Summer Wellness For You and Me
by Lanise Thakkar
Summer is here, we made it!
While this month of the year often represents a time for pausing and a time for relaxation, it can also represent lots of newness. New routines, a new pace, new transitions, new places, and more that can, yes, be fun and exciting to look forward to, and can also feel overwhelming too. I think it’s okay to admit that Summertime can still produce great stress and anxiety for us, it is not simply sunshine and beach days ahead. But how can we balance that stress and anxiety with the sunshine and beach days ahead?
I believe there are ways to balance and navigate these contrasting feelings and emotions, that it is possible to feel both excited about what’s to come and to also feel overwhelmed by what’s ahead. I think part of balancing these parts of us is about being able to recognize it’s possible to feel more than one emotion at once and that there is this beautiful practice called setting boundaries that helps us to better protect our mindset and our energy when we navigate our wellness. Boundaries say, “Let’s not say yes to all the feels at once right now, that’s too much. Instead, let’s pick and choose what is healthy and not healthy right now, what’s helpful and what’s not helpful, what can we make space for and what can we hold off on?” Boundaries are not entirely about communicating our “no’s” it’s about being mindful what our tradeoffs are and how we can better manage our “yes’s” and our “no’s.” If I choose to say “no” to overcommitting to things and overthinking about things, in turn I am actually communicating a “yes” to me time, self-care, and prioritizing my well-being. These tradeoffs are essential to navigating this season and every day life, it’s what helps protect us from exhaustion, resentment, burnout, distress, anger, and allows room to protect peace, rest, wellness, happiness, and joy.
As we flip our calendars to this new Summer season and reflect on being halfway through the year, let’s take a moment to reflect on how we want to embrace and practice caring for ourselves in the coming days. While these days may already be filled with Summer plans, activities, outings, trips, work, and responsibilities, how might we like to better balance these days ahead? What if we made meaning of this Summer season to mean greater wellness and peace for ourselves, maybe for the first time even think about how boundaries look during my Summer? How can we begin to find peace in how we spend our days and for ourselves this Summer? What can we do to maintain our health and wellness before, during, and post-a vacation? What does a mid-year refresh look like? How can we better navigate this season? How can we take better care of ourselves presently to set ourselves up well for the days to come?
A simple guide for you and me:
Summer wellness looks like honestly reflecting on how you feel and being honest about what you want and need, as well as what you don’t want and don’t need. It is about acknowledging, being attune to yourself, and getting curious about what you feel, want, and need. It’s about checking in with yourself about what’s working and what’s not working, what do I want to keep and what do I want to let go of? What do I want to commit to and what do I need to give myself permission not to commit to? How can I better prioritize myself in a way of self-care (which is simply caring for yourself) so that I do not engage in self-neglect? What would help me better manage and maintain my wellness so that I do not enter into Fall feeling burnt out?
Summer wellness then looks like honoring yourself, your thoughts, feelings, wants, and needs. One of my favorite ways to do this is by engaging and recognizing the power in doing boundary work. Reflecting on our boundaries and setting healthier ones helps us to honor ourselves by protecting our thoughts, feelings, mood, energy, time, peace and well-being.
Finally, Summer wellness looks like engaging in things that are meaningful to you and mindfully choosing what you want to invite and not invite into your life this season. Take some time to think about what you would like this Summer to mean for you. What would you like this time to look like and be?
You know what’s best for you. Honor it. This is your permission to take control of your Summer wellness.
