what have you been avoiding?
did you know you can sip nectar from sage flowers?
Summer Solstice is fast approaching. As our solar energies strengthen, time seems to speed up. Day are at once longer and shorter. The small tasks of life can feel overwhelming: where is the time going? How on earth am I to get all of this done?
For me, Summer Solstice each year is a kick-in-the-pants: where am I at with my Intentions?
I look back to what I wrote down at Winter Solstice, all hopeful with possibility and vastly optimistic. Have I made progress? Have I taken action? This holiday of whimsy and fairies also reminds me that I need to actually do things to make my dreams come true.
This year, Summer Solstice is arriving in the wake of a particularly intense Eclipse season. Eclipses upend the usual balance of Light and Dark, turning life upside-down, forcing us to look at all the ick we'd rather avoid. They shine the light in the musty areas of our consciousness, open the doors that creak on their hinges and swat away the cobwebs acting as a veil.
Take a moment, take a breath, and think back to your Intentions for the year. Or, if you didn't write Intentions, think about that One Big Dream you have, the thing you're working on that's gnawing at you, the situation you'd create if you had a magic wand. Call it forth in your heart.
Now, ask yourself: what is action I've been avoiding taking?
What is the one thing you know you've got to do to make that dream come true?
It might be a truth you need to speak, work you need to do, or something that seems irrelevant but you just feel like it's the next step. (Often those "irrelevant" actions can unravel the whole tangled pattern you've been working on for years.)
When it comes to our dreams, we always know what the next step is, deep down.
The hard part isn't knowing the next step, it's convincing ourselves to do it. It's gathering the courage to make a dramatic move, to disappoint someone, to speak a hard truth, to take up space in the world. It's being honest with ourselves about something we'd rather deny. It's committing to authenticity over comfort, even if that means hurting someone's feelings.
There's a reason you've been avoiding taking this action. In my experience, it's one of three things:
1) Fear. There's something you're scared of.
2) You've lost interest. Turns out, you don't actually want this anymore.
3) You're taking secret pleasure in the situation you say you want to change.*
*this is actually always true. The faster you can find the secret pleasure, admit it to yourself, and embrace it, the faster you can release the situation.
After you do some journalling and soul-searching to figure out what's keeping you from taking action, this is what I recommend:
Harness the power of the sun to propel you to action.
That sounds mighty grand, doesn't it?
Listen, we're at PEAK SOLAR ENERGY. If you can't connect with the sun now, then when can you? The sun fuels all life on earth, including yours. You eat the sun, you drive the sun, you're cooling your home with the sun as we speak. Surely you can consciously tap into this energy.
You can let this be simple.
Stand outside, in full sun. Take deep breaths, imagining the sun flowing into your body, filling you with its energy. Call forth the action in your heart. Let it ride down to your solar plexus on the waves of the sun, and feel it emanating out from your body like the sunshine Care Bear, beaming your influence upon the world around you. Let the sun give you courage, strength, and a bit of force behind your action. Stand in this potency for as long as you like. Thank the sun when you're done.
Want some accountability? Respond to this email with action you're going to take... and then email me again when you've done it ;)
brightly yours,
Amanda
P.S. Want to work with the magic & whimsy of Summer Solstice? Eager to make fairy friendships? Check out The Outward Spiral: A Summer Solstice Celebration.