It’s the start of spring and time for us to emulate the shoots pushing their way through the earth…and grow! It’s also time for us to make like the blossoms and shine our light in the world.

Since I’ve educated myself about the different energies behind each season, I feel much more balanced. Nature is all about cycles – and so are human beings.

One of the very special people who’s opened my eyes to the significance of nature’s cycles is my friend Sadie Pickering – one of the calmest and wisest people I know. Sadie is the founder of Soul Beauty Rituals, which is a unique combination of healing modalities (body/emotional/energy/soul work) that centre around cycles of nature and our own cycles.

I adored chatting to Sadie about spring, the moon’s cycles, creativity, confidence (and so much more) for the latest episode of Wellness Unwrapped. Here are three key takeaways from our conversation:

• We tend to believe that we need to live according to one tempo and one rhythm. But nature doesn’t exist in one rhythm – she is ebbing and flowing all the time, replenishing and expanding and contracting. When we live in alignment with the seasons, we feel more in harmony with ourselves and with nature.

• Spring carries a dynamic, energetic, outward energy. It’s about taking action. It’s important to take leaps at this time of year and to not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. Spring is telling us to blossom and to shine. It’s prompting us to share whatever we’re creating with the rest of the world.

• Give yourself permission to be confident, because confidence is not arrogance. Confidence is your unique light wanting to shine through – to be seen and heard. It’s about sharing your natural gifts with the world. The more we can move through our fears and blocks, and do things outside of our comfort zone, the more we can grow in confidence.

Sadie has a background in the creative industries working: she was a professional actress for over 20 years, working in television, film and theatre. She is also an accomplished singer/songwriter and crowdfunded to produce her first album ‘Left Over Dust’. She’s always been passionate about the healing arts as well as the creative arts. Through her work now, she helps people to come home to themselves as cyclical beings, to discover their own unique gifts and to live a soul-fulfilled life.

Here’s to you blossoming this spring!

You’ll find the full transcript of our conversation below and can listen to our conversation here.

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[Please note: this is a computer generated transcription of this conversation]

SG:  One thing I haven’t actually ever asked you Sadie, is how you got into this. Because I do know before I met you, that you used to be an actress. I’ve definitely heard you sing and play guitar because I’ve been at one of your amazing moon circle evenings. How is it that you got into this whole thing with cycles and stuff from an acting career?

SP: Okay, yeah. It’s all connected. The three things that I love most now and that I’m doing for a living are the things that I was drawn to as a child. I naturally loved acting, I loved storytelling and performing a lot of singing. I loved writing songs, and I loved energy work, crystals, massage. Since I was little, I would be massaging people. I’d always have my hands on people. I had a treatment room at home and did treatment on my mum. And I did like remedies for people in my dad’s offices. I did a menopause box for a lady that was going through the menopause and I was like 10. I used to go from school through the village to a shop called the Medicine Shop. And it was this shop with all tinctures and herbs and books and crystals and then treatment rooms. And I would literally sit on the floor. I must have driven them mad. I’d go there after school and sit on the floor. I’d have all the books out. I’d be looking at everything and asking the members of staff questions. And so the inspiration started very, very young and I then created my own apothecary at home with a massage table and I’d be doing treatments on my mum. And then I remember like I was just so into self-care from such a young age. I always would look really look after my skin and do my rituals. So it was all there from the beginning.

But then, similar to Nicky Hill’s story. I developed acne but this was much later on. So I started periods late and then I developed acne in my late teens, actually maybe like yeah, early 20s when I was at drama school, and it was horrendous like not just a few spots. It was big boils. Really bad and I’d never had skin issues and I’d always really looked after my skin. Yeah, it was horrendous and then the doctors would put me on the pill. And I was just on and off the pill for years. I’d come off the pill because I was on one called Dienette which was bad if you’d had migraines and I used to have migraines. So yeah, I ended up just in this yo yo with being on and off the pill and then the acne would come back when I’d come off the pill and then I’d have to go on it again in the end and had antibiotics that were awful.

And finally, I worked with a lady called Marilyn Glenville, who specialised in polycystic ovaries, and then I got the hormone tests, high testosterone levels. And I’ve managed to heal my skin naturally. And I’ve never been on the pill since. So that was a big thing for me learning about my hormones and my cycles, getting to know about my periods and then actually was talking to Nikki much later on. She helped me understand the different phases of my cycles. So I know exactly where I am at which point and I have a regular 28 day. It alternates between 28 days and 32 days. So there’s still a tiny little bit of difference there. But generally it’s much much better. It used to be six weeks and then I’d have also times where I just wouldn’t bleed for a long time and so yeah, that was a difficult time.

But it led me home into myself more, a deeper understanding of my womb, my cycles and then learning more about the cycles of nature and the seasons and the moon cycles, and how our cycles mirror those cycles and just learning about that was completely just like a huge epiphany to know this deep connection we have with the cycles of nature. And it all just makes sense. So I feel like often the things that happened to you, teach you so much. They’re almost like gifts in in disguise – angels in disguise. So I’m grateful for the things that happened like that. And I know so many women go through that.

SG: Yeah, so I love the way you brought all the different strands together. And you’ve managed to find your own way in life where you honour all those different parts of yourself. Which is great because I’ve seen you perform at you know, but in a very sort of intimate setting where we were in a yurt, weren’t we at the nursery your mum runs? This was before the pandemic. Tell us about it.

SP: It was a moon circle that another girl used to do called Liz in in the teepee at Back to the Garden Childcare. And it took me a long time to even realise, which I think is only really coming together now, that I can actually bring in my music and bring in even the acting and the things that I learned at drama school. The things that I’ve learned around confidence. My confidence levels will go up and down. I’ve learned so much over the years also about voice work that I’m now bringing into the circles that I’m running. So you just get given like little bits and bobs as you go along, like a trail. And that was so special being in those circles that Liz used to run and I just love how I’m now like holding space myself and bringing in everything that I love into those spaces that I do in person but also online. Yeah, I have people – I teach them songs now. And also teach them about sound and voice. Because we both love Karen who runs Photoclub and what she does is so much about visibility, which is really important but also I think your sound is your visibility too and how you express yourself and the things that you say and even finding your resonant note. Finding that is a huge thing to learn to be able to speak from your true note.

SG:  Yeah, and so many women don’t speak their true voice, do they? Because I mean on so many levels, they keep things suppressed. I think probably men too as well. And I’m surprised that you’d said you teach people to sing because again, it’s one of those things I think, like dance, where unless you’ve done it at school, and you’re really good at it, people don’t tend to kind of go there. Because they think: well, I’m not I’m not a singer. I don’t sing well.

SP: Yeah, I’m trying to get people away from that. The same with bringing in movement in the circles too. And I say: it’s your medicine. So it’s not about what you look like or how you sound. Let your body move or your sounds come through to help shift things and help you ground into yourself. So it’s really getting away from judgement. Like it’s so important to just leave yourself alone and let the sound or the movement come through you.

SG: Right and singing is incredibly good for our health.

SP: Yes, it’s vibration. But if you think about like ancient times, we’ve always sung we’ve always sung in community and it does lift your spirits, it’s really good for you. I don’t always say that we’re going to say in the blurb and I always say with everything I do to honour you. So if something feels uncomfortable, you don’t have to do it. It’s the same as sharing, you know, that feeling of when you go around the circle and everyone starts to share. If it’s not feeling right for them that day, I’d never put people under pressure to like, share that yeah, it’s just an exploration.

SG:  And you’re so right that that women getting together at certain designated times of the month is such an ancient integral part. I mean, if you look at indigenous tribes, I suppose around the world they still do that. But for us, it’s just been lost over the ages.

SP: It’s lost and I think we’ve lost our connection to our cycles, and our  sacred connection together as well. So women would honour those cycles. In terms of the menstrual cycle, they would get together on the new moon to bleed together. And they would be in tents together, you know, on straw, going way, way, way, way, way back. And the interesting thing about the menstrual cycle is that most of the women would bleed around the new moon traditionally, and then a few would bleed around the full moon. And those women were seen as the medicine women and healers of the communities because they would be the ones that would care and look after the women bleeding around the new moon. It tended to be the older women getting slightly older, whereas the new moon cycle was traditionally thought of as kind of more fertile cycles. So you bleed at the new moon. And then you’d ovulate around the full moon when everything is like bursting and coming out. This is really fascinating, like, so if we think of the seasons spring, summer, autumn winter, the moon follows that pattern. So the new moon is winter, coming into spring, and then you’ve got the full moon which is summer. And then autumn is the final quarter going back into the new moon again. Our menstrual cycle follows that exact same pattern. So our bleed time is seen as the winter and your ovulation time is seen as the summer. So those layers of the different cycles all follow exactly the same pattern of spring, summer, autumn, winter. And I just think that’s huge to learn that like to know oh, no wonder why I have more energy and I’m in my summer phase. Or, I mean, I’m in my winter now I can retreat and rest and give myself permission to do that. Whereas I think we often think we have to just exist in one, one tempo, one rhythm when nature doesn’t exist in one rhythm. She’s ebbing and flowing all the time replenishing and then expanding contracting. And I’d love actually to go back and teach young women this so that they know and understand it and love it. And don’t see their periods as a curse. So they really understand themselves on that deep cyclical level.

SG: Yeah, because certainly I never thought about the moon or the moon cycle until pretty recently in the past few years when I’ve started to think more deeply about it and our connection to the moon, but it’s certainly not in kind of conventional health care paradigm to think about the moon. So what has the moon got to do with us?

SP: Okay. So Aristotle saw this connection between the moon and our mental state.

SG: You know, that’s so interesting because I was reading recently, that I hadn’t realised this but apparently, a huge amount of mental health practitioners, like it was over 80%, was say that they see deterioration around the time of the full moon, they see their patients are strongly affected. And there were more crimes.

SP: Yeah. More car accidents around the time of the full moon. So it’s there. It does have an effect on us.

SG: I would have thought before: werewolves you know, something on Harry Potter, but it didn’t affect the population at large. But I guess it does.

SP: I guess it does. Some things are proven. And some things are more just a knowing and a feeling that haven’t been kind of scientifically proven yet. But I think that there have been studies done and studies related to mental health. There’s an article that I found on somebody working with someone with bipolar and they did actually notice a difference around the full moon with this patient.

SG: And why is that? What is it about the moon?

SP: It could be many, many things. If the moon is affecting the tides, then we’re 60%/70% wate, so surely the moon is going to have an impact on the water within us. I don’t know whether that’s proven or not. But then people notice it with their children, with their animals. There is something that happens around the different moon times that has an effect on us. And I think when you have an awareness of that and you know how to look after yourself, or you create a ritual around it, like you have your bath maybe around a full moon. Just time to meditate and be still maybe around a new moon, then it’s going to help you with those transitions. Rather than I think, with the cycles, being overpowered by them and affected by them unknowingly isn’t empowering. Once you know, I’m going to do my ritual, then I don’t think it can create as much of that like, energy coming up. You’re going with it more, and helping it move through you.

SG: Yeah, I love the idea of cycles, that you can reinvent yourself, you can grow and how comforting is that? I’m starting a new month. And it’s a new start.

SP:  Yes, exactly. That it’s a new start. That time in the in new moon phase. Just like coming out of winter moving into spring. That’s the time to be planting seeds and really setting intentions and, and going deeply into like the cosmic soil. So I like to think of it as like that fertile dark soil is the new moon, that’s when the moon’s black and then you start to get the tiniest little sliver of light. So in that soil, what do you want to plant in that? What intentions are you setting for the month ahead? And then if you do that, and then really water those seeds of intention as the cycle as the moon waxes and grows and it’s light, then by the time the moon’s full, perhaps those seeds might have grown and then you’ll be actually harvesting which is something that the full moon is associated with harvesting things coming to fruition and gathering in. And then really seeing as the moon begins to wane and the energy diminishes and we begin to retreat back into darkness.

SG: The full moon is a time to let go of things that are not serving us.

SP:  Yes to harvest and celebrate everything you’ve achieved and grown and at the same time look at maybe what didn’t work out what the lessons were and what you need to get rid of. But you can keep getting rid of things as the moon wanes.

SG: I just think that’s an incredibly beautiful empowering way to live because it’s not like you’re given the one chance in the year. Because the way we work in our culture is first January, you know middle of winter, that’s when you’re supposed to reinvent yourself and that’s it.

SP:  Yeah, but you’re meant to be in the cave like hibernating at that point, not reinventing ourselves, not doing like new health kicks. It’s completely against the natural rhythms of nature and what our body actually wants. The organs in power in winter are the kidneys and the bladder. It’s a time to replenish the kidneys, they’re like our batteries. So we really want to charge up those batteries by resting and going slow. We can still do things. Like I always say like, you know you can still launch something in the winter if that’s what’s happening for you, but it’s just knowing that it’s coming from that slower pace of winter, having that wisdom  of what winter is.

SG: Yeah, so we’ve just come out of winter because we’ve literally just had Spring Equinox. So we’ve come out of this period, which is where we are encouraged to go inwards and to kind of withdraw from the busy busyness and going out and socialising and have a very quiet time.

SP:  Yes. So winter is yin. So it’s the feminine phase of the year. Autumn is also yin. But winter is that deepest yin phase, the darkest time. Like I said, we’re in the metaphorical cave. Then think of it like a spiral. When it comes to February the first and second that’s the midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox. That’s the first stirrings as everything’s, there’s tiny, tiny little signs of the land waking up. And that’s happening within us. That’s when we start emerging. So these things that we do like the January you know, green veggies, and even Christmas, they’re kind of fake yang energy. This was meant to be the yin time. And then so as we keep unfurling, keep emerging slowly, slowly. Then we reach the spring equinox, which we’ve just had at the point of recording on the 28th of March. That’s the point where we move into yang, which is our masculine energy, spring, summer yang. And spring is much more of a dynamic, energetic, outward, moving, direct energy. There’s more drive, and it’s about taking action. So maybe the seeds that we planted, you know, just in that early awakening time of like February seeds, we planted intentions with that winter, we can really take action on those now in spring with a driving force. I think it’s really important to take leaps at this time of year, to not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. And spring is saying for us to blossom, and shine and share, share whatever we’re creating, whatever we’re growing, to share it with the world.

SG: It’s such a powerful message because it’s a beautiful day today, it just feels like the first proper spring day to day and there is a magic in the air and you can see it on people’s faces, they just kind of walk a little taller, they just feel a bit more uplifted. And I guess we’re mirroring what is happening outside our front door, which is that there’s growth everywhere and the shoots are forcing their way up through the soil. And it’s all about new beginnings.

SP: Yes. And it’s filled with hope and renewal. And yeah, new beginnings and you do see that lightness in people. People do have a spring in their step, it feels like their hearts are opening up. They’re smiling. And it’s really beautiful. It’s also interesting to know so like I was talking about the organs in winter. So in traditional Chinese medicine, when we move into spring, the organs in power in spring are the liver and the gallbladder. So actually spring is the time to cleanse. Not January, not earlier in the year, not after Christmas. This is the time when actually your body wants to shed, wants to clear out and we do it in our homes as well. We want to declutter and just create some space, create space within us for new beginnings. And it’s also those feelings of hope and renewal and possibility and new growth. They’re all there. But on the flip side of that it’s also good to be aware of the emotions associated with those organs: anger and frustration and resentment. So in like you were saying about the bulbs bursting out of the ground, there might be unexpressed feelings that have been dormant in winter that are now coming up as we’re having this transition. So it’s just being aware of that and creating space for yourself to consciously communicate those feelings. And there’s nothing wrong with anger. Anger is a really healthy emotion. It’s a driving emotion. It helps like, clear the pathways. So just finding ways to release it. And I’m a big fan of journaling as well.

SG: Yeah, me too. And I really liked what you said about anger because I think especially for us women who like to be seen as friendly and warm, it can be a real stretch to see yourself as angry because who wants to be an angry woman. Angry women are just slated in the media, aren’t they? So it’s something I think that we try and tiptoe to avoid.

SP: Yeah, anger is energy. It’s a dynamic force, isn’t it? And I think especially like you say, as women I know, when I’ve experienced anger, you kind of can’t control it. It’s like a rising thing that comes through you and has to come out. And if you suppress it, then where’s it going in your body? It has to come out. But you know, it would be nice if people can hold space for if somebody is experiencing those rising emotions, to just ask for people to be patient and to hold space for you. Because I know times when I’ve been angry, like a wild, crazy woman that everyone’s like, what’s wrong with you her? But you see children handle anger so healthfully, they let it flow through their body. They have a tantrum, they shake,  they stomp their feet, they bang their arms, they scream and then they’re done. Yet we don’t do we?

SG: We just keep a lid on it. As the saying goes, just keep a lid on it.

SP: And it gets stuck in our body and we’re not having that release. And it’s really important to do that. I love movement like real wild, free movement that doesn’t have to look pretty.

SG:  Like punching the air?

SP: Yeah and making sounds. I mean, we’ve talked about children before and the way we as adults can learn so much from children and the way they play, the way they do so many things, if we could only let them be our teachers sometimes too.

SG: I think that is such an important point for women especially to hear that it is okay to get angry because as you say, we can get angry about things that need changing. Yeah, that it’s a sign that there’s something amiss.

SP: Yes, get angry about that. Your emotions are trying to tell you something, they’re trying to guide you. And you can’t ignore it. Yeah, yeah. Um, journaling, I think is brilliant for that.

SG: And I just love the fact that you can just, like, vent it all out in such a safe receptacle that’s never going to say, Well, you’re a bit stroppy today. You can just write it out. Or scrawl it out.

SP: Or swear it out.

SG: Exactly. Whatever is just coming up for you, without censorship, without worrying about as you say, it sounding pretty or looking pretty or being spelt prettily or punctuated prettily, because no one’s ever gonna see it.

SP: You can burn it.

SG: You can burn it if you want to, and just release that energy. But the point is, you are transmuting it, rather than trying to suppress it and go about your day with a fake smile on your face.

SP: Absolutely. And the same goes for tears. So in my circles, I always say, if people feel tears rising, let them fall because tears water the soil for new things to grow. They create space within the body. It just means that there’s a shift. And I see tears as a really beautiful form of the water element. We’re told not to cry. We’re told not to do so many things.

SG: Yeah, it reminds me I have a very young niece who is two and she’s very bright, and my brother took her to park the other day it was really windy. And she said to my brother: My eyes are raining..

SP:  Ah that’s so gorgeous. Raining and you know, little prayer beads fall down. And anything that your body’s wanting to do, laughter is the same, just let your body do it.

SG: It’s so true. And yet, when I think of a number of times…and when we’re sitting in the room where I coach, and actually just before this, which is why I was smudging with white sage, I had a lady who I was coaching who was very overwhelmed and started crying. And most people cry in this room at some point just because it’s safe, it’s a very safe nurturing place. I think it’s safe for them to finally express what it is that they have kept buried, but they’ll always say: I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. I’m like, why are you apologising? It’s good to let it out. But it’s such a British thing: oh, sorry, I’m so sorry.

SP: Yeah, they’ve showed up here and you’re holding space for them to just be fully themselves. And by giving themselves that space away from their day to day worlds, that energy is going out there with you and you’re giving to them and they can reflect on and that  space allows whatever’s inside..

SG: It just literally bubbles up. And they’re almost surprised by what comes out, by the depth of the emotion that’s actually been fighting to get out. So yes, as you say, they’ve been giving energy… you know, “must look after everyone else, as long as everyone else is alright.  You know, that’s my role in the world…to make sure everyone else is happy.” But it throws everything out of balance when that’s your sole, exclusive focus. And I love your emphasis on going inward on self-care.

SP: Yes, and you can’t pour from an empty cup. So it’s really important to create those spaces of quiet time for yourself. Even if there aren’t emotions that come up, but how do you know unless you create space? I’m a big believer in rituals. What we did at the spring circle recently was we created a spring self-care menu. So looking at all the things – like in spring your body wants to move more, thinking about exercise that you genuinely want to do that lights you up and creating a menu around things that excite and inspire you – not things that you think you should do. So some exercise things nature, time to pamper and decluttering. Like even decluttering the health cupboard you know with supplements and things like that.

SG:  Oh if you saw my supplement cupboard! My husband says: why don’t you just do something with it, because it just kind of grows and grows. And it’s a bit of a supplement graveyard in there.

SP: So I said to people, rather than like think: oh my god, I’m going to do my whole house. Just do one cupboard or one drawer. But I think the health cupboard is quite a good one to tackle because spring is very much about health and cleansing and renewal. And also your pampering cupboard – so skincare products to give that a revamp and simplify it so that you can really feel inspired when you open that, it feels more like a spa.

SG: Well, you would not be inspired by my bathroom cupboard Sadie.

SP: I’m a Virgo and I really love organising.

SG: I need you to get in here and actually organise my house. I’m a Pisces. I don’t know if that has any bearing on how messy I am. But honestly, it pains my husband more than I can say, and the rest of the family.

SP: Pisces is such a beautiful sign, it’s the dreamer. The dreamer of the zodiac. My dad’s a Pisces. And actually Virgos and Pisces get on very well. So maybe that’s why we always have good chats. My mum’s a Sagittarius and she was always very busy when I was growing up and a very dynamic force, creating business and such a leader. But the thing that would make her feel stressed was mess, a messy house, but she would never have the patience to create order. And so my little Virgo would just, when she was out, like create order in her drawers and cupboards, make sense of everything and just make it all organised so she’d come back and it would all be perfect. I think she misses that now I don’t live at home.

SG: Yeah, I would love to have someone do that for me because I’m the sort of person where I will open the cupboard in the kitchen and things will literally fall on my head which just drives my husband absolutely mental. I just constantly feel like overwhelmed by the clutter, but I’m not I’m just not someone who’s very good at sorting it out.

SP:  I always think to start with one small area. Yeah, one thing. In spring, it’s a good time to do that. So decluttering physically and also smudging. So this is a really nice time to spring clean but also spring cleaning energetically. So to open up your windows and smudging is basically working with tools like white sage or palo santo. It’s really good to make sure you try and get palo santo that’s ethically sourced because some of it isn’t ethically sourced. They’re two very different different things but have a similar purpose – to clear energy. White sage is great for cleaning heavier, denser energy, whereas palo santo is the holy wood. I find that more of a sweeter, lighter smell. But both are really, really good. And actually white sage works on a physical level.

SG: It’s really anti-microbial.

SP: Yeah, it cleans the air. So you light the end, wait for it to catch fire, then blow it out. Have something underneath that you can catch any embers that fall and then you want to  work through the rooms, especially up into the corners.

SG:  Because that’s where the energy negative collects.

SP: Yes, it collects. And then any areas like window sills, doorways, under things, any high traffic areas as well like – say for you wherever you sit with your clients, that’s good to keep energetically hygienic.

SG:  Absolutely. So I just did that this morning because as I said, I had a client in here who was who was really upset. I was smudging her and actually I was doing lots of things like EFT tapping  and lots of stuff but I also like to smudge people as well. And Daz (who videos the podcasts) came in and was like: What is that smell? What are you burning? So I was explaining to him what smudging was. But yeah, the kids think I’m crazy because I often go around with my Tibetan sound bowl, which does the same as well. And they will just roll their eyes. But I think especially during lockdown, my daughter was having a really tough time when one thing after another that she was looking forward to was cancelled. And it was just a desperately sad time for her and I felt really awful for her. But when she was out of her room, I would just go in there you know, with the heavy stuff. I brought everything – the sound bowl, smudging, essential oils, I put a diffuser on with some orange essential oil, and I felt the room was lighter and opened the window. Because that heavy energy, all that disappointment, anger, resentment fear, all of that. It just stays, doesn’t it? It stays and it affects the people who then come into the room and obviously this is something you can’t see. But just because you can’t see it, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.

SP: Yes. And it can be sludgy, too. And you just want to keep clearing that out and have the intention. So like you say, you had your windows open, that’s really important when you’re smudging because the energy needs to go somewhere. See, ask it to leave through the window. For people who don’t, who can’t smudge, maybe they’re in a flat where they can’t physically do it because of the smoke, clapping also works really well.

SG: Yeah, because it’s that vibration, isn’t it?

SP: Yeah, clapping up into the corners. And also with smudging, you can smudge yourself too – so I love to before I have a bath like a ritual I stand naked and smudge myself under my feet, under my armpits. Yeah, my whole body, I ask the negative energy to leave through the window and then I get into my bath.

SG: I love that. I love that. I just love the idea of cleansing yourself before you get in the bath because it’s like the opposite of what you would think – you’d get in the bath to get clean but this is kind of getting rid of emotional sludge.

SP: Exactly.

SG: Sometimes when I’ve been like, something has happened. I’ve been like, in a really, really bad mood. And my daughter has said, Mummy shall I smudge you?

SP:  Oh, that’s so funny.

SG: It’s really cute. But I think it’s nice to know that there are these ways for you to cleanse the house because with the best will in the world, every home with a family living in it is going to see rows, upsets and disagreements and strops and all the rest of it, especially if you’ve got teenagers in the house. And if you’re under a lot of stress, so I say to everyone that I coach and I often talk to them about the home because it’s great that you walk in here and your shoulders relax and you just kind of go like Aaaahhhh, but I want them to have that kind of feeling at home as well because that’s obviously where they are most of the time.

SP:  Yeah, definitely. I think it’s really important to keep your home energetically clear. But also not just your family and the people that are there now. There might be old stuff there and even ley lines, energy lines, things like that. You can douse your home. That’s maybe another level.

SG: Well, I’ve been there Sadie because I had a Feng Shui lady – Liz, who was also on the podcast – she’s done the house.

SP: What did she pick up on?

SG: There wasn’t a huge amount but ley lines and stuff. It’s a kind of like a new build so there wasn’t kind of like nasty stuff. But I’ve coached a lot of people who will say that they moved house and someone in the house, like the wife, for example, got very ill in a new house and I think we underestimate sometimes how buildings can make us poorly.

SP:  Yeah. And like you’ve got crystals around as well. Yeah, it’s beautiful in here. Lovely energy.

SG: Thank you. So spring, now people should be thinking about eating greens.

SP: Yes, because their body wants to detox. Yeah, lots of things like rocket and parsley and all these lovely herb dandelion leaves.

SG: Oh, dandelion leaves they can find as with nettles, they’re free. You can find them everywhere. Maybe avoid the ones where a dog has had a pee or a wee and you want to pick ones that haven’t been sprayed.

SP: Oh yeah. Introducing juicing back in as well. Yeah, it’s a good time to start juicing again. Chlorophyll is something really nice to take so if you’re having like a lemon water in the in the morning, you could always add it. It would be better if it’s cold with the chlorophyll, but a squeeze of lemon in water with some chlorophyll. That’s a really good way to alkalize the body –  we really want to alkalize it..

SG:  I’ve juiced nettles like with an apple, and it’s delicious. But just obviously be very careful picking them – just to add that you need to wear gloves. But it is incredibly good for you, isn’t it?

SP: Yeah, really good. And I think in any season, any transitional time, you want to have that balance. So that balance of the yin and the yang, spring is inbetween winter and summer. It’s finding that balance. So yes, we’re introducing juices again, the greens the salads, some of the raw foods, but then equally it’s good to still have a soup but move away from the heavier, denser, richer soups of winter with the root vegetables and more into spring soups. It’s like how we have a scarf. You can take it on and off. We need balance in spring.

SG: Yeah, people do tend to eat the same thing the whole year round, don’t they? They make themselves have a salad in the middle of December but actually, their body is craving different things.

SP: Yeah, because if you have the raw foods in the winter, it creates damp within the body and leads to mucus. We don’t like that ever. It needs to be warm. Warming and spice, that’s what we need in the winter. Nature gives you everything you need. So it’s always really interesting to look at what nature’s what it’s doing at the moment. Yeah, because at the moment like the wild garlic is coming out. Wild garlic soup, yes. Or wild garlic pesto.

SG:  And it’s great. It’s so abundant and you just need to go say by a river or woodland and you can pick it, and all of these things are very cleansing, aren’t they?

SP: Really cleansing? Yeah. So that’s what we need. That’s what we need at this time of year, cleanse, clear and and start new things.

SG: So if someone has been thinking of starting to learn something new, like a new language or skill or something, now would be a good time to start.

SP: Yeah, a project, anything like that. And anything creative, anything playful.  And really saying yes to opportunities. Spring isn’t the time to be shy.

SG: Yeah, because if you look at the blossoms, it’s such a display, isn’t it? Nature’s put on this huge, almost like a firework display. Well, that’s more autumn I guess. But, but it’s very out there, isn’t it?  It’s very big and colourful.

SP:  Give yourself permission to be confident because confidence is not arrogance. It’s completely different. Confidence is your soul, your unique light wanting to shine through and and be seen and heard and share natural gifts within you with the world. So confidence is not ego and I think people are very afraid of being confident sometimes because they associate that with ego. Whereas actually shyness and arrogance are more connected to ego because both of those care what other people think. Confidence is just yourself coming through. So the more we can move through the fears and blocks, do things out of our comfort zone, the more we can grow in confidence.

SG: Such a massive thing for women. Certainly the women I coach who I think they’d find that a frightening thing. A lot of women would be scared about how others would see them if they suddenly started being confident or what would people think, would they think I was showing off?

SP: Yeah, we’re so afraid of that.

SG: Yeah. Because it’s such an awful thing. To say, oh she’s no wallflower and no one would want to be described like that. I think a lot of people consider that an insult if people said oh, she’s no wallflower.

SP: It’s really hard, isn’t it? Yeah, really hard thing to navigate. Especially like you say as women but I think if you have things that you’ve maybe made or created or something that you’re birthing, it wants to come through and out. And stalling or keeping it just to yourself is not fulfilling the purpose of why that thing has come through you. Does that make sense?

SG: Yeah, it absolutely does. I actually read a book recently and I can’t remember the name of it on creativity. And that was the whole thrust of the book is that we are innately creative. Human beings are creative. And if you’re not creating, you’re absolutely denying that part of yourself and withholding something from the world as well. So creativity is not just for artists. And people who’ve been to drama school.

SP:  Exactly. It’s for everybody. Everybody is creative, and whoever has been told they’re not creative, that’s wrong. And I think it happens too much to children especially like that. And I remember my mum when she was a nursery teacher, she was working with a group of children when a child of maybe three or four said: I’m not good at art. Because somebody had taught them. How do they know they’re not good at art? We’re all creative. Even, you know, make making a meal is a creative process. Everything. Social media, like curating the grid, like sharing posts, that’s creative. There’s so much creativity in everything. I think we need to take ownership of us as creative beings, and coming back to the cycles, our womb, creative centre, whether we’re creating children or not that that is our creative centre. That’s our cauldron.

SG: What a great metaphor.

SP: Yeah, a womb is a cauldron. That’s where we, you know, like, that’s where we birth ideas come through. It’s that’s sacral. So we’ve got to keep that free and flowing and let things come through us. And take our cues from nature.

SG: Yeah. And I think the more that we are in tune with the cycles that you’ve talked about, the happier, healthier and more fulfilled we are.

SP: Yes. And we feel more in harmony with ourselves and with nature, when we live in alignment with the seasons. And so the seasons, they’re the big arc I think to work with. They’re the main anchor and then the moon cycles are like mini cycles within. So really working with the seasons of nature as your main foundation, and then you’ve got those little mini cycles of the moon and also your menstrual cycle.

SG: So looking ahead to summer, what should people be thinking about as we move into that season?

SP: So moving into summer from spring, that’s when we’re in the fullest bloom. So winter was the fullest retreat. Summer is the fullest bloom, the fullest yang.  That’s when the momentum is fully building. We’re out there. We’re socialising. We’re having fun. Summer is all about joy and play even more. Being playful and being in nature and enjoying the light and everything. And then when we reach autumn, that’s when it all starts to gather in and that’s when we harvest for the year and prepare for the winter. So yeah, summer is the fullest, fullest bloom of the year, and the organs and power of the heart and the small intestine at that time. So cacao is a lovely thing to really have lots of in the summer because that’s connected to the heart.

SG:  And you’re not talking about a bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk there:

SP: We’re talking now proper cacao, yeah, find some cacao ceremonies and spend some time with in those dancing, doing that kind of thing. But just giving yourself permission to be a bit wild and free in the summer.

SG: What a great aspiration.

SP:  We’ve taken action on the seeds that we’ve planted so they can really grow, the momentum is building. So summer, it’s like we’re really celebrating. Everything’s like in full growth. Yeah. But just remember to pace yourself. So if we go all guns blazing in the beginning of spring and we peak too soon, then our energy’s going to fade. We want to just keep sharing, expanding, and then keep returning back to ourselves to check in with our energy levels. What do we need? A little bit of quiet time?

SG: I think that’s it, isn’t it? Checking in with yourself. And I think so many women in particular are actually quite disconnected from what their own energy is asking for. I’m gonna really think about spring and tidying, which I think will make the rest of the family very elated. I’m going to start small.

SP: Start small. Yeah, so we avoid overwhelm and avoid procrastination.

SG: So I’m a big procrastinator when it comes to tidying.

SP: And I was just seeing you look outside and I just thought of one more thing that people could do is to go outside barefoot.

SG: Oh, yes, I did that this morning.

SP: The earth is negatively charged. And everything that we use, so much of technology is positively charged. So when you stand barefoot on the earth, it basically takes away all those positive ions and frees you of them and it just clears your energy field. And that’s you know, scientifically proven so it’s a really good thing, it grounds you and clears your energy field. So especially people who are working at home on their computers a lot to do that. And to do it with the children as well. It’s a really nice thing to do.

SG: Yeah, it’s so funny, actually. I was sitting in the garden at the weekend. We actually had some nice weather which was amazing and I was sitting on a beanbag in the garden with my daughter, and I think I had my slippers on and she was barefoot. She said:  I’m grounding and you’re not. So I said you’re absolutely right, I need to take my slippers off. But yeah, it’s just that contact with the grass. Such an easy, simple thing to do.

SP:  And yeah, it’s important. Easy to do with grass of soil. Also sand and a river or natural water.

SG: Yeah, Co you know what I’m gonna go? I’ve just decided I’m actually gonna go this afternoon to cold water swim. Yes, you’ve inspired me.

SP: Have you been doing it?

SG: Yes. But not not this month. I haven’t been in March. But it’s a nice day. And I’m gonna  put everything else on hold and go and celebrate the new season. I don’t love the cold if I’m perfectly honest. But I know there are huge health benefits. And it is amazing to be swimming outside and see the ducks and the sky and the branches.

SP: It really is. March is actually very cold in the water.

SG:  So was February I can tell you and so was January.

SP: I can really see the difference in people with swimming.

SG: I think for me, especially because I’m such a wuss and everyone knows I’m big wuss. You know I’m not a big risk taker. And I was always like the real lightweight because I was just a skinny, lightweight kid. And I’m just not that physically strong or someone that would do like brave things and I hate cold. I always walk around house with hot water bottle. So for me, despite all of that, to get in three degree water, which I did last month, is kind of like actually, maybe I’m not such a weakling that I always thought and actually maybe I’m stronger than I think. So that’s a really powerful thing to rewrite the narrative that you’ve always told yourself and that other people think about you. And think, wow, I did that. So what else could I do?

SP: Exactly. I love that. I love that about the cold water too. If you could do it, then you can do anything. There’s a really beautiful song I always play in my circles by Isla Schaffer. And it’s called Rose. “Like the rose, you’re stronger than you know.”