Summer will soon be upon us. As we move closer to the Summer Solstice on June 21, I have recently been reflecting on the spontaneous nature of summertime. Summer represents Fire energy in Chinese medicine—like the active, expanding, quick-changing quality of dancing flames. I remember feeling free and joyful as a child when summer came and schedules lightened, allowing more time to follow whatever whim popped into my head each day—making up games in the field behind my house, calling up friends to play, or dreaming up some new creative arts project to dig into. Being a Metal element personality (forever organizing and structuring my life), I am not naturally spontaneous. Yet I do still feel such a great sense of freedom indulging in spontaneity, when I give myself the chance.
The word spontaneous is defined as “proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint” and “arising from a momentary impulse.” I find it amusing that all of my current practices and teachings—Yoga, Qigong, and Reiki—began as momentary impulses. I felt suddenly inspired and drawn to these healing arts and, more importantly, followed my impulses to study them, without so much as a tidbit of experience with them when I began. It has been 13 years since the first of these impulses hit me, and following these whims has completely changed me, my life, and my career from the inside out.
So what impulses are knocking at your door lately? Are you so structured or so busy that you resist momentary insights and opportunities? Or are you just the opposite—impulsively scattering yourself to the winds and needing more structure? Summer is a nice time to play with the balance of the fun and the serious sides of life.
And here’s a bit of spontaneity for you. Literally as I write this, I am wondering how to conclude this message, when all of a sudden, I receive my inspirational email from the DailyOM entitled, “Letting Life Unfold.” It says, “Our lives are guided by natural rhythms that are particular to each of us and cannot be altered by force of will alone. Life itself is a journey made up of processes and events that manifest before us only to be swept away when time marches on. Whether we envision ourselves creating a career, building a family, or developing the self, we instinctively know when the time has come for us to realize our dreams because all that is involved comes together harmoniously. When the time is right, the passage of destiny cannot be blocked.”
May you realize your dreams in divine moments of spontaneity.
