Summer Part 1

How’s the shift toward warmer temperatures treating you? For the most part I’m hearing people say that things are feeling a little to a lot more bearable. Either unpleasant symptoms are actually shifting, or perceptions are shifting, or likely a combination of both. Things are more spacious. That is the energy of this season.

By the solar calendar May 6th marked the beginning of summer. Keep in mind that in this system there is a fifth season known as late summer… so everything seems a little earlier than we are use to. At any rate, the energy of this time of year is characterized as expanding, spreading out, with a sort of inherent generosity permeating everything.

The classical Chinese medical text the Su Wen says:

The 3 months of summer

Are called prospering and developing the flower

The Qi of Heaven and Earth

Intertwine

The 10,000 beings flower and bring forth fruit

With this expansive, abundant energy supporting us, it’s a good time to explore the things that bring us joy (the emotion of the summer season!)

I recently started going to a weekly figure drawing class, something I haven’t done since undergrad (a looong time ago) simply because the idea of it sparked some joy for me. And here’s the kicker— I quickly felt how figure drawing was supporting my acupuncture practice. Two hours of doing nothing other than observing the human body: how it moves, what gets tight and what becomes slack with a shift of position. How one part relates to the next, and how all of this can translate to paper. It is a meditation on the physical body as well as a practice in discipling the mind to translate and to follow through. To move through the occasional discomfort of making observations tangible. Not dissimilar from the practice of taking in what’s going on with someone in the clinic and then translating that into something that gives voice and movement to the things that are stuck.

I believe that’s the nature of the things that bring us joy. They don’t stand alone, even though the purpose or usefulness may not be apparent. And I mostly hope it’s not. Because pursuing something from a place of looking for specific results can take us out of the present moment and steal joy. Instead, we can have faith that everything that we are genuinely engaged in informs the narrative of our lives, building on the next thing. This is the nature of abundance and expansion. Of summer.

So, my hope is that you’ll allow for some stuff that is done for the sake of joy, and even pleasure this summer. It’s a sort of creative problem solving that I can pretty much guarantee will positively influence your health. Report back to me. I’d love to hear what you’re up to and what kind of connections you’re making.