Welcoming Summer – Rituals that Align with the Season

The wait is over – summer has finally arrived! Are you prepared to welcome the season by embracing the warmth, light, and energy, while also seeking balance through grounding activities? Let’s explore what this might look like!

In the world of yoga, many practitioners celebrate the Summer Solstice by waking with the Sun and starting the day with a series of Sun Salutations, sometimes while chanting. The Sun Salutation is a sequence of yoga poses, initially created about a century ago, that are commonly used to warm up in yoga, or to connect poses. It also offers countless benefits for the body beyond improving flexibility – it builds strength in your muscles and bones, increases cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, and balances the endocrine system, as observed in numerous studies. It’s a super simple way to integrate a healthy habit into your life!

But if yoga isn’t for you, there are other ways to celebrate the energy of summer in grounding ways! Just like we have traditions around holidays, most people also have traditions come summer – like how they celebrate Canada Day, where they have family reunions, or their ritual camping spot. Enjoying these traditions is like coming home again each summer. 

You can create a summer playlist to blast with your car windows down on nice days, or at your favourite swimming hole, grounding you in the summer moment! Mindfully pairing the sun with water, allows us to ensure we can stay cool, active, and healthy while we enjoy the season in a balanced way. Similarly, we can be mindful of how many activities we plan back to back. Though summer is certainly the time to engage even more with life, nobody is invincible, so planning in some rest days can be important too!

For some, their summer rituals involve a daily gardening routine or regularly wandering the forest. We can return to places we spent time in during the spring to see how they’ve changed with the season. We also live in an area where there are opportunities to forage and explore the abundance of species around us. We can also enjoy local seasonal fruits and vegetables from our own backyard, foraging, and farmers markets! What better way to celebrate the season we’re in than by fresh, local nourishment!

A few other ways you could kick off the summer season with a special moment include enjoying a campfire (or propane fire if necessary), journalling intentions for the season, returning to where you did a polar bear dip earlier this year, taking a walk barefoot to ground with the earth, or meditating in the morning sun. These will connect you with each element this season, embracing summer’s energy while also finding balance.