{"id":1868,"date":"2026-04-02T12:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/?p=1868"},"modified":"2026-04-02T12:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:46:12","slug":"spring-the-season-of-contrasts-and-opportunities-for-growth-by-kimberly-byrd-lehyssa-st-julien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/2026\/04\/02\/spring-the-season-of-contrasts-and-opportunities-for-growth-by-kimberly-byrd-lehyssa-st-julien\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring: The Season of Contrasts and Opportunities for Growth by Kimberly Byrd &amp; Lehyssa St Julien"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spring always arrives with a mix of beautiful landscapes, flowers blooming, and green leaves returning to trees. There are longer days, warm temperatures, and everything feels more lively. However, it also comes with pollen, allergies, and a fair amount of discomfort. To adapt physically and mentally to these seasonal changes, you may limit outdoor time, adjust daily habits, or use medication. Recognizing that challenges are part of growth helps us adapt and overcome. Sometimes parts of our lives are like \u201cpollen,\u201d affecting our mental wellness. So how do we embrace the \u201cpollen\u201d parts of life as opportunities for growth?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Practice acceptance.<\/strong> Spring doesn\u2019t happen without pollen, and none of us can have growth without discomfort.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Be self-aware and avoid resistance. <\/strong>&nbsp;Rather than fight the annoyance, accept it: \u201cThis is part of the season.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Maintain a balanced perspective.<\/strong> Notice the \u2018flowers\u2019 <em>and<\/em> the \u2018pollen\u2019 of your situation, then choose which aspect you will give the most energy to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Spring Mental Wellness Practices<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the season changes, maybe we can adopt a growth mindset that reflects what spring actually is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Adjust<\/strong> \u2013 Allow time for mental and emotional reset.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Accept<\/strong> \u2013 Acknowledge that beauty and discomfort can coexist.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Appreciate<\/strong> \u2013 Pay attention to what is growing, blooming, and improving in your life.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Adapt<\/strong> \u2013 Make small changes that support your overall well-being (boundaries, routines, rest).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Springing forward is all about moving forward with awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spring serves as a great reminder that life is rarely one thing or the other. It\u2019s not just flowers or just pollen\u2014it\u2019s both. And maybe mental wellness is learning to breathe through the pollen while still stopping to appreciate the flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because growth, just like spring, is never completely comfortable\u2014but it\u2019s still worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spring always arrives with a mix of beautiful landscapes, flowers blooming, and green leaves returning to trees. There are longer days, warm temperatures, and everything feels more lively. However, it also comes with pollen, allergies, and a fair amount of discomfort. To adapt physically and mentally to these seasonal changes, you may limit outdoor time,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":1869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,92,48],"class_list":["post-1868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellnessblog","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-wellness","tag-spring"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ced.ncsu.edu\/ccerc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}