By: Genell Howell, MA, CSAC
Primary Therapist
Yesterday was the Summer Solstice, which is the longest day of the year and marks a change of season into the summer months. It is the very moment when, essentially, the sun stands still at its northernmost point as seen from Earth. This year the full moon pairs with the solstice in an event that hasn’t occurred for over 70 years. The summer solstice also represents the transformation of seasons. The shifting seasons are very much connected to the land and the ability to harvest and farm in order to sustain ourselves. At Pacific Quest, we are all farmers and all therefore connected to the land. The seasons are essential to our vitality and dictate how and when we grow specific food and when to harvest.
Genell Howell, MA, CSAC
I spent the day with clients, basking in the sun and in the garden. As a Somatic Experiencing (SE) practitioner, I pay close attention to our natural surroundings. Together we observed feeling the sun on our skin, hearing the rustling of the banana trees and cane grass, and feeling the dirt running through our fingers. I noticed a theme that came out of the sessions that I had yesterday with a unifying theme of transforming self deprecation into self love. What a better day to combat this negative and limiting belief than on a day that is aligned in our planets to call forth deep and lasting change and transformation.
The solstice is such a magnificent, powerful time; engage it with presence and gratitude and reap the rewards, and the theme from the students of cultivating greater self love was aptly timed with this transition period and the power of the day itself. Just as summer is a very important season for farming and farmers, with planting seeds for the future, I think that’s what the clients were doing yesterday too: beginning to cultivate their seeds and plan for their future.