Align yourself with the energy of this season

summer ~ fire

active, connected, growing energy

the heart meridian is active

Fire - summer’s element - asks us to tap into passion, action, and connected relationships to live at full potential.This way of correlating seasons to elements to traits is one part of holistic life traditions such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic Medicine.

The Fire element governs the heart and the small intestine. The heart guides - insight.The small intestine sorts pure from impure - discernment. Insight and discernment are physical and analogical. Right now is the energetically supported time for us to grow in wisdom and understanding.

It’s a particularly important time to focus on joy and love.

photo by http://thecompassstudios.com/

get going

5:00 am - 11:00 am

Place your hands over your heart. Connect with your heart’s beat - reliably there! Tune-in and connect to it. Make small circles. Start the day with yourself. This practice of noticing the heart, ties together the summer season’s focus on the heart and the morning’s focus on rising energy. Start the day with yourself with this ancient Qi Gong practice.

Add a drop or two of geranium essential oil into your palms - it’s known as ‘the heart opener’ - for an extra boost. (available on our shop page)

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This is the prime season for building and understanding your personal power. This is the realm of the 3rd chakra and in Ayurvedic Medicine, the 3rd chakra is connected to the fire element. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), summer is connect with the fire element. Ayurvedic Medicine’s energetic framework of the chakras teaches that our arms are an extension of our hearts. And TCM’s teaching is that summer is all about…..the heart. I love these relationships between two ancient systems!

Exercising our arms - with bands - is a perfect physical activity to add to your energy practice. But there’s a spiritual one as well; doing something different, something challenging. This will give your 3rd chakra the energetic exercise that it needs. To develop your personal fire, know that power doesn’t come from security. It comes by increasing confidence. This daily practice gains an extra boost by putting it in the morning. Morning energy and summer energy both support our efforts and ability to grow.

Learning a new activity or a new way to think and understand, require the ability to be active and to be truthful. This season and this time of day are the perfect synchronicity for disrupting a stale pattern and building confidence. It’ll be a bit easier to accomplish in the summer.

Exercise bands are available on the shop page.

Adapted from Anodea Judith’s Wheels of Life.

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centering

11:00 am - 5:00 pm

The Heart of the Hand. In the center of your palm is a link to your heart chakra. (No wonder we press our whole hands together in prayer!) Massage this point with strong, circular motions for five minutes. This is a powerful marma point in Ayurvedic Medicine, but the heart is also an energetic focus of summer in TCM. This practice has deep and centuries old power from two traditions to connect us to our selves.

In Ayurvedic Medicine, the Heart of the Hand is also used to enhance communication which happens to be another of this season's energetic focuses.  Synchronizing this exercise with the peak energetic time of summer - mid-day - means we participate consciously in aligning ourselves with beautiful energy that is present all around. You can also use a rubber ball (see the shop page) to press into this marma point.

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Loving Kindness Meditation.  At this mid-day time, the heart meridian is most active. Meditation NOW has an exponential power boost because summer’s energy is all about that heart in TCM. Repeat these words for as many minutes as you are able:

“May I be happy. May I be well. May I be safe. May I be peaceful and at ease.”

This kind of repeated phrase meditation has a goal - developing compassion. As you practice, you are tapping in to deep peace that is available to each of us. Not from somewhere, but from inside. It’s an actual core state of being that we just don’t get any training in how to find or how to exercise. We forget we have the capacity and sometimes don’t live lives that allow us to even make friends with that part of our selves. Have you connected with it? Experiencing the powers of meditation get a special boost with this season’s underlying energies.

There are many sources, but particularly beautiful is Thich Nhat Hanh’s article, Cultivating Compassion at

https://tricycle.org/magazine/cultivating-compassion/  

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The heart rules in summer and summer’s sound correlation is laughing. Spiritual practices don't have to be somber to connect us to something important! Eat heart shaped lollipops. Go swinging. A lollipop is childlike and so is swinging, but glee isn't only for the very young; summer’s underlying energetics nudge us to cultivate levity.

winding down

5:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Bitter flavors support the energy of the heart meridian (fire element) in TCM. In Ayurvedic Medicine, fire is associated with the 3rd chakra which is responsible for personal will. Sync those energies up and you have a fun alignment. Every time you eat bitter, green, leafy vegetables, the very energetics of those bitter flavors boost your will power! Try arugula on a pizza, and be sure to enjoy a delicious IPA.

Summer’s energy of community and connection is still powerful currently as an aspect of five-element theory and medicine. Our safe-practices and social distancing are very much an aspect of community, and of heart. Candles reflect the energy of fire and of social and their use now can amplify those aspects of summer that we find so meaningful.

Beeswax candles are available on the shop page.

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The life aspect of the heart is a yearning for balance and connection of the body and spirit. Sometimes deep dissatisfaction isn’t really about our job or our home or anything… instead, this feeling might be the cue the deepest, truest self is using us to nudge us to remember - that we are body and spirit.

These lines say it beautifully. They connect the open heart energy of summer with the quieting energy at the end of the day; wonderful words to contemplate if you tend to busy your mind each day with what you didn’t do ‘right’. Try these instead.

“The purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person, for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors.”                                              

Czesla Milosz