​Summer Solstice
On Summer Solstice we experience the longest day and shortest night of the year.
 
If you live in the northern hemisphere, Summer Solstice falls on or near June 20th. On this day, the sun reaches its northernmost point in sky. It’s the sun’s pinnacle moment, after which the days will progressively grow shorter until the Winter Solstice in December.
 
At Summer Solstice, the energy supports creative expression and full blossoming of your heartfelt desires.
 
Summer Is Here
Summer officially begins at Summer Solstice. In previous articles on Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, I explain how our personal creation cycle shifts through stages of yin and yang and how the seasons mirror the yin/yang creation cycle.
 
In the seasonal creation cycles, summer is the most yang (active, outward, hot, expansive) time of the year. We move more, we spend more time outdoors, and we receive the heat of the sun.
 
During summer, the seeds that germinated over the winter and spouted in the spring are now plants growing to maturity, flowering, and bearing fruit.
 
The coming of summer brings us into the season of the fire element. In the Five Elements of Chinese medicine, at Summer Solstice we move from the wood element of spring to the fire element of summer.  
 
What are the properties of fire? When in balance, fire is cleansing, life-giving, alchemical, transformative, and high-energy. An imbalance of fire can be unstable, uncontrollable, and all-consuming.
 
Focus Your Energy
Although we are in a creative state all through the year, during summer we see creation in full action. It’s visible, tangible, and apparent to the senses. We see this in the flora and fauna. We see it in the behavior of people and animals. We feel within ourselves a great permission, invitation, and desire to go out, be active, and take action.
 
This summer you are supported to be in action with your desires and dreams. Using your inner fire for its greatest good will require balance. Too much activity without purpose can scatter and drain your energy. Be discerning with how you spend your time. Take care not to overdo.
 
Enjoy the party that is summertime, but continue to take care of yourself, rest when needed, and maintain that connection to your inner voice.
 
What has been calling to you? What aspect of your life is chirping in your ear, asking for attention? What yearnings of the heart are surfacing? What will you focus on this summer?
 
Whatever you choose to create, summer brings the energetic support for it to come forth into physical action or physical form. The wood is primed to catch and begin to burn with creative fire when you provide the initial spark of focused desire in action.

Enthusiasm as Inner Guidance
When you find yourself at an impasse or feeling lost, enthusiasm can be a bread crumb trail to guide you back to your path.
 
True enthusiasm is a feeling that comes from the most authentic part of you. Following your enthusiasm does mean being perky or cheerful all the time. It’s different than excitement or giddiness.  Enthusiasm comes from connecting fully to the world and your own self-expressed heart’s desire. Enthusiasm is a body-based sensation that originates at the heart level. When I’m in enthusiasm, I sense the origin of this feeling coming from the area in my chest around my heart center.
 
Have you noticed that when you feel enthusiastic about something you have all kinds of energy at your disposal to pursue that interest? For example, if you love to downhill ski, without hesitation you rise at dawn, pack your gear, assemble your wardrobe, and drive four hours to the hill. You find impossibly creative schemes to afford a lift ticket. You feel physically spent, yet emotionally and mentally energized, after skiing.
 
In another example, you might be at a party where you don’t seem to connect with anyone. As the night progresses you become disengaged and tired. Then an old friend arrives unexpectedly and, as you connect and catch up, you find yourself alert and renewed. Where did this renewal of energy come from?
 
When you are “en thous” you activate your connection to the essence of who you are. Your heart’s desire resides in this core essence of your being. Core essence energy is unlimited, self-sustaining, and vital. It provides you with all the energy you need to move toward your enthusiastic heart’s desire.
 
Connect to Your Enthusiasm
As responsible adults, we can sometimes lose our enthusiasm and not even realize it’s gone. Let’s take a moment to reconnect to the experience of enthusiasm.
 
Think of something that you feel excited to do or to plan for. If you’re truly enthusiastic about it, when you imagine yourself being there in your mind’s eye you will experience an energizing, eager, and even hopeful physical response. You may notice that you sit up straighter, you may feel your breath shift, a smile may come to your face, you may feel your focus sharpen, and you may feel inspired to take action.  These responses may vary from feeling strong to feeling rather subtle. Pay attention to them.
 
Once you connect to something you are enthusiastic about, let yourself sit with this experience for a few moments. Allow the feeling of enthusiasm to reestablish itself as a positive imprint in your body and your memory.
 
Self-Check
Get paper and pencil and do a quick self-check.
 
What parts of your life are you most enthusiastic about right now? This is a little different than asking what you value or what you are grateful for. What do you look forward to doing during the week? What elements of your day give you the fuel to move forward? Maybe it’s your time with family, or creative interaction with business collegues. Maybe it’s your exercise practice, a loved hobby, a new relationship, or just that first cup of good coffee in the morning.
 
There is no right answer. Be honest with yourself. If you’re enjoying the pursuit of a new endeavor or relationship, you may be feeling that enthusiasm trickle over into your whole day. If you’re going through a more difficult time, there may little or no enthusiasm that jumps out at you. If you are in the latter situation, go deeper. There are one or two things in your week that you resonate with. Take the time to identify them.

How You Lose Enthusiasm

• Doing things you think you should do without doing the things you are truly drawn to do.
• Doing things the way you have been taught they should be done instead of allowing your awareness and creativity to guide you.
• Judging and dismissing enthusiasm out of fear that it may lead you astray.
• Over doing and draining the body and mind. If you’re exhausted, the only thing you’ll feel draw to do is rest and renew because that is the most essential next step for your well-being.
• Lack of spiritual and personal rejuvenation time.
• Believing that you can never have what you truly want anyway, so what’s the point in trying.
• Believing that you can’t be a responsible adult and follow your enthusiasm at the same time.

  
Get Out of a Rut
If you are in a rut in some aspect of your life (career, relationships, finances, health, self-esteem), you can work your way out of the rut by finding your enthusiasm and following it. This does not need to happen through an extreme change in what you’re doing. Often, removing or adding small things on a daily or weekly basis is what leads to the greatest change over time. Baby steps get you started. Once you have a little enthusiasm, it naturally grows and grows. Here are a few steps you can take.
 
1) Let It Flow
First, reacquaint yourself with the feeling of enthusiasm.
As we move into adulthood, it’s common to pack away our enthusiasm as if it’s something to outgrow. We look at the natural exuberance in children and say, “how great to be a kid.” We might even associate our own enthusiasm with being immature and as a result hesitate to embrace and act on it. Notice any limitations you may have placed on yourself. Then give yourself permission to feel your enthusiasm and not judge it.
 
Saying “follow your enthusiasm” is another way of saying “be your authentic self” or "honor yourself.”  Your fun will not look like others’ fun. Avoid comparisons. Honor what’s coming out of you from enthusiasm. Find the courage to honor and embrace it.
 
2) Feel Your Heart
Unproductive mental cycling uses a lot of our conscious energy. We often treat mental cycling as a given, as if it’s normal. However, if you want to learn to discern subtle feelings like enthusiasm, you’ll need to be able to stop thinking. Awareness and intuition do not come from your mind.

One of the best ways to get out of your head is to get into your heart. Your heart center is an energetic aspect of your physical body located in the center of your chest. When you want to become more aware, you can consciously move your attention from your head into your heart area. Breathe into the area just behind your sternum and notice the physical sensations there. This moves your from thought to feeling and awareness. Allow your mind to settle down. From this place of heart-centered awareness, you’ll find it much easier to feel your enthusiasm.
 
If you find you’re drawn to behaviors that you know are not healthy or productive, look at whether you're coming from your heart or your head. There are different ways to be yourself: you have a higher self and a lower self. When you are stuck in your head, you are mroe susceptible to lower-self dramas. When you connect to your heart, you get closer to your higher self. Depending on which part of yourself you’re coming from, your ability to successfully navigate using enthusiasm will vary. Looking at yourself honestly, identifying your fears, and finding the courage to push beyond them, moves you from lower-self experience to higher self-awareness. 
 
3) Choose with Enthusiasm
Next, when you have a decision to make, experiment with using enthusiasm as your guide. Begin with small, low-risk daily choices, such as which socks or underwear to put on, which music to listen to on the way to work, or what to have for lunch. Once you get into the habit of giving your enthusiasm a voice, it will begin to speak more clearly. Then you can move to larger decisions.
 
It’s okay if a feeling of strong enthusiasm is not present at first. Always choose the option that you’re most enthusiastic about. Choose the thing that has even the smallest spark of light, enjoyment, or hope. Be conscious and commit to NOT making choices that cause you to feel deflated, apathetic, or resigned. When all else fails, simply trying something new can do the trick to spark your enthusiasm.
 
Like all inner guidance, enthusiasm will point you toward your true self, which may require seeing and healing old wounds, beliefs, and patterns. As a result, your enthusiasm may lead to situations where you may experience something other than looking good, fitting in, being right, or staying comfortably small and secure. Your personality-self may not be immediately pleased when this happens, because it's your higher self that leads the way when you let enthusiasm guide you. Have faith.
 
4) Keep an Open Eye
Become alert to new opportunities and people. Pay attention to what begins to come your way and be receptive to new possibilities.
 
You don’t need to take drastic measures to create change. Intentionally pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone a little at a time starts the repatterning process without creating drama. Once you begin to let your enthusiasm and awareness flow, the natural process of change begins and possibilities open up that you never might have thought of before. Keep your eyes and mind open, and be receptive!
 
Questions to Consider

• Do I know what my enthusiasm feels like?
• Can I list five activities/topics/experiences for which I can feel enthusiasm?
• Do I know what if feels like to be connected to my heart and how it’s different from experiencing things from my head only?
• How do I dismiss or judge my enthusiasm? Do I tend to choose looking good, fitting in, or playing safe over my enthusiastic heart’s desire?
• Out of all the things I plan to do today, which one am I most enthusiastic about? Can I make that a priority?
• Is there something I have enthusiasm for that I don’t do on a regular basis? Why? How can I begin to allow this thing into my life?

Have you noticed the tulips reaching up their stems, and the crocuses blooming in the neighborhood lawns? Ready or not, the annual spring sprouting is upon us!
 
Since the Winter Solstice in late December, the days have grown consistently longer as they always do in winter. This weekend on March 19-20 we reach the Spring Equinox, a moment when night and day come into balance. This equaling of dark and light signals the first day of spring—an event bursting with creative power.
 
Spring and the Creation Cycle
Whether you consciously tune in to it or not, the energetic influences of the seasons offer structure and support for your personal creation cycle.
 
Each year the seasons flow from the yin energy of winter (internal, passive) to the yang energy of high summer (external, active), and back again. Your personal creation cycle has a similar flow.
 
In the first stage of creation we turn inward to draw on our inner guidance and germinate the seeds of inspiration—this is like winter. The second stages invites us to come forth with our desires and reveal them to the light—this is like spring. Then as our creation takes shape, we bring it into full action and expression in the third step—this is summer. Finally, we receive the outcome or bounty of our work and begin to turn inward again—this is the harvest in the fall. 
​Here we are in spring: wet, muddy, messy, volatile, and full of promise.
 
The Energy of Spring
Spring is associated with the energy of rebirth, renewal, and the dawn of new opportunities. Eggs are associated with spring as they signify the coming of new life. Many current and ancient cultures and religions mark the time of the Spring Equinox with festivals and ritual.
 
In Greek mythology, at the Spring Equinox the Earth goddess, Demeter, reunites with her daughter, Persephone, when Persephone returns from the underworld after living there during the six months of fall and winter (this has to do with the six pomegranate seeds she ate). As Demeter rejoices, life returns to the plants and animals of the earth.
 
In the Chinese five elemental system, spring represents the wood element which carries the energy of impetus and initiative. It’s the wood element that gives the tiny seed the energy and gusto to push through the soil toward the light and begin its life.
 
These spring energies remain around us and within us for the next three months.

Wake Up and Smell the Fertile Soil
If you are still ambling through your winter slumber, if earlier sunrises and later sunsets or louder birdsong and warmer temperatures have not roused you yet, the Spring Equinox invites you back to life! It’s time to bring forth the ideas and desires that have been germinating inside you and show them the light of day.
 
Each annual creation cycle offers six months of active yang energy: three months in spring (March-June) and three months in summer (June-September). Farmers hold a keen awareness of this limited time opportunity, called the growing season. Knowing that in September the annual opportunities for new growth come to a close, farmers don’t delay planting their crops at the first opportunity of spring.
 
Like the farmers’ growing season, we are also impacted by the realities of the annual creation cycle. Jump on the spring bandwagon if you haven’t already. Move into action. The energy is ripe and the soil is ready.

Next Steps for Spring
What's been germinating for you? What seeds of ideas and visions have you been tending over the winter? How will you begin to bring them out? All creative seeds are viable--whether they lead to large external life changes like job or relationship changes or more subtle internal shifts like behavior and attitude adjustments. 
 
Don’t worry if you don’t have a 12-month plan clearly mapped out. That’s not what’s called for in early spring. Observe the seedling. Its job and sole focus at this time is to emerge from the soil and see light. What happens after that? Well, stay tuned in late spring and summer as creation takes full shape. For now, just take the the first steps into action.
 
Don’t have a clue what’s ready to come forth? You can still sync yourself to the prevailing spring energies by starting to come out in small ways. Speak your ideas in daily conversation. Share a realization with a trusted friend. Say hello to a neighbor, write a letter, turn the soil in your garden, plant seeds indoors, register for a class, do research, move your body.

As you move into action, your creativity will engage and inform your next steps. Watch and listen. Connect to your inner guidance for direction. Notice what catches your eye. Pay keen attention to those things that spark your feelings of enthusiasm. Fueled by your intuitive insight, the picture of your coming year will begin to take shape.
 
Get Messy With It
Spring discovery is naturally messy. It has to be. This exploratory going-into-action stage in the creative process requires doing things you've never done before, with trial and error. Wade into the mud and see how it feels. Use the next three months to test and examine your vision. Don't expect a straight-shot, ducks-all-in-a-row experience. Be prepared to start, fail, regroup, then try again with new insights. If you do, by Summer Solstice you'll have solid information based on real evidence, then it's full steam ahead. 

In the northern hemisphere, the longest night and shortest day of the year occurs around December 21st. This is the Winter Solstice, a powerful time on many levels. Paying attention to your own experience of these planetary shifts can help deepen your personal well-being and creativity. Let’s take a look at the energetic and creative forces of Winter Solstice.
 
The Light in the Dark
The height of the solstice lasts only a few moments. After the earth reaches maximum darkness, the cycle continues and the days begin to grow longer, culminating in the longest day of the year at the Summer Solstice on June 20.
 
Our agriculture-based ancestors knew this cycle intimately. During the darkest days of the year, they celebrated the Winter Solstice as the Festival of Light. It seems ironic to be celebrating the return of light on the darkest day of the year, but isn’t that the way our story goes on Earth—both literally and metaphorically?
 
Dark and light are a duality: two sides of the same coin, two halves of a whole. Reaching into our darkest parts brings us back to the light, and reaching our highest awareness of light reveals to us our darkest nature. Neither one is better than the other, and neither one can be eliminated on the path toward wholeness.
 
Of course, we may have preferences about dark and light—as well as resistance and judgement. The arrival of winter has an undeniable effect on our experience of life. The shorter days and colder weather naturally push us inward. We spend less time outdoors. We cover up in thick clothing. We may sleep more (if we’re lucky). Our awareness naturally pulls into the deeper parts of ourselves.  
 
In a society that values action, productivity, and assertiveness, feeling the emotions and stirrings of our inner world can be unsettling. When we keep this experience at a surface level, we may label it as depression or winter blues, judge it as bad, and try to make it go away. However, when we connect to the depth of what the season is offering and embrace it, we can transform the experience to one of purpose, deeper self-connection, and creative promise.
 
Yin/Yang and the Creative Cycle
The cycle of personal growth and change is mirrored in nature. Consider the plants and trees. In the fall they drop their leaves, fruit, and seeds. The seeds of the next generation of plants, while under the soil during the winter, rest and conserve through the winter. These seeds sprout into new life in the spring, grow to maturity in the summer, and bring forth fruit again in the fall.
 
One way to understand this process is through the Taoist concept of Yin/Yang, which is a way of explaining how the dualities and dichotomies in our world form the whole. Yang represents qualities such as active, hot, male, expansive, hard, day, and light. The yin represents qualities such as still, cool, female, contracting, soft, night, and darkness. As the seasons flow from winter to summer they pass through the qualities of yin and yang in a cyclical pattern.
 
The personal creation cycle has a similar flow from yin to yang and back again. We go inward and make decisions, drawing on our inner guidance. Then we go outward, take action, see our decisions manifest in the world. Then we step back to receive the outcome and turn inward again, reflecting on all that happened and making new decisions.
 
Nothing is exclusively yin or yang, this is why a dot of the opposite color appears within each side of the yin/yang symbol. There is always some yin in the yang, and vice versa. That said, wintertime has inherent yin qualities: stillness, cold, inwardness. The winter months provide an opportunity to consider all we’ve learned from the past and go within to birth the seeds of what we will create in the coming year. It’s a time of inner work, the deepest work we will do all year. The self-reflection work you do during the winter months, sets the foundation for what you will put forth in the spring and bring to fruition in the light of summer and fall.
 
Winter Solstice: What To Do Now
December 21st is not only the shortest day of the year, but also the first day of winter. Winter begins in in the darkest moment.  What do we find in the deepest dark? Mystery, the unknown, and the vastness of possibility. If you’re feeling “in the dark” about the next steps on your path or if your inner roadmap seems shrouded or cloudy, this is normal and natural for late December.
 
For now you can relax and let go into the feeling of not knowing. The innermost, mysterious processes of our subconscious are at work. This is not the time to figure it all out.
 
In a few weeks, as the light starts to slowly return in the beginning of January, new insights about the coming year will begin to bubble up from within you and continue throughout the winter months. Intuition will be very useful throughout this time.
 
At Winter Solstice, you can surrender to the unknown while having faith that the light will soon return. Rest when you need to, invite stillness, feel your feelings without judgment, slow down, exercise gently, and open your heart to yourself.

Each Year Has a Focus
Every year at midnight on December 31st we experience the energetic shift to the New Year. The edges of this shift can be felt starting in early December and continuing into January and beyond.

Each year has its own flavor, purpose, and focus--both universally for the world, and personally for each one of us. Our personal path for the year is determined by our own past choices as well as what's in our highest interest. This doesn’t mean that the future is fated or pre-programmed, rather there is a blueprint of opportunities for growth and expansion for each individual each year. When we connect our awareness to the energetic focus of the year, it opens doors for understanding, harmony, and resilience in the face of challenge.
 
An Alternative to Resolutions
At the beginning of a New Year, a common approach is to make New Year’s resolutions—commitments to change certain behaviors or situations. The thing about resolutions is they're usually produced in the mind using judgment about how we should look, act, feel, and be. Resolutions made with this energy are not in flow with the natural process of change (internal shifts that cause lasting, external changes). Things that are not in flow require force and raw willpower to sustain them. As a result, although well intended, these resolutions often fall along the wayside by about mid-February when willpower runs out.
 
Here’s an alternative approach for fulfillment in the coming year that involves enlisting your self-connection and your natural inner guidance system. This four-step process doesn’t require willpower or force. Instead, it’s based on deep listening and letting go to your truth. (Disclaimer: Focus, courage, and some discipline may be required!)
 
1. Find Gratitude for Yourself in the Closing Year
The best way to increase happiness, fulfillment, and success in your life is to validate and appreciate all that you've already done and received. So before looking forward to the New Year, with pen and paper in hand, take a few minutes to review the closing year.
 
Sit down, perhaps with your calendar, datebook, or journal close by as a reference, and write down the things you accomplished, created, or experienced this past year starting with January and going through to December. You don’t need to write every small action, but do capture the significant events. If you do not end up with at least one to three items per month, take a breath and look more closely!
 
For example “started doing yoga,” “finally went to the dentist,” “bought a car,” “helped my mom move,” “took a vacation,” “made a financial plan, ””changed my diet,” “met the project deadline at work,” “navigated through a difficult separation,” “built new friendships,” or “learned how to salsa.”
 
Then, sit down and reread your list. As you do, take a deep breath and focus on the center of your chest. Do your best to connect to a feeling of gratitude. Acknowledge that you possess the strength, commitment, perseverance, intelligence, creativity, and thoughtfulness that allowed you to complete these things. Find self-appreciation for all that you created. You may realize that the year that may have felt like it kicked your butt was also a year that you kicked butt! 
 
2. Find Compassion for Yourself in the Closing Year
Next, take a few minutes to consider the goals or personal standards that you did not meet. Perhaps there were situations you wished you had handled differently, or challenges that you would have liked to embrace more fully. Take note of these. Write them down.
 
You may be tempted to begin self-attack or negative self-talk as you do this. Notice this temptation, but do not engage it. This is a defensive behavior that your ego uses to keep you cycling in the same “safe” pattern over and over.
 
Instead, focus on your heart center and connect to your best maturity and courage. (Yes, it’s in there!) This will allow you to face your own shortcomings (we all have them) and see yourself more clearly, which empowers you to take responsibility and make changes as you are able. This also allows you to find compassion for yourself.
 
Before moving on to the next step, do your best to experience the feeling of compassion toward yourself. Learning to be gentle and compassionate with yourself may take a little practice. Here are some tips.

• Compassion and judgment cancel each other out. Remove judgment to get to compassion.
• Compassion is experienced when you open your heart. Soften your heart to yourself.
• Even if you don’t feel it all the way (yet), repeat this phrase for each item on your list, “Even though I [insert behavior or action], I still love and accept myself completely.”

 
As you work through this step, you may experience ah-hah moments or the feeling of stuck patterns unwinding. Write down your impressions.
 
3. Receive Guidance for the New Year
Here is where your intuition comes in. If you put all the burden on your mind to determine what to focus on next year, you will likely get an ego-influenced interpretation of what should (read: judgement) be done. Connecting to your inner guidance system provides a more neutral, supportive, and realistic approach.
 
To connect to inner guidance, take several deep breaths, drop you awareness into your body, and focus on your heart center. From here, ask an open ended question, such as
 
“What is the focus or theme for me in the New Year?”  
“What would be in my highest interest to focus on in the New Year?” or
“What would you like to tell me about the next year?”
 
Then listen and feel. Write down your impressions.
 
If you already have a prepared list of things you’d like to try or accomplish next year, you can run each one by your intuition, asking “Would it be in my highest interest to __?” or “What would you like to tell me about my intention to __?” As you do this, focus on your heart center. Feel how your body reacts as you state each item from you list. Annotate your list with your intuitive impressions.
 
You then have the opportunity to “follow your heart” by moving toward the things that resonate with your heart and letting go of (at least for now) those that don’t.

 
4) Check with Intuition Each Month
The year progresses through a natural creation cycle with a beginning, middle crescendo, and a closing. Each month the energy shifts along this progression. As time passes from month to month, nothing is set in stone. You have free will in your life: your actions today determine what happens tomorrow.
 
Sometimes it may seem that you don’t have choices, but this is a temporary illusion. Although none of them may seem easy or attractive, choices are always available to you. If you consistently follow your heart and intuition to make the healthiest choice available to you in the moment, over time you will strengthen your foundation and your life will expand and change.
 
Of course, having “free will” does not mean having a free and easy life, and it doesn’t mean that life won’t throw a stinging curve ball your way. Making choices that lead you closer to your higher truth is not for the faint of heart. It requires courage and inner strength, which grows and grows with each empowered choice.
 
Knowing this, take a few minutes each month to check in with your heart and your intuitive guidance to see what’s new! Then make the choices that will create your 2016.
___________________
 
If you would like support in wrapping up the year with appreciationg, I am available for one-on-one sessions.