Seeing as we are in a fire horse year, only days away from its most peak fire expression (in the northern hemisphere) I want to emphasize to anyone prone to imbalance, especially towards burnout and heat, dryness, fatigue, heart or anger issues, hyper tension, etc - your entire goal should be to not extinguish your deep inner flame while not ever burning out your reservoir of deep water and yin balance held deep down in the root of us. The Heart is about to come into season and for many it will be a parched, unstable, chaotic and imbalanced, swollen, burnt out experience.
These are the exact things I would prioritize over the next 3-4 months (start now and get in a few days of practice) to keep the body from burning out and becoming too imbalanced in this expression of cosmology and nature :
Early sleeps & guard your sleep like it’s first line medicine
Rise with the morning but get rid of late sleeps over the next season (exhausting, depleting of yin / dehydrating)
Practice periods of purposeful silence (no phones, podcasts, tv, just silence for 10 minutes here and there)
Go walking, especially among the trees (seek lush green, mosses, ferns, shade)
Laying the kidneys on the ground when it’s not too cold a surface / warm hands over the kidneys while you give them Qi.
When outside in nature spend time in or near bodies of water
Avoid all forms of conflict (and high drama people or groups)
Give your day some proper scheduling so it can depend on things like steady meals and reliable bed times. Let your body know it can count on you for consistent food and rest times (this is huge)
Keep your living spaces cool, darker and quiet (but keep your body warm (not hot) within it - like a gentle radiant cocoon)
Prioritize steady movement over intensive exertion (tai chi, qigong, swimming, stretching, gardening, yoga - especially yin yoga)
Eat foods that nourish your fluids and moderate heat (cucumbers, pears, zucchinis, melons, broths, berries, peach, snow fungus (tremella), goji, oysters and clams, jammy duck eggs, lily bulb, mung bean)
Eat foods associated with the water element & kidneys (sea vegetables, black or adzuki beans, blueberry & blackberry, mineral rich broths
Protect your body & spirit from overstimulation (this goes for how you hold your thoughts as well)
Keep a gentle, calm mind that can let go of things. Do not grasp.
Cultivate joy without over-excitement. Think like a monk or Buddha thinks just for now - a grounded presence and gentle gaze, a non attachment and general appreciation that is still within and felt, but not loud and taxing. There is a difference between a contented heart and a stimulated one.
All summer, be very mindful of excessive heat. This year it may affect you much more acutely or noticeably.
Think lakes, rivers, rains and springs in a sunrise or sunset. Soft gaze and connections with ground around you when going about your days.
Woodland, shade, water, repeat (etc)
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Foods to avoid :
Hot spices unless you have a constitutional medicinal need for something, alcohol, caffeine, coffee and energy drinks, smoking, fried foods, excessive sugar intake of processed foods and grilled or charred meats.
Avoid the tendency as well to fight online, or grasp world events and especially to doomscroll. Even worse is doomscrolling at night.
Practice slow breathing into your belly every day. Inhale 4, exhale 8 - that kind of thing. Sip the air through the rolled tongue placed rolled between your lips, gently out (to sip the cool air) - Even ten minutes twice a day.
Best sounds you can play for yourself are gentle moving water - even a water element in your room to turn water.
Adopt the practice of slow movement and things like havening or meditations.
Acu points that you should memorize and press in the worst of it :
Liver 3
Pericardium 6
Heart 7
Kidney 1
Look these up with “acupuncture point” after them on a search engine and you’ll find the right locations.
You’ve got this.
🙏🏻💧🌲🌊⛲️
Sensual summer: regulating your nervous system, sunbathing naked, eating fresh fruit with honey under the sun, writing poetry under a tree, going on morning walks wearing silk/cotton dresses, walking barefoot on the beach, taking warm magnesium baths, dancing under the moonlight
the love you receive from someone who knows how to be alone is the most sincere love there is. because a solitary soul loves you by choice, not out of the need for company or to fill a void.
After Lemonade she could've played it safe. Instead she did a Disney collab and used it to fund, direct, & star in a love letter to Africa. She hired 60+ Black/ African directors, designers, choreographers, and put them on the global stage.
Mount Rushmore = IMPACT beyond charts.
i have to treat my body better, not to attract a lover or an audience, but because my body is a conduit for the entire life experience. this body is a container for all possible consciousness. it is my job to live a life that this enhanced vessel can sustain with ease and joy .
This is free advice from an expensive psychologist. If you’re an anxious person, do everything for fun. Go to a job interview for fun. Submit documents for fun. Start a blog for fun. Anxiety feeds on importance. Don’t make everything a matter of life and death.