--- title: "It's Time to Celebrate! Summer Solstice Essentials" entity: "blog" canonical_url: "https://www.drkatehazlittnd.com/wellness-toolbox/dr-kates-top-5-ignite-your-radiance" markdown_url: "https://www.drkatehazlittnd.com/llms/blog/dr-kates-top-5-ignite-your-radiance" lastmod: "2021-06-01T20:34:00.000Z" --- The Summer solstice is almost upon us! One of my favourite events on the calendar is happening this Sunday, June 20th. Back in the day, I would spend weeks planning an epic evening of festivities with friends. I cherish those memories. During the Summer Solstice, the Sun reaches its highest point in the sky and gives us our longest day of the year. This day reminds us to celebrate the nourishing light of the Sun. It’s also a moment to cultivate the light that radiates outward from within each of us. The Solstice is also a moment to take stock. The journey of the Sun represents the cycles of our lives. Just as we can align with the Moon’s journey every month, we align with the Sun’s journey throughout the year. The Summer Solstice is a sacred time for our ideas and actions to expand and blossom. Summer is a time to engage our Earth connection; living with gratitude for the generosity of the Earth, which provides for us everything that we need. Summer also focuses on bringing balance and rejuvenation to the heart and small intestine. Tap into the bright energy of the Summer solstice to celebrate your radiance, your joy, your heart. Enjoy these heart-centring principles to ignite your personal power, and dissolve anxiety with loving focus. Some ideas to help you prepare: - Bonfires! - Make flower crowns - Celebrate creation of all kinds: ideas, creative projects - Reflect and journal how you want to shine, what you’ve been doing this year, where do you want to go, and what’s emerging from everything you’ve planted as harvest time begins. Set an intention to let go and open your heart. Trust your experiences and your heart’s intelligence and allow yourself to experience joy. ## June Wellness Kit June 2021 Enjoy this months’ collection of curated resources filled with practical ideas and actions you can take to heal mind and body Try just one or dive into them all. How you use these resources is completely up to you. #### 1. “A joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love. She gives most who gives with Joy. A joyful heart is like the sunshine of God’s love, the hope of eternal happiness”. – Mother Theresa Joy is our natural state. It is a natural expression of the heart. Over-thinking, judgment, expectations, comparing and analyzing obscure joy. Calming the mind through meditation and leading from the heart is key. On this solstice, set an intention to peel away the veils of mental fog and enjoy your natural state of bliss as you calibrate the energies from Nature. Enjoy this [Meditation for a Calm Heart.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XapGMeuW6J0) #### 2. Embrace Cold Showers Did you have your cold shower today? If not, you’re missing out on a powerful habit for heart health. You can stimulate your glandular system, strengthen your nerves, detoxify your blood and organs through the use of cold showers. Cold showers increase your natural endorphins, which decrease pain and produce good feelings. #### 3. Gratitude The research on gratitude shows that the key to this practice is to have gratitude for you who have and gratitude for how things happen . A short-term gratitude boost is a gratitude for who you have. Take moments in the day to reflect on the people who have helped you love the good that lives inside of you and those that encourage you to become who you are. Write that person a letter expressing how they have helped you. A gratitude practice like this can boost your well-being for several weeks. Another practice that boosts gratitude in the long term is gratitude for how things happen. At the end of each day think of some event or circumstance for which you feel grateful and write about it. Doing this once per day for 3 weeks can train your brain to see the positive events, the personal strengths you leveraged to create these events, and the resources that made it possible. #### 4. Heart-Centered Living There are some qualities that sustain an open heart. By consciously cultivating these qualities, it is easier to deliver love that nurtures all beings. These qualities include authenticity, connection, healthy relationships, compassion, courage, forgiveness, giving and receiving, service, devotion, prayer. What speaks to your heart? How is your heart guiding you? How can you stretch yourself so that you create more space to be generous or accepting? #### 5. Trail Mix for a Joyous Heart These nuts and seeds provide you with magnesium and zinc, as well as antioxidants to protect the heart. ½ cup pecans, ½ cup brazil nuts, ½ cup hazelnuts, ½ cup almonds, blanched, ½ cup walnuts, ½ cup pumpkin seeds, ½ cup sunflower seeds, ½ cup goji berries. Blanch the almonds by soaking them in hot water overnight or for 1 hour. Remove the skins. Combine almonds with other nuts and seeds and store them in a sealed container in the fridge.