Namaste Everyone,
Happy Summer. I think almost everyone is at their happiest at the beginning of summer. Once the Solstice hits and the light expands, we can all feel that same light blossoming in our own hearts. We are ready to dive into the effortlessness of summer.
Summer is a time of reflection. Our lives slow down, we have vacations and time to relax. We spend more time in nature and traveling with friends and family. Summer gives us the opportunity with its ease and grace to open our hearts and minds to self-awareness. We are free to contemplate and consider.
I went for a mile-long swim with a dear friend cross the bay today. We swam slowly and took in all of the beauty of nature around us. We were swimming in clear cool water, a dreamlike fog was blowing across the bay, the brilliant sun was shining, the sky was deep blue, the birds, hawks, terns, egrets, swans, seagulls and more were flying above displaying their radiant wings. It was a magical mystical morning.
And as we swam we took some time to wonder at the beauty of this life that we’ve been given and to ponder our personal journeys, challenges and triumphs as sisters, friends, mothers and teachers. Summer does that to me, it causes me to pause and to reflect on my life. It opens the doorway to self-contemplation.
We shared our thoughts on the gift of self-awareness. How we are blessed to be able to see ourselves and to make choices to self-evolve and transform. We discussed how lucky we are to have the ability to study ourselves and to honor our strengths and work towards empowering our weaknesses.
It feels so freeing to be able to fly high like a bird into the sky and to look down on your little soul and to see it in all of its perfection and imperfection and to know that you have the ability to continue to evolve. Self-reflection brings possibility and hope for a better you, for a better life and ultimately a better world.
When we take the time to really look at ourselves to hold up a mirror, we give ourselves the opportunity to grow and expand. As we open ourselves to self enhancement, not only are we blessed, but we bring that energy to all of our friends and family. The better we are, the more aligned we are with right action, the more we can contribute to the world. The more we have to offer, the better the world becomes.
I encourage you to take some time this summer, to put down your cell phone, to tap into nature, to quiet your mind, open your heart, and take a good hard look at yourself.
Here are some questions to ponder to open the inner conversation:
Where are the places that you feel full and happy?
Where do you find your bliss?
What are your strengths? What are you celebrating?
How do you practice self-love?
Are you there for your friends and family? In what ways?
What do you contribute to your community?
How do you make the world a better place?
Where are the places that you are challenged?
Where do you need to grow?
What are you ready to shed, to let go of?
What are you ready to manifest?
What are the old stories?
Can you write a new story for yourself?
What are the lessons that you’ve learned?
What do you have to share?
How can you be a better you?
Take some time to mull over these questions. Perhaps pick up a motivational book, a novel, a guide, a philosophical text. Allow yourself to be inspired to grow, to stretch, to awaken the parts of yourself that are ready to blossom. Be like the light of the solstice and let yourself shine out into the world.
What I’m reading this summer for growth and transformation:
The Four Insights: Wisdom, Power and Grace of the Earth Keeper
by Alberto Villoldo
The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz
And if you’d like to open your senses to the world of aromatherapy, please join me for
Sacred Summer ~ Essential Oils for Yoga on Tuesday July 23rd 8pm to 9:30 at Sonic Yoga. Sign up below.
Have a wonderful blissful blossoming summer.
With Love,
Lauren
