Fire Element: The Energy of Summer

Summer is the season of the Fire Element.  

The energy of summer can be both a blessing and a curse. The Fire Element represents passion, zeal, fervor and inspiration, but if you don't know how to contain your fire, you'll quickly be consumed by it. 

Over-excitement may turn to disinterest or disappointment. Excessive joy becomes hysteria. Intense passion can easily transform into obsession.  

With every change of season, we need to reassess the balance point between not enough and too much.

When the summer solstice coincides with a full moon it’s hard to miss the intensity of that much yang energy!  You may notice more difficulty sleeping, hypersensitivity both emotionally and physically, a feeling of overwhelm, skin irritations or a change in digestion.

These aren’t coincidental phenomena, they are the result of yang energy dominating the physical, emotional, and spiritual landscape of your human form.  There is a cultural tendency to perceive time as linear and finite.  

Time in reality is cyclical....seasons, moon cycles, sunrise, sunset, high tide, low tide, these things are on a constant loop, and so, too, are you. So, how are you feeling right now? Aligned? Scattered? Frenzied? Focused? Calm? Bored? Motivated? Overwhelmed? Underwhelmed?

My guess is, you feel noticeably different than you did in the middle of winter, but probably about the same as you did last summer.

And the summer before that, and the summer before that.

Finding the balance between too much and not enough is about tuning into the nature of NOW.

During this fire-y, expansive, yang time, it’s easy to get swept up in a flurry of activity, which explains why so many of us feel like time speeds up in the summer.  

I'm a do-er; someone who rarely sits idle.  I'll admit it, I have a tendency to take on too much, and from what I can tell, most of my patients have the same problem.  And the problem with that is that over-doing and pushing the limits eventually leads to self immolation.  Burn out.  

This is why it's so important to contain your fire element

Learning to contain your excitement and exuberance, moderate physical activity, say "no" to unnecessary doing and stay energized, takes a certain harnessing of power.

What does that mean anyway....harnessing of power?

Harnessing personal energy might sound new age-y and abstract, but I think even the most logical and level-headed of beings can get on board with this: you have a finite amount of energy to distribute across the demands of the day and stretching beyond that boundary will drain you and leave you feeling burnt out.In summer, in particular, we feel like we have a lot more resources because the days are longer, our qi has moved upward and outward from the bones toward the skin and there is more energy available from the sun, our food and life.    

Proceed modestly: this increase in energy supply can fast become an energy deficit if we don’t contain ourselves. Obsessing, worrying, over-talking, over-thinking, over-exercising, over-reacting, over-analyzing, over-working, over-eating and over-doing are all activities that consume energy.The result of all this energy output is a loss of power.  

You lose your potency when you are in constant motion. So chill out, do less, and enjoy these moments.  You will be much more effective when it’s time to get down to business.