As I’m writing this I am listening to Summer Of Love by Lonyo, and I would love for you to put it on right now, here’s the link to the song on Spotify. It’s a garage tune from 2000, well that feels like yesterday and it’s actually 23 years ago!!

OK I am going to share some fun and effective practices to get you feeling your most loved and loving self this summer. I promise they are mostly fun and if not fun, very easy – enjoy and I’m sending you so much love!

Dance party!

I cordially invite you to get up and shake your booty to the music…go on, just a little wiggle. If you’re in public you can shimmy your shoulders and tap your foot. Moving to the music is shifting your attention from your mind into your body, feel the sensations as you move. Ok when you’re done – how do you feel? A bit lighter? Like your energy has a refresh? That is exactly the point…your intuition lives in your body and our energy gets so stagnant in our sedentary lives, that getting up and having a little dance party is an excellent way to drop into your body and reconnect with your intuitive guidance.

My teacher would have us getting up to dance multiple times during an event or workshop, and I often use physical movements to release and shift the energy when working with clients. This is an excellent tool I would like you to add to your figurative tool belt, when you’d like to connect with your intuition, or you’re feeling a bit heavy and stagnant, get up, put a song on and move your body!

Breathe

I know this sounds really obvious, and we all do it all the time, but breath work is really powerful. It’s so easy to do and it’s so easy not to do. There are some amazing apps to help you choose different breath practices depending on what type of mood or state you’re trying to create. When I did my yoga teacher training in India we did loads of breath work and it was a very transformative tool.

One of my favourite breath practices has the effect of calming the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight). It does this by stimulating the vagus nerve to send a signal to your brain to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) leaving you feeling more calm and at ease. This practice involves a longer exhale than the inhale.

Calming breath work practice: Sit or lie down comfortably, close your eyes if you can, inhale to count of 4 and exhale to the count of 6. Repeat this for a couple of mins if you can, or at least 10 rounds. Once you are done, check in with how you feel.

Laugh!

Life can get so serious, can’t it?! Well let’s lighten up and have a good laugh. I love to watch stand up comedy or even comedy shows, Catherine Tate is really tickling my fancy at the moment! The best kind of laughing with friends and loved ones, but cackling away on your own on a Sunday evening with a great Netflix show does the trick.

Some of the benefits of laughter it enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air which stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain. It also soothes tension and stress.

Slow down

Slowing down, and where possible stopping completely, is such a wonderful way to reconnect with yourself. For example go for a walk but stroll and take in all the sights and sounds around you. Lie in the garden in the sunshine and feel the warmth on your skin while looking up at the blue of the sky. Carve out some time where there is no agenda and nothing to achieve, just you moving through life in whichever way feels good in that moment. Tune into the sensations of your body.

This slowing down heightens your connection with your intuition and helps you to feel soothed and delighted, inside and out. I find it really stimulates creativity too.

I’m sure this is not news to you that all these sweet practices will make you feel better and doing them regularly will have wonderful benefits, BUT we all struggle to do what we know is good for us sometimes. This is where discipline and fun come in – build the muscle of discipline to do the things you know are great for you (intuitive insights are best cultivated in a very clear container of discipline) AND make it fun as much as possible.

My loves, I hope your summer is filled with love, inside and out!