I look to the past after setting my intention on the future vision, I find that what presents itself as the part I need to let go is directly related to the vision I have energized. Joseph Campbell said, we must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. With the intention to make room for my vision, I gratefully clear out that part of my life that is no longer serving me.

Now that I have set my vision and made room for it to manifest, I focus on the present. I do those activities that I can do today that are consistent with my vision. Often I need to wean myself off the activities that do not support my vision. Every moment I have choices of where to invest my energy. Experiences will come into my life that support my vision and experiences will come into my life that offer me a distraction or detour. In the midst of all of these, the key is to hold the vision. No matter what I am faced with, as long as my face is turned to the vision, all paths lead to my goal. If I set my intention to climb to the top of a mountain, and I hold the vision of the mountain top in my mind, I may encounter all sorts of terrain, and all of it will get me closer if I keep my eye on where I are going. I may encounter meadows, gullies, forests, sheer cliffs, bogs, and logging roads, all of which have different levels of difficulty to be negotiated. All of them can be used to get closer to my goal and all of them can be a distraction from my goal. I choose which they will be by the attitude with which I approach them.

Visioning the future, clearing out the past, and walking with intention in the present, I grow, becoming more than I was before. Human consciousness gives us the ability to co-create with the life force energy coursing in us and through us and all around us – the energy that nearly sweeps us away with its renewed force every Spring.

Thomas Capshew is a freelance writer, trainer and motivational speaker. He is completing a book entitled Divine Warrior Training and he conducts workshops throughout the United States. On faculty at Windemere Institute of Healing Arts, Decorah, Iowa and Madison, Wisconsin, Thomas has a private spiritual healing practice in N.Y.C. Contact him through his website, www.innerspark.org, by email at tom@innerspark.org, or call (917) 721-0996.