mindfulness
Sustainable Energy for the Summer
When you think of Summer, what comes to mind first? The food, the fun, the sun, the freedom, the energy?
How can you stay well in the season that encourages us to constantly live in euphoric energy when you may actually need a restorative pause mid-year?
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It’s easy when you truly allow Summer to keep its promise of relief, renewal and rest to restore you fully. There’s a little bit of JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) involved but leaning into this space will allow you to truly enjoy the season and the rest of the year in your highest energy and health.
Tending to 4 specific areas will ensure that you stay well throughout the Summer and beyond…
- Self-Care Rituals
Self-care rituals are the foundation of wellness, so if you are already practicing self-care, then keep going. It can be tempting to pause on those rituals in favour of a new Summertime routine. However, maintaining your established self-care rituals will help you keep a focus on yourself and your needs so that you don’t become drained or depleted without noticing and preventing it.
If you haven’t yet started a self-care ritual, there are many ways to go about it and this article will offer a few ideas on how to begin. The focus needs to be on short but powerful activities that you can do every day that will nourish you on all levels. The more you keep the promise to yourself around self-care rituals, the more you become self-caring in every moment. Plus, Summer is the perfect time to dive into a new self-care practice.
- Sleep
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Sleep is one of the most common self-care rituals that tends to get neglected in the Summer. Yet it is the fuel that will help us to maintain sustainable energy and health throughout the season and beyond. Sleep restores every function in the body and the brain and replenishes our reserves of energy. It helps us truly make the most of every day by allowing us to awaken and activate our energy. Being well-rested also helps us to make decisions about our self-care that will help us thrive. Sleep requires that we tend to and invest in it every single night. Here’s where some JOMO is required because it will probably require that you gift yourself some earlier nights than you’re used to.
- Cultivate a deeply relaxing night-time ritual to help you calm your nervous system and enjoy your best sleep
- Optimize your bedroom and clothes to help you sleep even on the hottest Summer nights
- Help yourself feel sleepy for bedtime by getting more sunlight (both direct and indirect) in the morning and in the early part of the day and dimming the lights at home in the evening.
- Food and Drink
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Summer has its share of foods that can be labelled as “healthy” and “not-so healthy” and it’s our choice to decide how we feel about those foods once we know how those foods make us feel. Then we can make aligned decisions and eat without or with less guilt. It’s okay to allow yourself to eat both “good” foods and to indulge in some of the foods you may judge as “bad” while keeping things in reasonable proportion. Think 80/20.
- Focus on hydrating early in the day (starting when you wake up through to the late afternoon) to avoid waking at night because of dehydration or late-evening hydrating
- Take advantage of the nutrient-dense fresh foods that are available in the Summer with mindfulness so that you can combine foods optimally and take a break if you have any digestive upset or energy fluctuations
- Ensure that smoothies and meals contain proteins, fats, fibber and ferments to help with blood sugar balancing, and feeling satiated and nourished.
- Rest and Slowing Down
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In the Summer it can be tempting to stay out late at night for a break from the hot weather, enjoy relaxing in the late sunsets and then over-plan activities during the day for ourselves and our families. The extra energy we naturally feel from the fresh air and sunlight can make us feel that our energy has no end. But powering through without restoring our energy will catch up with us at some point either with a mid-Summer cold or other symptom of feeling unwell, unmotivated or overtired either now or later in the year. Daytime rest is the key to preventing exhaustion from taking over.
- Create a midday rest ritual (this is a keeper year-round) that will allow you to restore for the second half of the day and that will also help you relax and fall asleep more easily at bedtime
- Use the mid-day hours when the sun is at it’s hottest to spend time either outside in the shade to work or relax. This will be energizing and invigorating and will help you to stay focused with the continuous flow of oxygen and natural light
- You can also use this time to take a nap either inside or outside in a strategic way (either a restorative lie down, a power nap or a longer nap with a full-cycle of sleep)
- Set your intentions for this Summer and how you want to feel throughout the season. Choose what goes on your calendar with the intention of letting go of the activities that deplete you in favour of those that nourish you.
Which of these areas of self-care and ideas spoke to you the most? Focusing on those will help you to have sustainable energy and health you’re craving this Summer. Wishing you a self-caring Summer with new wellness practices that nourish your body, mind, heart and soul and keep you glowing all year long.
About the author:
Alexandra is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach helping mompreneurs glow with next-level energy to support their business and family with more to spare for their self-care. She supports her clients through private coaching, local workshops and her Facebook group That Mompreneur Glow.http://www.bit.ly/glowingsleepsecrets
