Summer offers the perfect invitation to notice more opportunities to slow down, be present, and appreciate the world around us. 

Summer: A Time to Be!

Summer is here: the sun is shining, the days are long, warm and for many, summer represents a time for outdoor activities, family holiday, dinners ‘al fresco’ with friends, filling us with a feeling of fun, lightness and relaxation. 

For me, it invokes childhood memories of spending time with my beloved grandmother, exploring museums with her, followed by the ritual family holiday in the south of France where I would spend my days swimming, sailing and without a care in the world. Just as Françoise Sagan would describe it in her novel ‘Bonjour Tristesse’: ‘From dawn onward I was in the water. It was cool and transparent, and I plunged wildly about in my efforts to wash away the shadows and dust of Paris. I lay stretched out on the sand, took up a handful and let it run through my fingers in soft, yellow streams. I told myself that it ran out like time. It was an idle thought, and it was pleasant to have idle thoughts, for it was summer.’

While the summers of my childhood were always full of fun, relaxation and appeared to be never ending, as I grew older, I sadly have noticed that the summers of my adulthood have become more stressful, remaining constantly busy with ‘must do’ lists and an overall sense of not really switching off this ‘work’ button…

I don’t think I am alone in this either… Everywhere I look, I see plenty of my family members and friends juggling with increasingly busy work and home life schedules, which threaten their summer’s promised relaxation and well earned rest. Moreover, for the last two years, we have been through a global pandemic and have faced unprecedented levels of social upheaval, environmental destruction, and political discord. This is called ‘VUCA’ ( short for Volatility. Uncertainty. Complexity. Ambiguity) and it has been researched by Neuroscientist Amishi Jha in her lab at the University of Miami. 

So, what could we try do to have this wonderful, blissful and relaxing summer that we have been yearning for so long?

Here are my three tips and one recommendation.

 1. Slow down

The first step toward slowing down and becoming more mindful is noticing that you are rushing! So next time you need to complete a task, double the time you think it will take to complete it. 

What you can also do is to gently and deliberately invite yourself to physically move more slowly. Whatever you are “doing,” slow it down by at least 25% - reading, walking etc… Then observe yourself in this moment with mindful awareness by paying more attention to the movements of the body, the muscles, the breath… By physically slowing yourself down, you are also allowing your thoughts and emotions to slow down as well, thus stimulating your parasympathetic nervous system which activates a mental and physical experience of calm and relaxation.

2.  Be present

If you are not very familiar with mindfulness, then at this stage, you could simply be focusing on your senses - right now, what can you see, hear, smell, touch and taste. 

The method for being present is fairly simple and here’s how to do it: whatever you’re doing, right now, learn to focus completely on doing that one thing. Focusing the attention on every aspect of what you’re doing.  What are the sensations in the body from the top of the head all the way down to the toes. Then maybe noticing any thoughts, emotions and any impulses… Simply registering without judgement all these elements of your experience in this moment. 

3. Appreciate the world around you

As it is summer, spend time outdoors and notice the beauty of the natural world around you! Whether you are walking on a peaceful, golden beach or wandering through the woods, take it all in! Slow down the walk and focus on the details of the world around you, the colour of the trees, the smell of the grass, the sound of the waves… 

These to me, are my little tips for appreciating the joys of this summer and I would invite you to join me this summer in taking time to “just be.”

Of course, my final recommendation would also be:  to practise mindfulness! 

If you would like to know more about it, come and have a little peruse on my website. 

Wishing you a restful and restorative summer,

Sophie