Summer is such a romantic season. And by that I mean it’s such a romanticized season. Summer is defined by adolescence because it’s greater than just a season; it’s the season off from school. Up until this point, I have always pictured my growth defined by these gaps in a school year. In my eyes, it’s almost as if I am one person from the months of September to May, and once June hits, it becomes my job to shape my being in a new form to enter the next autumn as a new person. Summer has always been the season that defines my growth.
I feel that I will always connect summer to my “coming of age” journey for this reason, but as I open the door into this season, I am struck with a transition unlike any before. The last summer before leaving school. I think there’s a natural theme at play here that I feel an intuitive pull to focus on for these next few months:
To determine what joy to carry on with me from adolescence, and what I can release with grounded maturity.
As per usual, I’ve done some reflecting, and here is a rough version of my summer plans, with the goal of transitioning into a new phase of life abundant with love, inspiration, and passion for the next chapter.
Part one: The Mind
I find it ironic that as soon as I am nearing the end of school, I am learning that I love to learn. True, fulfilling learning, I’ve found, is almost like a form of spirituality. It is something you follow with enthusiastic curiosity, and this divine inner drive that can only really be felt rather than described. Going down the rabbit hole of gaining knowledge passionately is not only one of the things that I think roots us the most in presence, but it also gives us a sense of purpose.
Doing things we truly love just for that reason is like nurturing our own love and happiness for ourselves and the world and the people around us without any expectations. To fuel the fire and passion in our minds is one of the most powerful ways to show ourselves that we care.
Where I think we lose this intrinsic love of learning is when we begin to pursue knowledge for something other than ourselves. Our goal with learning becomes very extrinsic, in that the value of our learning is put more into outcomes. This could be how the workings and creations of our mind are perceived by others, or the final product of something. If we rely on this external motivation or a result to drive our learning all of the time, it is easy to feel burnt out.
In the book: Don’t Believe Everything You Think, Joseph Nguyen explains that the most fulfilling goals are those where the pursuit itself is the reward — not just the outcome. Basically, we feel the most fulfilled when the pursuit of what we are doing is the goal, not the product of the pursuit.
Of course, we all need to sometimes pursue things for an external product, such as working. But we can still fill our minds with passion and curiosity by spending genuine time outside of work to cultivate that wonder and do intellectually stimulating things just for the sake of doing it because we want to.
This summer, I want to spend as much time as possible nurturing that creative side of myself that just wants to learn and create things for the joy of the process, not for an external result. Whether it’s through doing crafts, learning a new random skill, or reading or meditating, all of which I am planning on doing, I want to nurture the joy of the process.
The Body
There was a period of time where I didn’t understand how people could feel that taking care of their bodies was done through an act of self love. In theory, it made a lot of sense, but most of the time when I would get around to working out or eating healthy it felt more like something I was doing as a chore than something I was doing out of love for myself. It makes me so proud to say that, I feel like I get it now.
Doing things to keep myself healthy has honestly never felt easier than it does for me right now, and I think it’s because I switched something in my mind that made me realize just how wonderful it is to be able to take care of my body in the ways I am able to. Each act of self care I try to cherish in a state of gratitude and endless abundance. Being healthy shouldn’t feel restrictive; it should feel expansive. It should make you feel like you can do more, that you are free.
The Heart
I think that the underlying theme of all of this is pretty obvious, and that is that love is the answer to how I am trying to have the most amazing summer yet. Love is a really special thing in that it has the ability to grow the more we nurture it with our time and presence. It’s like planting seeds and then tending to your garden. The garden can always wilt and fade and perish, but you can always regrow and expand. The beautiful thing about tending to your own garden or self-love is that it naturally pours out amongst the people you care most about and the world. I think it’s safe to say that the thing this world needs more of right now is more love. More compassion. All of that starts within each of our centers.
