Summer Mindfulness: 10 Exercises and Meditations

Each of nature’s seasons contains unique calming and invigorating energy and you can learn how to use it.

In holistic arts, for example, summer is a cycle that is all about robust energy and creating abundance. Additionally, you can use its high energy to help focus on, expand and coordinate the pieces of your life, especially those that can manifest themselves, into a super new you. If you are feeling in a rut, this cycle’s soaring energy is there to help you out.

Start today. A good place to start is to step back and make yourself aware of how this season’s (or any season’s) energy presents itself in your external environment and within yourself. Insofar as summer is concerned, observe what new elements of your life are taking shape and which fit into your goals and desires and so you’d like to grow them to their fullest. Prune those that present themselves as dysfunctional. This will help you focus, organize and give more time to the “important stuff.”

Remember balance. “Outward” engagement, particularly during this season, is a natural inclination. Many of us feel like pushing the pedal to the metal. So do step back, take a look at what’s going on outside and inside yourself. Be sure that your new endeavors are truly meaningful to your goals and passions. Holistic arts tell us that when you are exerting high energy, you need to pause often. So remember to take a breath, re-energize and avoid burn out.

Pay attention. Make yourself aware of what scenery, sounds, scents and so on in the natural environment have a calming, introspective or an energizing effect on you. This way you will be prepared with a natural remedy for when you feel out sync and need to balance one way or the other (up/down). It’s fun. It’s free and it’s easy. There are no side-effects.

A Few Summer Exercises:

Get outside. Focus on the abundance of summer light. Commit it to memory. Focus also on summer’s heat. Commit that to memory. Experience summer’s coolness: water, breezes, early mornings, late evenings or nights. Pay attention to how each of these affects your mind and body. Meditate on these qualities (and effects) often so that they ingrain into your mind. Then recall them when you need to soothe anxieties, minor pain, scattered thinking, negative aggressions, compulsive behaviors or downward moods in daily your activities. Combine these images with music or scent to amplify their effects.

• Try this in advance to your next office meeting. Take pictures and record summer sounds that either relax or invigorate you. You can also purchase similar sounds on iTunes if you don’t want to record them yourself. Combine into a slide show on your cellphone or iPod. Play for 7-10 minutes twice daily until ingrained in your mind. Then use before any important situation to optimize your mindset. Prepare in advance so when you need a self-prescribed “lift”or “relaxer” you’ll have it ready to go. Try combining pics with your favorite musical pieces. The more parts of the mind you use, the greater the effect.

• Practice mindfulness. Pay attention to where your mind and body are at in circumstances you are trying to improve. Step back. Ask yourself: What am I thinking, doing and feeling (emotionally and physically), “right before” I am distracted or I do something dysfunctional in a particular circumstance I want to improve? This info will tell you not only what is steering you off track and when, but also what you can do about it. For example, you may realize that whenever someone reminds you that you are going overtime at an office meeting, you get irritated; you grimace, lose your train of thought, and wind up saying something harsh. This behavior then causes you to ruminate and stress out for days, as well as then having to do damage control.

Take action: Practice visualization before you will be in a similar situation again. This can train your mind to behave differently. For example, visualize the circumstance. Use the feeling of irritation or grimacing as a cue to “pause” and instead “do something else” like thank the person rushing you for “watching the clock.” With practice, instead of being swept away and saying something that could have residual effects you’ll carry around for days, you will spare yourself the stress and keep the other individual tuned in rather than having tuned him out. But remember to practice this enough times to send your mind the message that you want it to go there automatically when the situation arises in real time. Tip: Can combine this exercise with previous one.

• Walk into the cool summer morning. Or try an athletic activity you enjoy: jogging, tennis, swimming, and so on. Let the coolness soothe you and pull the excess heat of stressors out.

Feel your mind and body balancing the coolness and warmth. Remember that feeling so that you can recall it later to balance yourself in moments and months ahead. Pull the coolness in and let it balance internal tension that may be the result of lingering heated or compulsive thoughts, worries, and anxieties. Feel the coolness lightening things up, rinsing your focus clearer. Breathe in the cool air. Let it cool your body internally. Imagine it flowing through your body until you feel supple and relaxed, yet energized. Summer is about pushing but you cannot just push, push, push. You have to also cool off from time to time.

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• Amplify summer energy. Use different parts of your brain to help you ingrain the effects of summer’s rising energy. Try plenty of movement (sport, tai chi, yoga, walking, gardening), music, pictures, and scents (natural and otherwise—perfumes, colognes, even scents like sunblock and moistening creams and oils). These will help lock summer’s rising energy in your memory and help you unlock it when you need it.

• Know your limits. It is easy in this cycle to become anxious to get results. After all, you are putting a lot of effort out and into new things. Sometimes anxieties and compulsions come from feeling that you are not dealing with certain matters or that not enough is coming to fruition. Don’t punish yourself and wind up using this great surging energy to run yourself into the ground. Instead, detach a little, eat well, skim off some worry-energy with exercise or physical activity, re-charge with positive energy, reach out to friends, and use relaxing techniques. Allow yourself time to be introspective, see what you need, and calmly re-tool a path to get there. Sometimes smaller steps work best and can feel good.

• Push your limits. Identify something in your life you want to change. Use your summer’s surging energy to get you there. Make a list of ways you can begin to put that change into motion. Stay positive. Start right away. Stay on track. Stay balanced.

• Meditate daily. Imagine (and feel) summer’s high energy flowing through you like breath flows through a flute. Visualize something in the natural environment that is joyous and bursting with summer brightness. Let this joy circulate through your whole body and mind. Imagine any stressors leaving your mind and body when you exhale. Use your breathing to guide them out.

• Do what feels right to you. You will either feel balanced (relaxed and energized) or you will discover you are tipping too far one way or the other. In that case, adjust.

• Eat light. Pay attention to how different foods and diets make you feel.

Enjoy!

Note: To discover more ways you can tap into the natural environment for health, happiness and harmony - all year round - you may wish to check out my newest book THE FIVE SEASONS (June, 2013).