Summer is a time for fun, excitement, action, and love. There’s a reason that many people experience a free-spirited joy during the year’s hottest months. In addition to the halt of academic studies, the season brings a unique energy that fuels passions and liberates minds.
Qi Gong is a practice that teaches us how to harness the gifts of nature and the seasons for personal empowerment. This blog post will talk about the elemental forces of summer, and discuss how humans can utilize these energies for health and happiness.
The Heart and Fire Element
In Qi Gong, each season is associated with a different element, and summer is the season of fire. The fire element is related to the heart, which contains powerful emotional energy that drives who we are. While “The Summer of Love” may refer to a historic social movement in the Haight-Ashbury in 1967, it also describes the experiences of many couples each and every year.
Summer has a way of provoking the fires of the heart to lead us to new emotional experiences. When fire and heart energy is directed in a healthy way, we can feel joy and happiness circulating throughout our body. Because our hearts yearn for connection with others, summer can be a great time to share experiences with those we care about.
Like all good things in life, there is a flip side to the infusion of fiery heart energy that summer brings. When our heart energy is directed in a way that isn’t healthy, we can feel negativity towards others or yourself. In extreme cases, this can manifest as hatred or self-loathing.
As mindful individuals, it’s our job to cultivate the positive experiences and transform the harmful. One of the things we love about Qi Gong is how it helps us bring awareness to what is and isn’t serving us. Excessive busyness, hastiness, stress, and taking on others’ negative emotional states can all harm the heart. This is reflected in the western medical understanding that stress and anxiety lead to elevated blood pressure, which is bad for the heart.
Because of this, it’s even more important than usual to pay attention to our surrounding environment, and how much busyness we take on.
Therefore, Qi Gong for Summer focuses on how we can keep our own emotional energy intact. By learning how to direct our emotional experiences towards love and joy, we can celebrate the season in a positive and fulfilling way.
A Season for Being Alive
Although it’s wise to avoid excessive busyness or stress during the summer months, this does not mean you shouldn’t take massive action. Summer is a perfect time for letting the fire of your heart drive you to new heights, be it through work or play. The important thing is to make sure you do it in a way that is positive, and that allows enough time to rest between your adventures.
Qi Gong for Summer helps us to tune into what we truly enjoy doing, both in and through our body. This means you can harness your emotional energy and transform it into positive action. Getting out and having fun outside with friends and family is a perfect example of letting your heart energy direct your life through taking action.
Summer and fire speak to what we’re most excited and passionate about in life, and what we want to create. Perhaps you’ve been thinking about a new project or business you want to start, but you haven’t yet made that leap. By tapping into your natural heart energy, it becomes more possible to jump in and take action on that new venture you’ve been thinking about.
As mentioned above, not all experiences of the heart are fun and joyful. For many, intensified emotions can bring sadness and suffering. It’s very important not to ignore such feelings, but we also don’t want to take action from a place of pain or negativity. Part of Qi Gong for Summer is learning how to use the energy we experience for transformation and growth.
If you light a fire in the hearth it can warm the house and bring people together for marshmallows and smores. Light the same fire on the roof, and you’ll destroy the entire home. Fire can be used for positive and negative, and the same is true with the energy of the heart.
Every forest fire leaves behind a rich and fertile soil for new life to blossom. Suffering is a natural part of life, but if we suffer skillfully, we can use our sorrow to give birth to new and beautiful creations. Part of celebrating joy is knowing how to transform suffering, and Qi Gong for Summer helps us to learn those skills.
Qi Gong for Summer Workshop
At Holden QiGong, we’ve put together a special Qi Gong for Summer workshop to help you awaken your heart to its fullest potential. The workshop teaches several powerful practices to nourish and protect your heart fire and share deeply with others.
Like all of Lee’s workshops, Qi Gong for Summer puts ideas into reality by helping you to truly embody the lessons through felt experience. Whether you’re seeking to compost old emotions, harness your action-taking creativity, or connect more deeply to others, this workshop offers you the perfect opportunity. This is a recorded workshop and can be practiced from the comfort of your own home. The wisdom of summer is waiting to be enjoyed, so be your best self by jumping in and cultivating the tools to live life to the fullest.
Click the banner below to learn more or to purchase Lee’s Qi Gong for Summer workshop today.