If you wander into a Lighten Up meditation regularly enough you’re bound to hear me talk about the days of power called the Solstices and the Equinoxes. These transits come around every three months and they’re important opportunities that we all can take advantage of. The Spring Equinox is officially at 16:57 UTC which translates to 9:57 am Pacific time – but despite the fact that there’s a moment on the clock where the Equinox literally occurs, it’s actually good to recognize that, like any transit, the effects last for a significant period of time.
I talked about some of this in a post for the Summer Solstice back in 2012 (can you believe that much time has passed already?!?). All of that advice about using the day of power as a template for how you want every day to be is absolutely relevant for an equinox, too. Someone asked about the significance of the Spring Equinox at a Lighten Up class recently so I thought I’d share that today too.
The Spring and the Fall Equinox are complements to each other, in a different way than Winter and Summer Solstices are. Springtime is traditionally about rebirth and beginnings, right? It’s when farmers plant their crops (at least, we know that that’s true; probably not many of us are doing too many crop-plantings these days!). The Fall is when those crops are harvested. You can use that as a metaphor for any important project in your life: If it’s a big task that you want to commit to a six-month delivery on, then starting around the Spring Equinox can be awesome.
Of course, if you’re meditating, then many things can happen much more quickly than in six-month intervals! For example, if you decide you want to get a new job, you can make that decision and start putting things into place immediately – and set your intent to land in your fabulous new position by the Solstice. You certainly shouldn’t need a full six months to make something like that happen – especially not when you have the power of a daily meditation practice to fuel your life.
So while the Spring and the Fall Equinox are particular types of complements, they’re also both about balance, in different ways. Based on the position of the Earth in conjunction with the Sun, the equinoxes are when day and night are of equal length – or at least, pretty darned close (depending on literally where you’re located on the face of the planet). Today the sun came up at 7:11am and it will set at 7:20pm. The actual experience of daylight is different due to how light comes through the horizon and such (see wikipedia if you’re curious) but this balance of day/night is the definition of an equinox.
What does that mean for you?
Well, if “balance” is the theme of the day, then you can set things up to take advantage of that:
- Be sure to get up on time – don’t indulge in any “snooze-dance” on a special day like this
- That will give you the right setup for a good meditation in the morning
- Make a point of getting a workout in – exercise is very important for a spiritual practice
- Work on a task or deliverable that’s personally important to you – plan things out, commit to a new level of achievement, get the infrastructure in place for your next big achievement
- Put in your all at the office, and then schedule time for some fun in the evening – maybe go to a movie or have dinner with a friend
In other words, make it a Goldilocks day: Nothing too extreme, managing it all, with a focus on taking care of yourself in the just-right way.
If you’re reading this too late to take advantage of today’s Equinox, no worries! There’s always another day of power coming around the corner. Set your intent today for what you will accomplish tomorrow, and then work work work to make it happen!
The spiritual path is about empowerment, and then using that empowerment to make life better for yourself (and, eventually, learning how to give some of that goodness back to the world).
Happy Equinox!