The Messy Magic of Early Spring: Growth, Frustration, and Why Your Body Feels It Too
A little over a week ago, on March 20th, the northern hemisphere celebrated the Spring Equinox. Throughout history and across nearly every culture on the planet, the consistent rhythms of Earth's orbit around the sun have been marked, honored, and celebrated. These moments mark seasonal shifts — shifts in the natural world, in our bodies, and in our spirits. Every living thing on this planet is pulled and directed by these cycles.
And yet many of us have been conditioned — through colonization, industrialization, capitalism, and the patriarchy — to rush past the in-between spaces. To skip the liminal. To demand that transition be quick, clean, and productive. The Spring Equinox is considered the astrological new year. It is the same day we leave the watery, dreamy energy of Pisces and step into the fiery, demanding energy of Aries. Many cultures and spiritual traditions still recognize this as the true new year — not the arbitrary one imposed on us by the Gregorian calendar in January.
The Wood Element & What Spring Is Actually Asking of You
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, spring is governed by the Wood Element — the beginning of the cycle in which our Qi flows through the body's meridians. The meridians of the Wood Element are the Gallbladder (yang) and Liver (yin). These meridians govern our connective tissues — tendons, ligaments, sinews — and are most active between 11pm and 3am, while we sleep. Our bodies rest, but our minds are processing at full speed. The Gallbladder rules our dreams, plans, and goal-setting. The Liver takes those dreams and puts them into motion.
This is where things get uncomfortable.
Thwarted plans, unexpected roadblocks, things not going the way we envisioned — these are the territory of the Wood Element. The emotions here are frustration and anger. When we don't process these emotions, Qi becomes stagnant. And stagnant Qi, over time, becomes depression.
Physically, the liver and gallbladder work together to break down fat-soluble nutrients into water-soluble ones that can be absorbed in the small intestine. Emotionally, this looks like turning big ideas and dreams into actionable steps that get integrated into our daily lives. When there's a blockage — whether in the body or in our emotional landscape — things back up. Like indigestion that becomes heartburn, unprocessed emotion creates cascading effects we feel throughout our whole system.
Spring Is Not Just Pastels and Bunnies
There is beauty in early spring — the first flowers, the budding trees, the return of light. But we are not yet out of winter's cold and grey, and we are not yet into the warm ease of late spring. These six weeks between the Equinox and Beltane are a wild in-between: rapidly shifting weather, mud, wind, a 40-degree day followed by a 70-degree one. Early spring is not soft. It is fierce.
It is seeds cracking open underground. It is sprouts forcing their way through compacted soil. It is birth — and birth is messy.
We are out in our gardens with our hands in the dirt, prepping beds after months of rest. We are stretching limbs that have been dormant, lifting and moving in ways our bodies haven't been asked to do in months. Our sinews are warming and lengthening, and yes — it aches. Our first steps back into the world after a long winter are often careful, sometimes faltering, sometimes requiring a full reroute.
That is not failure. That is the nature of beginning.
But when the frustration of those false starts goes unexpressed — when we push through without pausing to feel it — it turns to anger. And unexpressed anger turns to depression. The Wood Element asks us to feel it, move it, and let it flow.
You Are Allowed to Be Messy; I Am Too
Every year this season challenges me. I find myself tossed between wanting to retreat to my cozy den, buried under a pile of blankets on cold, rainy days — and then feeling guilty when a sunny, warm day arrives and I'm not out making the most of every minute of it. Both sides feel forced. I can't find real rhythm or stability. I am a creature who loves routine, and during these weeks I always feel a little lost.
I share this because I think a lot of us feel it and don't name it. We expect spring to feel like relief — like an exhale after a long winter. And sometimes it does. But often it just feels like whiplash.
This is exactly where bodywork comes in. Massage helps the body loosen and create space for fresh blood and lymph to flow between tissue layers that have felt stuck and compressed. And just to be clear — massage does not "flush toxins." That's not how bodies work. But it absolutely does increase circulation and restore movement to areas of the body that are holding tension and pain.
Modalities like cupping, gua sha, lymphatic drainage, and myofascial release are especially well-suited to this time of year — creating space, encouraging flow, and supporting your body through the physical and emotional demands of renewal.
Come In. Let Us Hold Space for You.
These first six weeks of spring are deeply liminal. You are not yet in full bloom — and you are not supposed to be. You are in the cracking-open phase. Rest when your body asks for rest. Process your frustrations — through breathwork, journaling, venting to a trusted friend, or (very Portland of us) screaming at the east bank esplanade on Wednesday evenings with ScreamSocietyPDX.
And come get a massage. Let us meet you exactly where you are in this messy, beautiful season.
If you're craving clarity or direction alongside the bodywork, consider adding a tarot reading with Samantha onto your next session. Sometimes the body needs touch, and the mind needs a mirror.
