Summer is the season of connection
Given all that’s occurring, summer is arriving at the perfect time.
International conflict, cruel politics, and technological disruption are weighing heavy. Many of us are experiencing increased feelings of isolation, distrust, and hopelessness about the state of the world and our place within it.
If you’ve had the thought “wake me up when it’s over,” you wouldn’t be alone.
This is why summer matters.
The fractured, withdrawn moment we’re living through is calling us toward something greater: Connection.
And summer is prime time for fostering connections in your life.
Be like Fire
This wisdom about summer comes from Chinese medicine. In that system, each season is associated with a natural element, which is essentially a blueprint for how to flow with the current instead of swimming upstream.
The element of summer is Fire.
Like the flames of a cracking campfire, Fire energy is expansive and expressive.
Your Fire energy is the part of you that connects with other people and forms intimate relationships. The Fire inside you is open-hearted and generous, able to offer and receive genuine expressions of love.
When your Fire element is shining, vitality radiates from your eyes and complexion, drawing people to you.
If human connection is challenging for you, summer is a perfect time to nudge yourself a little more in that direction.
Fire energy is more readily available in summer. Nature is on your side when it comes to forming new connections and nurturing existing ones.
Lean into that. Ride the wave. Stoke your Fire.
How to stoke your Fire
Here are four ways to live into your Fire element this summer:
Be active
Exercise and movement help channel the extra energy that’s available in summer. And since the Fire element is associated with the heart system in Chinese medicine (which includes but is not limited to cardiac function), summer is a good time to nurture your heart health.
Be social
Fire is about connection, intimacy, and communication. Host that BBQ, hit that pool party, organize that beach day. Strangers count too—start a conversation in the elevator, smile at someone in the grocery aisle, spend a few minutes chatting with the delivery person.
Be funny
Every element has an associated emotion and expression of that emotion. Fire’s emotion is joy and its expression is laughter. When you’re with people this summer, crack jokes, appreciate theirs, tell funny stories. Keeping laughter flowing will keep your Fire energy burning.
Be by water
In Chinese medicine, there are five elements that keep each other in balance. The relationship between Fire and Water is especially important because Fire and Water represent opposite ends of a continuum:
Fire is responsible for the way you interface with the external world while Water is about your internal life.
In summer, there’s naturally an exaggerated expression of Fire qualities. Being physically near water can be a balancing, grounding experience that reminds you of the interconnectedness within and around you.
Los Angeles
June 2025
