Finding your Summer Groove

How to Stay Healthy and Joyful During the Summer

Summer begins on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, June 21st. The extra hours of sunlight give us the time to nurture our creative energies and be part of the abundance that surrounds us. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fire is the element associated with summer, and it has the power to give light, and to illuminate our inner being as well as our external world.

The warmth of summer gives us the power to fully celebrate life in its bounty. It is the season of growth and maturation, of gardens bursting with flowers and vegetables. The weather is conducive for shared outings and recreational sports, parties and barbecues, walks with friends; we tend to our inner Fire and nurture these relationships.

Because the power of Fire is felt most intensely in summer, summer may be the best time for you to concentrate on rebuilding the energy consumed during the winter and spring months. As summer activities can sometimes appropriate your relaxation and meditative time, make sure to find a balance between action and being, between social events and time to be in your garden, or relax in your hammock, and allow the earth to nourish you and recharge your battery pack.

The legendary Yellow Emperor, regarded as the founder of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has these instructive words about the season of summer in the ancient text.

5 Ideas to Reclaim Your Balance This Summer - HeartMath | Blog

ReLeaf Bodywork Therapy Summer Schedule:

Office closed 6/16, 6/21, 6/23 and July 2nd-9th.

Consider scheduling your appointments in advance to guarantee day and time preference.

Consistency in an Inconsistent World

Consistency

Awareness, Contemplation, Action, Outcome
 -REPEAT

Do you feel like the change you desire is out of reach?

Do you feel exhausted and defeated?

I have certainly answered YES to the above questions many times in my life. What I continue to realize is that creating the change I desire is based upon Consistent Personal Care Patterns. (CPCP). I certainly have been known to lose my way and my own personal power. I may look for someone to blame, wallow in self -pity or just sit in a slump. In the words of Dr. Seuss- "Un-slumping yourself is not easily done."

The only thing you can truly change is yourself

This is the Lesson!

STEP 1- Awareness
What personal care patterns help you be more aware of your emotions, behaviors, thought patterns, desires? Are you ready to "un-slump" yourself?
STEP 2- Contemplation
Do you set aside time and space to contemplate how to create what you desire?
STEP 3- Action
What helps foster motivation in you? Who is part of your support team?
STEP 4- Outcome
Have you achieved the change you desire? If not, be patient and forgiving with yourself and repeat the process starting with awareness. Strive for a Growth Mindset- be curious, explore, open your perceptive lens.

"You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting
So.....get on your way!
-Dr. Seus

What Personal Care Patterns are consistently part of your regular routine?

Services at ReLeaf Bodywork Therapy are designed to help support you in establishing consistent, personal, healthy, care patterns. Checkout the offerings listed below to learn more or schedule a FREE Discovery Call.

Finding balance with seasonal and life changes

Finding balance with seasonal and life changes

The photo above was taken in Canyonlands National Park in Utah.  I love the dichotomy of the mighty Juniper finding a way to obtain the resources it needs to thrive in the harsh, high dessert environment by reaching its roots down into the rocky earth while stretching its branches to the sky.  The tree has found the balance it needs to survive. 

The season of Spring is represented by the Wood element in Five Element Acupressure. The Wood element is symbolized by the tree, rooted in the ground and reaching up toward the sky.

Excerpt from Archetypal Acupuncture- Healing with the Five Elements by Gary Dolowich, M.D. 

"In observing nature, we can appreciate that a tree needs to maintain flexibility and be able to yield in the wind.  The tree that becomes rigid and hollow, unable to bend, is the one that gets blown over in the storm.  Especially true when young, even in the case of the mature tree, the branches need to retain this characteristic.  This, then, provides insight into the process of growth, showing us that all living things need to be adaptable and change with the times.  And yet, throughout its life, the tree stays true to its inherent potential, thereby striking a balance between an inner directive and the outer environmental forces as it struggles to carve out a place in the world".

 

Here are some key words that can help you explore the Wood Element in your body,mind and life this spring:

leadership, self-esteem, self-respect, integrity, optimism, commitment, self control, self motivation, organization, planning, decisive, willing to change and take charge. 

___________________________________________
Taking time for reflection:
Grief and Gratitude

January into the end of March was a time of increased grief and sorrow in my life. I experienced the loss of our family dog, death of a dear friend's young daughter and the death of my father-in-law. I did my best to allow time to feel the grief and sorrow while also tending to self and family needs. There is a beautiful quote from Kahil Gibran from The Prophet-

"The deeper the sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."

Gary Dolowich states that the symbol of the tree is a call to wholeness, encouraging us to embrace the darkness as well as the light.

I have begun to explore grief and gratitude. I realize how grateful I am for the time spent with our furry, friend Ziggy who taught me many lessons over the time we shared together. I am so very grateful for my dear friend and for knowing her daughter. And I have gratitude for the gifts my father-in-law shared with our family.

I am reminded that finding balance in life is about having an awareness of how we feel, acknowledging our feelings while exploring a feeling, attitude or thought pattern that provides a more heart based feeling. As HeartMath ® teaches- acknowledging a more depleting emotion such as grief and inviting in a more renewing emotion such as gratitude to help us find balance. With practice and time we can move from the ability to survive like the juniper tree. We can continue to grow and explore how to thrive in our body, mind and life.

Wishing you health, growth and balance in your life this spring season and always!

Lisa

Letting Go and Opening Up- Fall 2019 Newsletter

Letting Go and Opening Up

LETTING GO
Autumn holds significant transitions for many of us.
Summer is drawing to a close, temperatures are cooling and the duration of daylight is slowly fading. Families are experiencing big changes as the more relaxed pace of summer shifts into structured days of school and evenings and weekends filled with extracurricular activities.

Autumn is the season of Letting Go. Seasonally the trees and plants "let go" of their leaves as they prepare for the winter ahead. (As I was drafting this newsletter a leaf fell gently upon my paper :)) So too, we must begin to reflect and discern what we are ready to "let go of " as we transition into this new season. We may view the process of letting go as sad or difficult. We may be grieving the loss of summer and the moments we have spent with those we love. We may be grieving the loss of a particular stage in our life that has been completed such as a child graduating from high school and moving onto college (yours truly :))

In Five Element acupressure the Element of Fall is Metal and the meridian organs are Lung and Large Intestine. The extreme emotional state associated with Metal is grief or sorrow.

Taking Time to Pause and Reflect on your Body, Mind and Life:

1) As you reflect upon what you are letting go of this fall, honor and recognize any feelings of grief associated with the process of letting go.

2) Take time to explore where in your body you hold patterns of tension. This may be felt as a sense of holding back or an inability to release or relax tension patterns. Where does your energy move freely through your body and where does it feel stuck? Awareness of stuck areas provides an opportunity for delving deeper into information that may be stored in this area.
For example: is there a fear of moving forward or letting go?
Ask yourself what would that body area feel like with less tension?


Self-care Suggestions

We can support our Metal element through breathing exercises that promote a full exhale or letting go breath pattern. We can support a healthy colon by eating some raw foods, minimizing mucous producing foods and exercising abdominal muscles. We can be mindful of clearing our lives of things that no longer serve us including objects, ideas, behaviors and relationships.

OPENING UP
As we begin to mindfully reflect on what we choose to let go of, we can begin to create space to open up to new ideas, opportunities and possibilities. We can explore how different we can feel in our bodies as we let go of holding patterns that create tension, limited range of motion and pain.

Our body can experience more ease and comfort,
our mind can be more creative in the discernment process
and our life can flow more smoothly.

Wishing you health and joy during these beautiful autumn days and beyond!

Lisa