End of April to mid-June in the Northern Hemisphere
End of October to mid-December in the Southern Hemisphere
Spring to summer is a time of blossoming and unfolding. It is the height of the growing season, a fertile time, when whatever you unite your energy with will expand and grow. This is the perfect time to grow your yoga practice.
Now Is the Time to Blossom
Between now and the summer solstice, the sun will reach the fullness of its waxing cycle, and then at the solstice the light will begin to wane again. So, we want to make the most of this short-lived fertile energy.
Our focus between now and the summer solstice is on outward achievements and action. Like a gardener, we decide which seeds to nurture so that they grow into strong and healthy plants. We decide which saplings to weed out to make space for our chosen plants to grow. Now is the time to bring your projects and ventures out into the light and watch them flourish.
This is a time to push rather than to yield. Do whatever it takes to make your heartfelt visions, dreams, and desires manifest in the world. Write emails, make phone calls, have conversations, and connect with those people who can help you to get your ideas out into the world. Ride the rising tide of growing season energy and make it happen. Be clear about what you want and go for it! At the same time the challenge of the season continues to be one of remembering to stay in touch with your inner wisdom while taking outward action. Your yoga practice can help you to stay grounded and not to get swept away by the fiery, rampant energy of the season.
In many cultures the arrival of summer, and its ensuing fertility, was celebrated through dance ritual. Dancing around the Maypole is a tradition that expresses the joyful exuberance of the season. The Maypole is said to symbolize the masculine aspect of God, the colorful ribbons are said to symbolize the feminine aspect, and the dance is their blissful union. This is a good time of year to incorporate elements of dance into your yoga practice.
In ancient times there were many myths that told of the Sun God and the Earth Goddess becoming lovers at this spring-summer time and their union ensuring nature’s continuing fertility. It is a time for celebrating love, passion, sensuality, sexuality, and union of all kinds.
The spring and early summer are a time associated with youth. The beauty of yoga is that it allows you, whatever your actual age, to get in touch with that which is eternally youthful within. This is a good time to mentor a younger person as well as reconnect with the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of your younger self.
As spring changes to summer, nature is at her most creative; like a child with her first box of paints, she splashes bright colors everywhere. Every day some new miracle to feast our eyes upon. Nature unapologetically sings her song and always finds a way to blossom; even if you tarmac her over, she’ll release a seed on the wind and hey presto, a wild flower appears through a crack in the pavement! We can imitate nature by getting in touch with our own creativity and using it to create magic in our life!
During the growing season, get sensual and use all your five senses to celebrate and enjoy the beauty of life. You could try the walking meditation included later in this chapter. Get out and about and enjoy your neighborhood. When out walking, be aware of the contact your feet make with the earth and remember to breathe. As you walk, feast your eyes on the riot of color as flowers open and blossom appears on the trees; smell the flowers; hear the bird song; taste the fruits of nature; touch and be touched by the world around you. Sensuality is the art of everyday ecstasy!
Sensuality, Sexuality, and Ecstasy (Samadhi)
Sexuality and sensuality are at the forefront of our awareness during the spring to summer period, when nature is entering her most fertile period. Traditionally, the rites of spring and summer celebrate the union of lovers. The heavenly union of sun and earth was often imitated in spring-summer rituals, and courting couples collected blossoms in the woods and lit fires in the evening. Lovers would leap over the fire, and there were nights of lovemaking in the fields to ensure the fertility and fruitfulness of the land.
During spring to summer, nature’s creations, such as blossoms, have a luminescent quality that can inspire our yoga practice, bringing us closer to the yogic state of clarity and light (sattva). This sattvic state mirrors the state of enlightenment (samadhi), when the “object” of meditation and the meditator become one. However, to stay grounded we will also need to harness a heavier (tamas) energy to prevent us from being swept away by the frenetic (rajas) energy of the season. It is important to remember that samadhi is not a practice; it is a state of grace.
Part one of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is entitled “Chapter on Ecstasy.” Patanjali taught that the ecstatic state (samadhi) is the fruit of a disciplined yoga practice and is achieved by completely severing ties with world of material nature (prakriti) and dwelling in the spirit self (purusha). The liberated being then exists in a state of eternal freedom and aloneness (kaivalya). Whereas Patanjali envisaged spiritual liberation as a disembodied, isolated state, in Seasonal Yoga we conceive of ecstasy as being available in the here and now on earth. Through our connection to the beauty of the changing seasons, we become as one with the world: we are part of it all.
In the dualistic outlook of Classical Yoga, the world of matter is considered impure and that of spirit pure. The circle of sexuality is both beautiful and messy, with a definite biological element to it. Women were labeled closer to nature, and their experience of menstruation, pregnancy, and birth were deemed impure states.8 Once again, this is an example of how as modern-day yoga practitioners we must reinvent yoga, especially in support of women.
When we consider that the aim of Classical Yoga was to reach a state of enlightenment by detaching from the material world, we can understand, from this point of view, why celibacy (brahmacarya) was advocated. Whether a relationship is going well and you are madly in love, or it is going badly and you are heartbroken, intimate relations inevitably disturb one’s yogic calm!
However, celibacy isn’t an easy one to sell, and most yoga teachers nowadays interpret brahmacarya as acting in a sexually responsible way. It is certainly an issue worth debating, especially with the advent of online dating apps, where your next partner is only a scroll away and can be chosen like a dish on the menu. It is also essential that yoga organizations ensure that rigorous procedures are in place to protect the vulnerable from sexual harassment or abuse, and that individual practitioners, particularly those in positions of authority and power, act in a sexually respectful and responsible way.
Our sexual relationships can provide us with the greatest highs and lows of our life. The old cliché that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all still stands for most of us. So if we decide to immerse ourselves in the messy, beautiful roller-coaster ride of relationships, our challenge is how our yoga practice and a yogic way of life can help us skillfully ride the ups and downs of intimacy.
Sometimes love can be easy and spontaneous, and at other times, like most good things in life, it has to be worked at. So many different aspects of our life, including the more mundane (but vital) aspects such as contraception, are encircled by sexuality. By developing our awareness of the changing seasons and our yoga practice, we can become familiar with the wisdom of our own rhythms and cycles (including the menstrual cycle). In this way we can heal the schism between spirituality and sexuality, and once again heaven and earth are reunited.
Our physical yoga practice can certainly give us a flexibility and stamina that can enhance our sexual relationships. And our mindfulness practice enables us to give our partner, and ourselves, the gift of being fully present to the experience of lovemaking. And an awareness of the breath allows us to relax into the experience and open to our bliss.
Over a lifetime, at various times, we may or may not be in a sexual relationship. However, sensual enjoyment is always available to us. Whether we are happily or unhappily in a relationship will often depend on circumstances beyond our control; in contrast, whatever our circumstances, we can always choose to mindfully use our five senses to appreciate the beauty of the season and fall head over heels in love with life again.
Celebrating the Dance of Life
Spring to summer is a sensual time when new life is unfolding all around us. Sunlight kisses the earth and the earth responds by blossoming. I love to observe how people unfold and blossom as their yoga practice progresses. Some people, when they first come to yoga, are tight and prickly, like a hedgehog curled up in a ball. It is a privilege to see them blossom as their yoga practice teaches them how to dance with life again.
In Hindu tradition the world is danced into being by gods and goddesses. As spring changes to summer, nature is dancing a sensual dance of creation, and the world is coming into bloom. Now is the time to dance your light into being, manifesting it in the world. We are all part of the dance of life. On a macrocosmic scale there is the dance of the sun, moon, and earth, which gives us night and day, the tides, and the seasons. On a smaller scale there is the dance of our daily lives lived out through the seasons of our lives.
Dance can be a way of honoring both sensuality and sexuality. In many cultures dance marked the various transition points of life. There were courtship dances, fertility dances, and dances to prepare for giving birth. Dance can be a meditation and lead to ecstatic states in which the dancer and the dance become one. The dancer is no longer dancing; rather, she is being danced. I like to imagine that had yoga been handed down to us over the millennia from mother to daughter as well as from father to son, it would include some element of sacred dance.
Dance is sensual and can be a great way of getting your creative juices flowing. Yoga and dance combine to make great partners. Try using dance as a warm-up for your yoga practice. Put on your favorite dance music and just allow yourself to be danced. Make this into a dancing meditation by focusing your awareness on the sound of the music, the sensations of your body moving, and the dance of your own breath. Feel those happy hormones soar! Flowing yoga sequences (vinyasa) also have a very dance-like quality. The Salute to the Sun (Surya Namaskar) is a fiery sun dance, combining wave-like movements with breath awareness. The Dancer Pose (Natarajasana) is of course the perfect asana to include in your dance-inspired vinyasa.
Spring to Summer Yoga Practice
As spring changes to summer, the whole world is coming into bloom, and it is the theme of blossoming that has inspired this practice. That sense of opening and flowering is conveyed through expansive poses such as Warrior 1 and Bow Pose.
This is a time associated with dancing, and so naturally the Dancer Pose is included. It’s also a time traditionally connected with the flowering of sexuality, and the Pelvic Flower exercise has been chosen to reflect this.
This practice is designed to be used during the spring to early summer period; however, it’s fine to use it any time of year. It will help you cultivate an open, expansive attitude. It will enhance your ability to embrace and dance with life. And encourage you to blossom to your full potential.
Allow 20 to 30 minutes.
1. Standing Like a Tree in Blossom
Stand tall like a tree. (Or, if you prefer, this exercise can be done sitting in a straight-backed chair). Your feet are parallel and about hip width apart, knees soft, face relaxed, shoulders down away from the ears; your tailbone feels heavy as though it is weighted, and the crown of your head feels light and floats skyward.
Now picture the beauty of a tree in blossom. Notice its shape, the blossom’s color, its fragrance. Stay here for a few breaths, enjoying the beauty of the image of the tree.
For a longer version: see the Visualizing a Tree in Blossom exercise that follows this yoga practice.
Standing Like a Tree in Blossom
2. Knee to chest into Dancer Pose (Natarajasana) variation
Stand tall, feet hip width apart, arms by your sides. Hug the right knee into your chest, and then take the right leg behind you and catch hold of the ankle with the right hand. Lower the foot back to the floor and repeat on the other side. Repeat 10 times on each side.
Knee to chest into Dancer Pose variation
3. Dancer Pose (Natarajasana) variation
Stand tall, feet hip width apart, arms by your sides. Bend your right knee and with your right hand catch hold of your ankle. Take the left arm either out to the side at shoulder height or above the head. Stay for a few breaths and then repeat on the left side.
Dancer Pose variation
4. Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana 1) variation
Stand tall, feet hip width apart, arms by your sides. Turn your left foot slightly out and take a big step forward with your right leg. Inhale and bend your front, right knee, opening your arms out wide to the side, picturing a blossom opening. Exhale, straighten your right leg, and lower your arms back to your sides, picturing the blossom closing back to bud. Do 6 repetitions on this side and then repeat on the other side.
Warrior 1 variation
5. Dancer Pose (Natarajasana)
Come into Dancer Pose variation (from step 3), and from here tip the torso forward, extending the back foot away from you and reaching forward and up with the opposite arm. Stay for a few breaths and then repeat on the other side. If you have balance problems, practice facing a wall with your extended hand resting on the wall for support.
Dancer Pose
6. Puppy Dog Pose (Uttana Shishosana) and Child’s Pose (Balasana)
Come onto all fours. Walk the hands forward along the floor until your arms, head, and torso form one, long diagonal line, keeping the thighs at a 90-degree angle. Keep the ears between the arms. Stay here for a few breaths. Then bend the knees and sit the bottom back onto the heels and rest for a few breaths in Child’s Pose (Balasana).
For a shorter practice, end here.
Puppy Dog Pose and Child’s Pose
7. Bow Pose (Dhanurasana) variation
Lie face down on the floor, arms by your sides. Inhale and lift your chest, bending both knees. Exhale, lower your chest, and straighten your legs back to the floor. Repeat 6 times and stay in the final pose for a few breaths.
If you wish to work at a gentler level, then skip the next pose, Bow Pose (Dhanurasana), and go straight to Child’s Pose (Balasana) in step 9 or repeat the Bow Pose variation of step 7 once more.
Bow Pose variation
8. Bow Pose (Dhanurasana)
Lie on your front, arms by your sides. Bend both knees and catch hold of your ankles. Lift your chest and knees up and away from the floor; gently pulling your shoulders back to open the chest. If comfortable, stay here for a few breaths. Then lower down to the floor, release the ankles, straighten your legs along the floor, and turn your head to one side, resting for a few breaths.
Bow Pose
9. Child’s Pose (Balasana)
Rest here for a few breaths.
Child’s Pose
10. Pelvic Flower Exercise
It’s important to keep the pelvic floor strong, but at the same time it’s also important to know how to relax it. This exercise will help you relax the pelvic floor and can also enhance sexual enjoyment.
Lie on your back in Supine Butterfly Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana). Rest your hands either on your belly or above your head. For comfort, prop your knees on bolsters, cushions, or blocks. Imagine there is a beautiful flower between your legs, at the pelvic floor. As you inhale the flower opens, and as you exhale the flower closes back to bud. Repeat for a few breaths. Be present to any sensations that arise in the pelvic floor area as you do this exercise. Then bring the knees together in to Knees-to-Chest Pose (Apanasana) and relax here for a few breaths.
Pelvic Flower Exercise
11. Full-Body Stretch
Take your arms overhead and stretch your legs out. Lengthen tall along the floor.
Full-Body Stretch
12. Visualizing a Tree in Blossom
See instructions on page 52.
Visualizing a Tree in Blossom
Spring to Summer Yoga Practice Overview
1. Standing Like a Tree in Blossom.
2. Knee to chest into Dancer Pose variation × 10 on each side.
3. Dancer Pose variation. Stay for a few breaths. Repeat on other side.
4. Warrior 1 variation × 6. Inhale: picture blossom opening. Exhale: picture blossom closing back to bud. Repeat on other side.
5. Dancer Pose. Stay for a few breaths. Repeat on other side.
6. Puppy Dog Pose. Stay for a few breaths. Rest in Child’s Pose. For a shorter practice, end here.
7. Bow Pose variation × 6. Stay in final pose for a few breaths. For a gentler practice, skip step 8 or repeat this step in its place.
8. Bow Pose. Stay for a few breaths.
9. Child’s Pose. Rest here for a few breaths.
10. Pelvic Flower Exercise in Supine Butterfly Pose. Inhale: picture a flower opening at the pelvic floor. Exhale: picture the flower closing back to bud.
11. Full-Body Stretch. Lengthen tall along floor.
12. Visualizing a Tree in Blossom.
Exercise
Focusing on the natural beauty of a tree in blossom has an uplifting effect and will help you to feel a peaceful sense of connection to the natural world. This exercise can be done sitting or lying down.
Picture the beauty of a tree in blossom. Notice its shape, colors, and fragrance. Now imagine that you are a tree in blossom. Feel the space around you, the blue sky above you, and the earth below you. Picture your roots going deep down into the soil, spreading, wrapping around rocks and boulders, giving you strength, nourishment, and stability. Feel yourself receiving energy from the warm sun. Allow yourself to be breathed. You are a tree in blossom breathing. You are part of it all. You are a tree, connected to the earth, the sky, the air, and the sunshine. Stay here for a few more breaths, feeling your connection to the intricate web of life.
When you are ready, let go of the image of the tree in blossom. Become aware of where your body is in contact with the floor or your support. Become aware of your surroundings. Take this peaceful feeling of connectedness into the next thing that you do today.
Exercise
The Loving Kindness Walking Meditation
Spring-to-summer time is often associated with romantic love. The following meditation helps cultivate a more universal sense of loving kindness for both ourselves and others.
Walking meditation can be done any time of year but is particularly good in spring and summer, especially at those times when you feel torn between the urge to do some yoga and the desire to get out in the sunshine. It’s ideal when you want to meditate but don’t want to spend more time sitting. It gets you out of your head and into your body, calming and clearing the mind, relieving and releasing stress. It grounds you, strengthening your connection to your surroundings and the earth. It boosts circulation and lifts your mood.
Whether you are walking in an urban or rural setting, try to find beauty and tranquility wherever you are. At the same time stay safe, aware of your surroundings, and alert to any hazards, such as traffic and so on.
Allow 10 to 20 minutes for this meditation
Start the meditation by walking and simply paying attention to the physical sensations associated with walking. Particularly be aware of the sensations in your feet and “walk as if your feet are kissing the earth.” 9
Next begin to send yourself love and good wishes as you walk. Wish yourself well by silently repeating phrases such as I hope you have a good day. I hope things go well for you today. Or if you prefer, you can use formal loving kindness (metta) phrases as you walk:
May I be safe.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I live with ease.10
Or you can shorten the phrases to safe, happy, healthy, and ease. Use one word with each step that you take.
If any self-criticism arises, surround that with love too. Have compassion for any difficulties that you are experiencing today, or if you are feeling happy, then allow yourself to fully enjoy those happy feelings too.
Next start sending out good wishes to passersby. Try to see the good within each person that you pass. Notice any critical judgments that you make about people. Recognize your shared humanity and acknowledge that for them, like for you, life isn’t always easy. Silently repeat phrases for them such as I hope you have a good day. I hope things go well for you today.
Or, if you prefer, you can use formal loving kindness (metta) phrases as you walk. You can strengthen your sense of connection with them by silently repeating phrases for both of you: May you and I be happy. May you and I live with ease.
You can also widen your circle of compassion by sending good wishes to animals, trees, the river, the air, birds, and the earth.
To conclude your walking meditation, bring your awareness back to observing the sensations of your feet in contact with the earth as you walk. Thank the earth for supporting you during this walking meditation.
Tree Wisdom: Spring to Summer
Spring to summer is a time of blossoming. Trees offer us the perfect way of connecting to the beauty that is blossoming during this season.
When you are out and about, be on the lookout for trees in blossom and take a few moments to mindfully enjoy the tree’s beauty. Use your senses to appreciate this precious moment; enjoy the colors, textures, smells, and sounds of the scene. Look closely at an individual blossom flower and observe the intricacy of its construction.
Close your eyes and picture the tree in blossom, and then open your eyes and look at the tree again. Recall the image later in your day to induce a sense of calm contemplation.
Exercise
Trees and Creativity
during Spring to Summer
After having mindfully spent time enjoying a tree in blossom, you can use this as a springboard for your creativity. If you are stuck for ideas, here are some to get you going:
• Mindfully take some photos of a tree in blossom. Use them as screen savers and enjoy a peaceful moment each time you look at them. Or if you have access to a printer, print out some photos and place them in locations that will remind you to stop and enjoy their beauty.
• Do an online search and find paintings, poems, prose, songs, or photos around the theme of blossom. Spend a few moments mindfully enjoying your discoveries.
• How much do you know about the science of blossoming? What is it that makes a tree put so much energy into producing this spectacular display? Commit to fifteen minutes of online reading up about this, read from a book in your local library, or talk to someone with a good knowledge of the subject. Once you have done this, observe whether your newfound knowledge adds or detracts from your enjoyment of the season.
• Take a small amount of blossom from a tree, without damaging the tree, and use it as a focus for meditation either informally, just stopping to look at it mindfully when you pass by, or for a more formal sitting meditation: have the blossom where you can fix your gaze upon it and when your mind wanders, gently bring it back to observing the blossom. Then sit for a few quiet moments holding the image of the blossom in your mind’s eye.
• Try out the spring to summer yoga practice in this chapter, which has a theme of blossoming and includes a Tree in Blossom visualization.
Meditation upon an Apple Tree in Blossom
One day last spring I was walking through parkland, bordered by some wasteland that used to be the town rubbish tip, and a young apple tree bathed in sunshine caught my eye. I’d never noticed this little tree before, but it looked so beautiful in full blossom, glowing golden in the sunshine. It seemed poignant to me that such beauty could grow out of the ugliness of what had been a rubbish dump. This tree taught me about staying effortlessly in touch with that which is light, pure, beautiful, and graceful within and how it is possible to blossom even in a world that is neither perfect nor pure. Below is the tree prose poem that I wrote in response to meditatively spending time around the apple tree.
Apple tree in blossom, you are the Tree of Life; your roots go down through oceans of fire to the Center of the World; your branches grow up through sky and space to hold up the heavens. Full moon smiles down through your branches; new moon brings you baby buds.
Sunlight; and star-shaped flowers open; five white petals tinged
with pink. Weave a crown of love from blossomed branches;
your generosity knows no bounds. Happiness is your sweet-
scented petals, confetti carried on the breeze. Tree in blossom,
you are breathing; tree in blossom being breathed.
Spring to Summer Meditation Questions
These questions are designed to be used any time from around the end of April to mid-May in the Northern Hemisphere and from around the end of October to mid-November in the Southern Hemisphere. Guidance on how to use the seasonal meditation questions can be found in Chapter One.
• The spring to summer period is a time of blossoming. What do I wish to grow and blossom in my life at this time?
• Who helps me blossom and fulfill my potential?
• Which relationships do I want to celebrate?
• Who do I feel passionate about? Who lights my fire? Who inspires me?
• Between now and the summer solstice is a very fertile time. How will I best use this short-lived fertile period?
• What do I want to achieve?
• Which projects do I want to grow and blossom?
• What are my priorities and what is most important to me?
• What heartfelt actions do I need to take in order to ensure these projects come to fruition?
• What needs pruning or cutting back in order to create the space for healthy growth?
• Who shares my vision and how can I enlist their support to make my dreams become a reality?
• At this fiery, fertile, active time how will I use my yoga practice to stay grounded?
• Are there disconnected parts of my life that need to be reunited in order that I might become healthy and whole again?
• Spring to summer is a time associated with youth and the young.
• Is there a younger person in my life whom I can help and support?
• When with younger people, do I maintain a good balance between talking and imparting wisdom to them and listening to and learning from them?
• During spring and summer, nature is at her most creative.
• Have I any hidden talents that have not yet been developed or realized?
• Is there a particular gift or talent that I would like to cultivate or nurture?
• What small steps could I take to develop this talent?
• At this fertile time when all around is blossoming, how do I honor my own sexuality?
• How do I celebrate my body and reject body-shaming messages from the media?
• How do I help and support others to do the same?
• The earth is so generous and bountiful at this time. How can I give back to the earth?
• Are there any small steps I could take this season to improve my neighborhood or to make it more beautiful?
• Can I inspire others to take small steps to protect the environment?
• How will I enjoy the beauty of the season using all my senses? How can I fall in love with life again?
8. Lynn Teskey Denton, Female Ascetics in Hinduism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004), 25.
9 . Thich Nhat Hanh, The Long Road Turns to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2011), 67.
10. Christopher K. Germer, The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself from Destructive Thoughts and Emotions (New York: The Guilford Press, 2009), 184–186.