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5 Summer Solstice Rituals for Optimal Health and Energy

The Summer Solstice is around the corner (06/22). It’s time to reanalyze our health and let the light and energy in. The Solstice is a global moment celebrated throughout the world. Crazy, right? It’s a time to take the sun and all its power to nourish ourselves. Who’s ready for some of the longest days of the year?

There’s no better time to add in some new rituals. Here are 5 things I do in preparation for the coming season.

5 Summer Solstice Rituals

Cook with lighter, brighter foods. There are so many seasonal summer plants to cook with. Some of my favorites include strawberries, watermelon, tomatoes, squash, corn, cucumbers… YUM!!!
Rise and set with the sun. You might find yourself waking up early and staying up later. I try to use this time to get outside. For us here in LA, it’s a great time to connect to nature. I love to go on early morning beach walks with my pup. Shhhh, don’t tell the lifeguards!
Enjoy the outdoors. It’s the perfect season to take your coffee, lunch, or dinner outside. 20 minutes of sunshine gives your immune system the boost that we all need!
Set your summer intentions. It is a beautiful time to focus on nourishment and patience. What are you looking to improve on in these categories? My current mantra is, “I am my own power, my own light, my own fire.”
Write out gratitude statements. You’ll fill your cup and find more abundance in the day-to-day. This summer, my gratitude statement is, “I am grateful for all the mistakes I have made through life, through work, through my relationships. They have shaped me into the person I am today.”

I wanted to share with you my favorite summer recipe, Spicy Thai Lettuce Wraps. I grow my own veggies with my Lettuce Grow Farmstand, but you can easily pick up all the ingredients from the farmer’s market (or store).

Spicy Thai Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground chicken
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion
¼ hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sriracha
2 green onions, sliced
1 Chopped jalapeno (Optional)
Trader Joes sweet chili pepper sauce (optional)
Salt and ground pepper

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a saucepan, add ground chicken until brow. Drain the fat.
Stir in onion, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and sriracha until incorporated. (~2 minutes)
Add in the chestnuts and green onions and continue to combine. (~2 minutes)
Separate the butter lettuce leaves. Add one big spoonful of the chicken mix in the center.
Sprinkle on salt, pepper, and jalapeno. I love to add TJ’s sweet chili pepper sauce (optional)
ENJOY!!!!

What are your Summer Solstice Rituals?

The benefits of dry brushing

Are you looking for the best way to rejuvenate your skin? Dry brushing is a massage for your body utilizing a bristled brush to help increase circulation, open pores, and exfoliate your skin. While it seems to be one of the many “trends,” dry brushing is an ancient ayurvedic practice.

What are the benefits of dry brushing?

While dry brushing has many benefits, I’ve noticed an increase in energy. For this reason, I typically do my dry brushing in the morning right before I shower and relish the feeling all day. By exfoliating the dry skin, my pores are clear, and my skin feels smooth and firm. I attribute an overall health and wellness practice, including dry brushing, to help increase Lymphatic Drainage.

Dry brushing has made me more aware of my skin. Before you begin your practice, take a good look at all areas of your skin to see if there are areas you need to avoid and to monitor your changes.

Who makes the best dry brush?

OSEA, of course! I LOVE everything about Osea. Osea, a family-owned business, was the first company to sign The Compact for Global Production of Safe Health and Beauty Products in 2020. Their mission is to ensure products are free of chemicals known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation, or congenital disabilities. Osea products are all plant-based, gluten-free, and cruelty-free. (Learn More)

PRO TIP: Purchase two dry brushes so you can get it done in half the time.

How to dry brush.

Starting at the feet, brush upward to the knee. Make your way to your thigh, continuously brushing upward. Don’t be shy. Get your WHOLE leg!
Repeat with your arms. Start at your hands and work upward toward your shoulder.
On the stomach and armpits, brush in a circular clockwise pattern.
Repeat the process on the back. Bonus, this is also a great shoulder stretch.
Brush outward along the chest towards the armpit to assist in circulation flowing toward the armpit lymph.
Follow up with a shower and add your favorite body oil. My favorite is Osea’s Undaria Algae Body Oil.

Sensitive Skin?

Remember to start slowly and build your skin’s tolerance. Begin with once every couple of weeks and progress to one or two times a week. You might start with just a dab of lotion on your brush in the beginning. You shouldn’t need to go over any area with more than two swipes.

Brush Maintenance.

Keep your brush clean. Gently wash with soap. Rinse well. Set the brush out to dry. Don’t let your brush sit in wet or damp spaces. Don’t share your brush with others.

Let’s Cultivate Growth

Happy Spring! Did you know Spring is a time of GROWTH? The days get longer, the temperature warms up, and signs of new life are all around. Personally, it’s the perfect time for you to reflect and grow too. Are you ready to sprout your new shoots and grow?

In a few days, I’ll celebrate a not-so-big birthday … 29! It seems time has flown by, so I’m gearing up to make the last 365 days of this decade the best they can be! This season I’m focused on finding meaning and purpose in my personal and business life while nurturing my relationships. What are you gearing up for in this new season?

Have you heard of the 5 Pillars of a Happy Life: Relationships and Love, Career, Money & Time, Health & Fitness, and Personal & Spiritual Growth? For the next month, I challenge you to cultivate GROWTH. To begin, name one thing you can do to develop, diversify and amplify each pillar. Here is mine:

Relationship & Love – reach out to an old friend to catch up and set up a weekly date night!
Career – enroll in a marketing seminar and a Pilates workshop to enhance my skill set.
Money & Time – schedule time to focus on economic expansion for the studio.
Health & Fitness – workout 4-5 days per week + 1 sauna session.
Personal & Spiritual Growth – meditate 2x a week and journal once a week.

Now for the challenging part, putting those thoughts and words into actions. Do you know what the difference between a Dream and a Goal is? It’s a plan. In the wise words of Moliere, “It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.” Will you join me on this journey to cultivate growth?

How To Begin Setting Boundaries

Do you feel as if you are never caught up, or your life is not your own? Do you question the legitimacy of your own needs? Would you do almost anything to avoid hurting others? I know I did! I knew something needed to change and I needed to learn how to begin setting boundaries in my life.

Pushing my limit has always been a given for me. In my mind, it feels right to test where’s my edge and what can be accomplished. For a while, it worked, and I felt like I could do anything, be anyone. What I didn’t realize was how quickly I was heading for something called burnout.

I hit that burnout limit as a small business owner during the COVID Pandemic in 2020. I pushed myself day after day after day, trying to make ends meet. My feet would ache from teaching 12+ hours. I would lose my voice by the end of the week and need to pop a cough drop to make it through the weekend. At that moment, I was so grateful to continue to work and wanted to give my clients my absolute best. Every time I would second guess myself, I’d remember how blessed I was and push through. At the end of the day, I had nothing left to offer, not to my partner, not to my dog, not even myself.

It finally dawned on me that I needed to make a change. I needed to set my limits and figure out before it all fell apart. In my quest to figure out how to set boundaries for myself, I explored what gave me energy and what was draining my life. Once I figured out what was most important for me, it became clear what I needed and where I had to make changes.

Take a moment and ask yourself…

What brings joy to my day?
When is my energy the highest?
What are my non-negotiable rituals?
What does “”ME”” time look like?
What do I need to do to start and end my day well?
What drains my energy? (This may be a person)
What are my day-to-day necessities? Can I cover them?

Now, picture you on your best day. What does that look like?

What I realized was…

I can’t work at 6am anymore, my body doesn’t agree with it.
Weekends need to be reserved for business administrative work and cultivating healthy relationships.
Movement is non-negotiable for me. It gives me inner peace.
Meal prepping keeps me feeling healthy and abolishes triggers for me.
Walking my dog and dry brushing every morning gives me a routine that naturally wakes me up.
It’s time to retire some clients that don’t serve me anymore.
Sleep is underrated and should be at the top of my list every day.

My time, my energy, and my life are SACRED. With a new year, 2021 brought MAJOR change. The boundaries I’ve set are to help me be the best I can be.

Do you need to re-evaluate your boundaries? Let’s do it together.

Intentions and Rituals

Let me start by saying, I am a believer in change. I do think we have the potential to make massive shifts in our own lives, and that is empowering. However, I am not a believer in New Year’s resolutions. I think people try to make unrealistic habits on January 1 and fail by February 1. Why? Because change is HARD. It requires much more than people think, and it can happen at any time, not just the start of a new calendar year.

That’s why I want to teach you how I turn intentions into rituals anytime.

I’m bringing into 2021 the reminder to Be Present, to focus on taking each day, each moment, as it comes. I have felt the progression in my business, relationships, and life by taking these steps through this chaotic year to create long-lasting change.

Here are 5 steps I take to make significant change happen permanently:

Identify the Why and the How. Why are you making this change? How will you follow through? For instance, I want to eat more vegetables. When I first figure out WHY this is important to me, I then have something real to fall back on when it gets hard. It could be a short-term why, long-term why, or both. Dive deeper. Once I know WHY I’m doing it, the HOW becomes easier to figure out. It can be as simple as meal prepping 1x a week or tossing an extra handful of spinach into my smoothie every morning. There are always options and obstacles, but having a plan makes it easier to pivot when the time comes.
Physically write it down. Make it tangible. Please put it on a piece of paper! I am more artistic, and I love having imagery ALL over my intention page. It helps my brain connect. Writing things down also enables you to focus on what’s important.
Take baby steps. You’ve heard the saying, “it’s not the destination but the journey that’s important.” When you try to bite off more than you can chew, it’s easier to get down on yourself for a “perceived slip up” and then give up. Your journey has been cut short. Instead of going from 1 class a week to 5, try adding another workout each month. Once you’ve mastered that, add more. We must make little changes for long-lasting results.
Remove triggers. For every change made, we are replacing a habit that we picked up along the way. Anyone else working from home and finding themselves working on the couch or makeshift office space these days? Anyone else looking to work on their posture? If you are looking to stand up straighter, first look at what is making you slouch. What can you do to remove these triggers? Maybe invest (or DIY) a standing desk. Perhaps it’s intentionally taking a walk for your lunch break. My watch reminds me to stand if I’ve been sitting too long. What’s practical for you that removes your triggers?
Be kind to yourself. This one is harder than you think. It’s so easy to listen to the voice that finds all the faults. Instead, be your own cheerleader. Replace “I didn’t follow my diet plan today” with “tomorrow I will give my body the fuel it needs to thrive.” Life isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress.

I can do this. You can do this. Won’t you join me in solidifying new rituals this year, one intention at a time?

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