The Tension of Spring and the Work of Self-Care
Author: Vanda Ciceryova
Spring is a season of pushing and tugging. A season of transition that surfaces the past and present, meshed together so closely that we cannot see them separately.
I think living in the world in 2025 is a humbling experience. Or at least, it should be, if you're paying attention.
We’re all just experimenting with how to exist while taking care of ourselves and staying true to our commitments to others. Every thoughtful and caring person I know is confused, heartbroken, a little scared, and in limbo. Spring with its stop-and-go transition brings this tension to the surface.
Yet there is a quiet integrity in the tension of spring—snow melts, bulbs show their heads, trees start budding, and then it snows again.
As humans and yoga practitioners, can we embody this integrity within the tension of going somewhere and not yet being there? I think so.
This balance of tension and integrity reminds me of a concept called (and my new favorite word) tensegrity, coined by Buckminster Fuller. Tensegrity describes a structural principle where isolated components under compression are balanced by a network of continuous tension, creating a self-supporting, self-stressed structure.
In nature, in our bodies, and even in the changing seasons, we see that stability often comes not from rigidity, but from the interplay of tension and release. The cycle of spring—the melt, the budding, the return of winter’s touch, then the final push forward—is a perfect example. It’s not just disruption; it’s a system finding its way forward through opposition and balance.
I love exploring this principle of tensegrity in my yoga classes - how do we create a powerful combination for achieving balance, alignment, and stability in both body and mind. Can we, by paying attention to these principles experience a deeper connection to our bodies? Can we hold a pose and also think of where in our lives we are resisting tension instead of working with it? How might we lean into the balance of opposing forces rather than fighting them?
This season, as we navigate the messiness of spring, we can also learn from this principle—how to hold opposites in balance, how to strengthen by yielding, and how to embrace both the tension and the release.
I invite you to explore this with me in my Stretch & Restore class, where we practice the tensegrity of opposites—finding strength in softness, balance in transition, and integrity in movement.
In this class, we don’t just stretch—we explore how to meet resistance with curiosity, how to find support in opposition, and how to carry these lessons beyond the mat.
Join me in discovering the strength within tension.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Vanda Ciceryova
Vanda Ciceryova is a yogini, yoga & meditation teacher, somatic educator, EFT practitioner, nutritionist, a recovering serial entrepreneur and mother of two. She lives in Carbondale, CO with her husband and kids.
Over a decade of experience in the health and wellness fields has led her to develop her own alchemy of Eastern and Western approaches. She integrates spiritual traditions of mindfulness, yoga therapy, Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine, with cutting-edge research in neuroscience, nutrition, nervous system regulation, somatic movement therapy, neuroscience, and depth psychology. And always a generous side dish of warm heart and common sense.