Journaling for the Summer Solstice: Creative Living with Jamie eps 286

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Creative Living with Jamie Episode 286:
Journaling for the Summer Solstice

As we celebrate the arrival of summer, let’s journal together to find the joys of the season and explore the magic of fire!

Resources & Mentions

Transcript

Introduction

Welcome to Creative Living with Jamie. I’m your guide Jamie Ridler and on this podcast you and I are going to go on a great many adventures together. We’ll explore all aspects of what it means to live a creative life and we’ll embrace ourselves as artists. We’ll get curious, we’ll wonder and we’ll follow inspiration. We’ll wrestle with tough questions and we’ll brave challenges and sometimes will ask our friends for help. Along the way we will discover our courage, our confidence, ourselves and one another. We’ll come to know our artistic hearts and from there we will create. And that’s when the magic happens.

Episode

Hey, everybody,

Happy summer solstice. I am sending you such bright and warm blessings on this, the longest day of the year. May the sun shine upon you and all your hopes and dreams. 

I wanted to do something a little special for the occasion so I created a little journaling workshop for you, one that will help you connect to the kind of summer that you want to create and also tune you in to the powerful energy of fire. 

This is another crossover episode with Creative Living TV so you can either participate with this podcast, as you are, or you can head on over to YouTube and participate with the video. Whichever you decide is absolutely perfect. I’ll leave a link to the YouTube channel in the show notes. 

Now, grab your journal, a pen and 20 minutes and dive into this creative time of intuitive self-discovery. Let us journal our way into summer.

Summer Solstice Journaling Workshop

Hey there, it’s Jamie Ridler from Jamie Ridler Studios and I wanted to come by today and do some solstice celebrating with you. The summer solstice is right around the corner, and whether you decide to save this to do on the day or whether you join me in this moment when you have discovered this video or sometime thereafter, trust that this is on your path for a reason, that there is some magic to be uncovered in this journal practice we’re going to do today.

Now, celebrations for summer feel to me like we’re doing something rather introspective in being in our journals, but I really encourage you to celebrate by some lively creative expression. I encourage you to sing for the Solstice. I encourage you to dance on the Solstice (maybe I’ll even leave a link today). One of the things I truly love is to first spend time in my journal doing some creative practice, some introspection, getting in touch with my soul in this moment and the spirit of this season, and then once I have discovered that wisdom, once I’ve unearthed what wants to be revealed, then I want to dance it into my body, into my cells. I want to dance and release out anything that needs to go. I want to sweat out that feeling of release, acceptance, joy, whatever it is that has come up for you.

So I encourage you to spend this time with me, to get in touch with yourself and then, boom, to step into the summer fire and let yourself move or sing or shout or run or just use your body in some way.

Summer is the season of fire, so that includes waking up your inner heat, embracing it. I know, I know, I know. Not all of us are fond of summer heat, myself included. My mom used to say that she melted in the summer and I feel the same way, but one of the things that I always want us to do is to find what is special about this time of year. What is unique to this time of year? How can we embrace it? 

If that means sweat and slowing down, then maybe we find a way to not try to push through that and treat it like every other day, but to say, “Hey what would it mean if in the summer I slowed down? What if that were possible? What if it were possible for one day out of the week? What if it were possible for one hour out of the day?”

Okay, so first grab your journal. You just need something to write with and something to write on. It could be a journal and a pen. It could be some loose paper and a pencil. It could be a gel pen in a beautiful color. It doesn’t matter. All you need is something to write with and something to write on, and we’re going to journal together. If you need to put me on pause to go grab that, please do and then come on back and we’ll get started.

Okay.

One of the things I do in all my classes is I always start with lighting a candle. It’s a way for us to bring all our energy home. It’s a way for us to create a sense of focus and intention. I love it, in particular, for right now, for the summer solstice, because this is the season of fire. Let’s really know that as we light our candles (maybe you have one too) that we are honouring the fire of summer. As we honour that fire of summer, the fire that is the sun, the heat that is showing up, let us also honour the fire that is within ourselves. I’ve got my summer solstice candle for today. I’ll put it here so we can all see it.

Let’s grab our journals.

We’re going to explore two different themes in our journals today. One is more about summer and how you might enjoy it, how you might open up to the pleasures of summer, and one is more about fire and energy. So let’s start with summer.

Our first question is what is there to love about summer?

What is there to love about summer? I’ll be doing this with you.

You can write in sentences or you can write in point form. 

If your first answer is “Nothing!” write that and then keep looking. What is there to love about summer?

And if you get stuck, think back over past summers of your life. Think about when you were seven, when you were 17, and when you were 70, if that has been a part of your experience, and think about what are the things you have enjoyed about summer?

On that note, I want you to cast back over your life and think about one favourite summer memory.

A Favorite summer memory. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, just something that you think back and go, “Oh, that was wonderful. I loved it”

It is so windy here today. I don’t know if you can hear it, but wow.

Okay, let’s look over what we’ve done so far. If you need to put me on pause, if you need more time, go for it. 

If you look back over the things that you know are lovable about summer and your memory of summer that was so treasured, how can you create some of that feeling for yourself this summer? 

That can include indulging in some of those specifics. So, for me, for example, one of my favorite memories about summer is spending lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of hours reading, and so I’m going to try to work that into my summer. Also, I’m going to make sure I have some fudgsicles!

Give yourself some time to figure out, like “I want to make sure that this summer I…” If new things come to you that you haven’t written down yet, of course you can include them. Let’s make a summer promise to ourselves.

Okay, let’s switch over to a bit of an exploration of fire. That’s the element of summer. It is a time to think about fire. We already have fire going here. The sun is shining. So, what I want you to consider is…

What lights your inner fire?

What lights that fire that the sun is calling this summer, what lights that up? What lights you up? What lights your inner fire?

What are you feeling proud of right now?

I’m just thinking about the sun that way too, the way the sun shines with great vigour and a sense of self. What are you feeling great about right now, proud of right now? What would you give yourself a pat on the back for right now?

Now, one thing we don’t tend to think about too much when we hit summer is that as soon as we hit that solstice, which is the longest day of the year, then we start to have shorter days. Ever so slightly over a long period of time, days get a little shorter. 

Let’s think about what we want to release, what we want to let go. What is it time to burn in the fires and say bye-bye? What is it time to release?

One of the things you could think about here is you could write out these things you want to release and literally release them in a fire. Safely, of course. Outside and in a good container. Use fire to help you let go of, release, burn away whatever is no longer serving you. This is its season, so lean in.

Another thing I want you to really think about is leaning into your passions. 

What passions do you want to pour yourself into? Where do you want to be all in?

OK, drawing that to a close and coming back together.

I hope this has awakened some energy and some inspiration for the summer ahead and given you some ideas how to make the most of it, how to embrace it, how to let summer be the best time ever, and also how to connect to that energy of fire and how it can be a powerful part of our path.

Some of these questions were a part of the Studio Yearbook, which is my fill-in-the-blank seasonal guided journal. This summer we are doing our last official season and I invite you to join us. It’s not too late to come get your PDF, get it printed and start this creative journey. It is rich with creative practices and it is designed to help you connect to your life, your creativity and this beautiful energy of the year as it passes and moves.

I’m so glad to spend this time together with you. I also encourage you to take a look at a video I have about planning your creative season. You can use that four times a year as you come to the season to really make a plan for how you can make the most of the season in your creative life.

Thanks so much for spending this solstice time with me. I hope you have a magical summer come on by openthedoor.ca and join the studio. I’d love to have you as a part of the community. 

OK, let’s close our time together officially.

Oh, before we do, I just want to say thank you to my sister Suzie for this memento of summer. This is a rock that came from a beach close to a beach we used to go to together when we grew up. So this is one of my summer memories encapsulated in a piece of magical jewelry. Suzie, thank you for that. You can check out Suzie’s jewellery at Wear Your Altar. I’ll leave a link of course.

Thank you so much for this time together. I am sending great blessings to you this summer.

Bye everybody.

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