You can listen to the full episode here: Listen to Ep 23: How to Use Spring Energy Without Burning Out

As spring energy rises, many of us feel a sudden urge to start everything at once.

Projects that felt distant in winter now seem possible. Ideas are flowing, motivation is returning, and opportunities begin appearing again. But when energy returns quickly, it can also lead to moving too fast and burning out before anything has time to grow.

In this episode of Anchored & Alive, Blaze explores how to activate your energy in Spring without accelerating into exhaustion. Instead of pushing harder, this conversation invites you to set up supportive environments, reduce friction in your routines, and allow momentum to build naturally.

Hello my friends, welcome back. This week we're talking about how to activate all of that energy without accelerating so fast that you kind of hit a wall and burn out.

I think it's really a good time to talk about that because there's so much going on, so much energy available, and so much desire that kind of finally has space to move this time of year.

And sometimes it's really easy to go so fast that either you don't do exactly what you wanted because you moved too quickly, or you can't correct fast enough, or again, you just slam against that wall, burn out, and need to start all over again.

So essentially what I want to say is that having a lot of energy doesn't mean that you have to have a lot of urgency about how to use it

It's okay to have energy and mete it out with your own discernment and in your own timing.

So it's like when people invite you places and you have a lot of opportunities, you don't have to say yes to all of them.

You're better served saying yes to the ones that are really what you're into or that you're really in alignment with, and then you'll have a really great time and you'll get invited to more of those things and that'll be great.

But if you say yes to everything, you're scrambling. There's suddenly not enough energy, even though you had so much, and then you're curious, like, "Why? Why do I not have energy anymore? I had so much."

That's because if you use it constantly, it has to replenish from somewhere, and we need to give ourselves enough time and space to be able to keep that flow going.

I think that this time of year, sometimes we feel like if we don't use all of the energy, use all of the opportunities that somehow we're going to lose opportunities or somehow lose having that much energy. I think it's kind of a pushback or overcompensation from winter where we were kind of sluggish and we felt like, "Oh my gosh, if I sleep all the time, what if I never wake up?"

I don't think we actually have to worry about that. I think the cycles of nature take care of us in that way, and we're not apart from that.

There's no way that if you sleep, you're going to sleep forever, like you're going to wake up and keep doing things. And if you do stuff, eventually you're going to slow down. That's fine. But that's always going to be more opportunities. And there's always going to be more things that we can do with that energy.

So, coming back to our gardening, I love gardening, I'm so excited about it. I'm deeply contemplating planting all of my little seeds to start them already.

But here's the thing. I'm recognizing that if I start them now, they're not gonna make it because they're gonna be ready too early and it's gonna frost again and it's gonna be too cold. And so now is the time to conserve a little bit.

This is what happens this time of year. We have to really think about is it actually the right timing or could I just start a little bit slower?

I'm also thinking about in a garden. Like, you don't need to fertilize the garden every single day.

There's appropriate moments where you put a lot of attention and effort into it, but then you just trust that the roots are growing underground and the sprouts are gonna come up, and I don't need to do all that effort. The beautiful thing about life is life will take care of some of that for me.

And life will take care of some of that for you too. So you can look at all of the things that are going on that you'd like to do that are coming up as opportunities and think, "Okay, which ones deserve my attention right now and if I decided to like really focus on one, that's great, but I probably don't need to focus on all of them, and I don't need to do them constantly."

I can allow that if I put some effort into something that it's going to give back to me, maybe not today or tomorrow, but it's coming back. And having that kind of faith and trust in the process and in your energy and in your efforts and in life itself to come and meet you halfway and just do what life does, which is it's going to keep changing and growing and giving you more feedback.

This is a good time of year to start thinking about how you're set up.

So last week we talked a little bit about the beauty and glory of planning things in the spring and how when you have a lot of energy and focus sometimes it's a perfect time to really map all of that out for your year because you're really good at it at that particular moment.

And then you just get to enjoy that you did that and not have to do it for the rest of the year or for the rest of the week or whatever.

Right now, I want to ask you about the spaces that you're living in and the places that you're working and the places that you go.

And just think about them like, where do you go every day? What are the surroundings? What does it feel like? And what's the energy in all of those rooms?

On those drives in your car, outside, and feel it. And notice to yourself,

What's feeling supportive to you and what might need to shift or move?

So now you're kind of harnessing all of that back-and-forth energy about What's the place giving to you? Where do you feel a need for some more space and boundaries?

What's kind of nurtured already and held in the spaces that you have?

Now for me, if I'm looking at shared spaces and things that happen all the time in my own life,

There are cycles of creativity and destruction that happen in my downstairs on a weekly and hourly basis sometimes.

Because there's me, there's my kid, there's my mother-in-law, there's my husband, like we're all here in this house. I'm gonna be honest, most of it is my daughter, like she'll come and like build these crazy forts and it's incredible and it's amazing, but then there's like a lot of clutter.

There's stuff going on, things that need to be cleaned, like it's just a lot. So...

I look at these spaces and go okay. The energy is a little bit of chaos.

I could use... and then I think like what would I say? I could use a little bit more calm, a little bit more space, a little bit more time.

When you look at your spaces, what is it telling you? We can look at our spaces and set them up to help support us or remind us of the things that we're already doing and make it easier.

Again, I'm a systems girl, like I love reducing friction anywhere I can to make stuff that I want to have happen happen easier or automatically or without my thought.

So I have no problem deciding that I'm going to put a great deal of effort into making something today that will make every day just even 10% easier forever.

That to me is worth it because I'm like, "Oh my gosh, if I can set up my kitchen to just always be a little bit easier, that's great."

So you can look at like, okay, well, where do I have the tea, like kettle and the water dispenser and all this stuff? And over the years, we've just kind of refined and refined it so that it's exactly where we find it easiest to use.

Where you can come in and get what you need and it doesn't bother anybody, you can still cook while other people get their water, all of these things.

Now is a good time to think about all of that and go, "Okay, well, how could I set myself up?"

So that my space is kind of reflecting to me, the values that I have or the purpose that I have in each of these rooms or just in this season of my life.

When I was doing WildFit and really focusing on like fresh foods every day, making everything from scratch, that required a lot more physical effort from me and time and space.

How could I set that up to be easier? And I think some of the ways that I did it really was in...

Rearranging a whole countertop and being like, "This basket is Blaze's basket of fresh veg and it's gonna be there and in the morning I've got my cutting board and it's already set and I had my routines and I just kind of built it in."

I learned how to plan ahead in that regard and make everything a little bit smoother and easier for me to do.

Same thing when I was going for walks. I would always have my shoes pretty much ready by the front door and my hat was like tucked into my jacket so I could just like grab it and go and I tried to make everything as obvious and easy as possible for me so that the space almost told me what to do and I didn't have to think about it so much anymore.

I find that when I allow spaces around me to hold some of the energy and intention of what I'm hoping to do or accomplish.

It makes my life so much easier because I don't have to waste energy on thinking about it or trying to invent it again every single time I want to do something.

So this is a good week to think about what is it that I'm spending an awful lot of thought on.

Is there anywhere that I could offload some of that to the space itself so that it handles it for me, and it's one less thing that I have to think about or do?

This doesn't eliminate your effort. I mean, I still have to cook if I'm going to be eating fresh vegetables. I still have to actually go out on the walk if I'm going to be going for walks every day.

But what I'm talking about is how can I create it so that it's obvious and easy and there's nothing in the way of me doing the thing that I really said that I wanted to do because removing that resistance one makes it more possible and more likely that I'm going to do it.

And then every time I do that thing, I have such a nice positive feedback loop for myself that I just feel good about myself and I want to do it more and then I feel better about myself and I naturally do it more. Until one day.

I realize, oh, I walk every day, and sometimes I am walking twice a day, which is something that I said I wanted to do.

But I don't want to force myself to do it. I want to allow myself to do it.

So I want to talk about that too because I think in our culture, there's a huge push to push everything, to make everything like about a battle of effort and to prove that you wanted something by how hard you worked to do it.

I want to acknowledge that it's okay to say, yes, I worked very hard and I put a lot of effort into doing something, but I also think that it's just smart and nice to also employ the "I set things up to allow me to do it and to make it easier."

I still have to do it.

But I don't need to make it a struggle every time, and I don't honestly feel like there's any benefit to me or anyone around me and having me struggle to do something that I want to do.

And having me have to fight for it constantly because it's depleting and it's exhausting. It makes me feel bad about myself. It makes me cranky to everyone around me. It makes me lash out and feel like I'm being denied by my space, my situation, the people around me like, I don't want any of that.

So I try to get everyone on board with what I'm doing. Here's something else. Oh, this is a good one.

I've had this discussion with friends as well. Sometimes when I have something that I want to do really badly, like a secret of the heart that I'm like, "Oh, I just really want to do this project or I have this desire."

I do shelter it. So just like a little garden seedling, I think about not wanting to tell anybody that I've planted it or that I have this idea because I want to give it enough room to grow. And I want to give it enough time to see what it actually is without interference or someone else telling me how to do it or deciding that they're going to transplant it somewhere else or any of that.

And then at some point, once I've decided that that that seedling, that idea is worth nurturing or it's already has its roots and it's going to be something.

That is usually when I tell everyone in my life that's gonna come across it, that it's happening.

I think of it as two separate phases. The first phase is like the nurturing phase where it's for me and it's about having that boundary and wanting to be like, "This is important to me and I want to protect it."

And I don't want outside influence. And then at some point it tips into, okay, this thing exists now. And because I have spaces and a community around me and people that I care about, that I do know love me and I trust them and I care about them.

Now I let them know what's going on, and I let them know what's going on as it's a little bit more fully formed for me, as I understand exactly what I'm trying to accomplish and get out of it. And I'm a little less...

Well, actually, okay, I'm a little more open to their input and they're wanting to help in their ideas about how I might nurture this idea or new thing that I'm doing.

Whereas if I told them earlier, even if they told me the greatest idea, that would be wonderful - I'm not ready to hear it yet. And I would just be like, nope, don't tell me anything. I just want to be left alone. Let me do this.

Once something is established enough for me and someone gives me some feedback, I'm like, "Whoa, okay, I can see that being a great idea. I'll try that." And it doesn't feel as threatening to my identity, I guess that's part of it is that when I have a baby dream, it's still attached to who I think I am and my identity, but I'm not sure how it connects and I just don't want anyone to come in and poop on that parade.

And then once it's already established, now I'm pretty excited about it. And I'm interested in what other people might observe or think or see. Or if they have an idea and they've done something like that before, I'm not as threatened that they've done that. And I'm okay hearing what they might do about it.

And I have an easier time going, that might be a good idea that I'll try or that's a good idea for you, but not for me.

I need that space and that clarity, and you might as well. So I wanted to put that out there and go, "Okay, whatever you're trying to set up and the projects and things that you're excited about that are underway right now...

Think about where you are in that process and when it's a good time for you to open up that space or when it's a good time for you to open up that conversation with people around you and look for support."

I think that there is always support around us and it can be structural, like in the actual buildings and in the routines and timing, and it can be relational. It can be in the spaces and in the season and in like the way the light is moving.

All of that really contributes to the success of projects and the success of just feeling a part of a place and a time and getting things done.

Spring for me is a time of just getting things done, getting things launched, and testing things. I love experimenting at this time of year. It's around when I get excited about playing viola again.

And I start thinking about what would it be like if I like, up to my practice from five to ten minutes a day and actually had a plan for what I was gonna do at that time.

And I may start experimenting with it again because when I have the energy and the capacity honestly to hear instruction and to hear feedback, I can grow quite a lot in this season.

And I also know there will come a time later in the year where I'm not as open to feedback and I don't want as much instruction and I'm ready to just play and do my own thing.

I like now, flowing and harnessing the energy that's available when it comes up, just trusting that my ebb and flow will ebb and flow. And I don't have to worry about it and it's okay for me to trust myself and follow that instinct and follow that energy.

And I hope that as you've been listening to the podcast and maybe getting in rhythm with the season that you're starting to feel that too, and like you're really starting to get your legs and trust yourself in what you're feeling and how you're flowing.

I love doing this work. I love inside of the course really diving into how we can make specific adjustments and enhancements in our environment and among our relationships and in our timing to really support and harmonize all of the things that we want to do and the kind of people that we want to be.

And learn how to get that feedback and adjust as we move throughout the whole season and repeat throughout the years and grow.

It's a really beautiful process and I love sharing it with you here as well.

I wish for you this week a fun experiment, an ability to be able to see what you want to do and really go for it and maybe choose one or two directions instead of fifteen because I think really narrowing it down is going to let you accomplish a lot more.

I also want to say life isn't all about accomplishing more, so if you want to try 15-16 things and have all of them move a little bit.

You know what, have a great time! I have had many, many years like that and they're not bad years. They're fun years. So go with where you're at.

And I look forward to seeing you next week where we're going to talk about clarifying all of this energy and intention and figuring out how we can set boundaries even before we're good at them yet or that they feel natural so that we can really support all of the things that we want to nurture and grow this year. Have an awesome week and I will see you next time.