Welcome to the Summer Newsletter!
Greetings Friends
In the Chinese 5 Element model, Summer is ruled by the element of FIRE – the most Yang of all the elements, and the symbol of peak energy. Fire energy is circulating and dispersing.
If we look at what is happening in nature, everything is reaching its peak – plants are flowering, fruit and veg are rapidly growing. And in human nature we naturally feel the urge to socialise, to gather with others and to stay up later at this time.
Fire is the only element to have primary and secondary organs – these are the Heart/Small Intestine and the Pericardium/Triple Heater. In Seasonal Yoga, we teach a month or so of what we call “Early Summer” where we focus on the secondary Fire organs before moving into the main part of the Season.
The Early Summer will be a time of preparation for the “main event” if you like – a kind of month long warm up, readying ourselves for peak energy. In Seasonal Yoga, Early Summer is a gentler more Yin practice than the Summer one.
The Fire element is associated with joy, warmth, enthusiasm, creativity… but also with calm & tranquility. With too much Fire, you can become agitated, impatient, over-excited, maybe even experience “burn out”; with too little you might be joyless, anti-social and lacking in motivation.
Unless the weather is super hot (too much Fire) then the Summer is our most dynamic yoga practice of the year – we focus especially on sun salutations.
I hope Summer allows you to reach the peak of your creativity and connect joyfully to those you love.
Love and Light
Rachel
Ways to nurture your Fire Element:
- Add the colour red into your clothing and/or home.
- Eat red summery foods such as berries and peppers; and cool foods rather than hot ones (cucumber is wonderfully cooling).
- Focus on your relationships; take time for your family and friends.
- Connect with your community – speak to neighbours; do some voluntary work; raise money for a local charity.
- Make sure you’re enjoying the fruits of your labour! Do what you love or love what you do.
- If you feel low in energy, depressed and reluctant to socialise, boost your Fire element by moving outdoors into the sunshine more, spending time with special people and finding an interest that you feel enthusiastic about.
- If you begin to feel “burnt out”, over-heated or over-excited, balance the Fire element with some watery activities such as calming breathing practices, meditation or Yin Yoga
Things to avoid in the Summer
- Too much excitement!
- A super full social calendar with no breaks at all
- Too many heating red foods like red meat… barbecues are actually the worse food for the Summer time
- Stimulants such as coffee
- Becoming dehydrated
- Too many spicy foods such as chilly or hot peppers
AHIMSA YOGA NEWS
Learn to Meditate – I’m running this course for the first time online starting on 13 May.
5 weeks to learn some of the basics of meditation and maybe start meditating on your own. We’ll look at what meditation is; what the benefits are and how to bring it into your life, starting with some simple practices. I hope to run this course again in person later in the year, so if this is something you’d be interested in, please make contact.
Seasonal Sundays – Treat Yourself!
are a regular feature of the timetable now – these monthly 2 hour Seasonal immersives have become popular! All the rest of the dates for 2026 are here:Seasonal Sundays . Message me to book in
My Little Yoga Retreat is happening at the end of July, and I’m looking forward to it, after a break from running retreats of about 6 years! If we like the venue and enjoy ourselves I’ll be looking at running another in the next year…maybe a 2 nighter. Watch this space.
Course News
Seasonal Yoga Immersion & Teacher Training Course
Our third group of SYTT course students graduated last year and we are now past half way through on our fourth course. We have some lovely students from previous courses now teaching Seasonal Yoga classes around the UK, and we couldn’t be prouder.
Our next course starts in October this year, and we’re excited to bring a fifth group of people together.
You don’t have to want to teach Yoga to take part in this course. While the course prepares you to teach yoga, you can also take it as part of your personal evolution. You don’t have to be young, thin, flexible or any of those other Yoga teacher stereotypes. You do need to be enthusiastic about Yoga and motivated to learn more!
The course runs 1 weekend per month and all the dates are on the Teacher Training page.
Teaching on the course will be from me, assisted by the lovely Melissa Campbell.
You can also find information on the Seasonal Yoga website. which links to our Letchworth hub
“The success of Yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures but in how it positively changes the way we live our life and our relationships.”
TKV Desikachar