Summer Solstice

When wisdom is elusive, one of the most valuable practices we can do is return to our very small, very present moment. Always available in these moments is what supports us in a very literal way. 

Finding it hard to breathe? Feel where your body meets the chair. And notice what happens when your awareness touches into that space. 

Struggling to get to sleep? Sense the weight of your body against what you are laying on. Notice the shifts in your body and your breath. Sense the contact points where your body meets surface. 

Overwhelmed by the extremes of the world? Take a pause and allow your awareness to touch into where your physical body meets the floor, (the bed, the chair, the cushion, the tree, the ground, or whatever supports you underneath). And then take a moment (or many moments) to notice how it feels to be supported, literally. 

So much of world right now is overwhelming, disorienting, heady, curated, heart-tugging, and supersonic-filled-data-streams. In a world that is fast, our nervous systems find nourishment in slow. The simple and profound act of returning to where our physical bodies are supported is the antidote our nervous systems crave while living in this way-too-much-world. 

In this season of extremes - the winter and summer solstices - my invitation is to practice the miniature art of returning to the contact points that meet our bodies and really let our consciousness sink. This practice is best done with little efforting, repeatedly throughout the day. As you sit in a meeting, or at the dinner table, this is a sacred practice to infuse our very real daily lives, and return us to ourselves again and again. 

And I definitely recommend it when we are most stressed, and feel we have little reserves to even blink an eye. Maybe blink and notice where and how your eyelashes touch each other.

While we all may not have the support we need in a variety of spheres, (spiritual, emotional, relational, communal, intellectual, physical) we always have the support of earth & gravity. And in moments of despair, when we may question “do I belong?”, the earth - the greatest support for each one of us - will always answer with a commanding and affirming YES. 

Solstice Blessings,

Valerie ​