The Stressful Sun & Radical Growth

My plan was write about the upcoming summer solstice, which is coming right up on June 21st, and the solar maximum, which is predicted to occur in July 2025. Now I do find this very interesting; that the summer solstice, when the Sun is at the point in the year when it's dishing it's intensity the most, is occurring right now, and it just happens to be pretty closely aligned with the point in the 11 year solar cycle when solar activity, including solar flares geomagnetic storms etc. are at their maximum, and the Sun literally flips it's magnetic polar orientation.

Solar energy provokes growth and change.

And I've done a fair bit of research on astronomy, solar cycles, celestial movements and the rhythms of nature, and my plan was to share some of this information so that anyone might be able to integrate what's going on astronomically, and the the measured affects that this increased solar activity can have on our brains, our hearts, our mental health, our collective activity as a species, and in fact, many many more biotic and abiotic processes on Earth... But at the end of the day, I'm a clinician.

I'm here to translate the scientific information as it is relevant to our wellbeing. And I mean "our" in a very broad, very inclusive sense. The scope of my work encompasses mind, body, spirit, community, ecology, and activity. Every single one of those layers of self is in perpetual exchange with it's surroundings and beyond.

We are in no way isolated.

• Our mind and beliefs influence our perceptions of reality, as well as actual physical occurrences.

• Our physical bodies are constantly exchanging electromagnetic energy, particles, and gasses with our immediate surroundings and beyond.

• Every individuated spiritual self is an inextricable part of a larger communal spiritual self.

• We are a critical part of the natural world, our Earth, our solar system, and our galaxy.

• Our existence, our actions, our beliefs and the very physical stuff that we are shapes, and is shaped by, magnificently complex interactions throughout the universe.

  
  

  -- And if any of this is news to you, please take a moment to let these facts sink in. Because awareness of these facts is clinically relevant to our wellbeing.

OUR wellbeing.

It is this truly holistic clinical perspective from which I speak. Because, maybe it is the Sun's increased intensity at present that is giving us some additional stress and pressure. It has been well documented that times of solar maximum correlate to increased blood pressure, decreased heart rate variability, more erratic electrical activity in the brain, disrupted sleep, increased stress hormones and even decreased consumer confidence. Does this sound familiar? Been feeling some increased stress these past few years as we peak towards solar max? Well, maybe the Sun is to blame. But before we cast blame, and disempower ourselves, lets again consider the overall effect of the Sun. The Sun provokes growth and change.

Change and growth, like everything in this widespread personal, societal, spiritual and cultural revolution we're moving through, is rarely comfortable! So many of us have been feeling this increase in the tension that we can sometimes identify as expansive growth, but at least as often we feel as confusion, instability, stress, or even outright fear! It's not always comfortable, because comfort requires consistency with the old familiar, and that's not what we're up to. The old familiar is falling away. But maybe we can find ways to ride these transitions with a little bit more ease.

Earlier today, I met up with a friend of mine who is a clinician/healer like myself and it was remarkable how similar she and I felt in terms of our near inability to complete what a few short years ago would have been simple administrative tasks. I just had an appointment with a client who shared a similar experience. If you've been having a hard time handling bureaucracy, logistics, or the practical things of life, you're not at all alone in that. It's my theory that at least part of this challenge is due to the growth that we've been going through. The more we grow into OUR truth of our oneness, the more effortful, painful even, it is to participate in systems or processes that have commodification, separateness, competition, or isolation from nature in their foundation.

It is important to remember, that those SYSTEMS are crumbling.

We are not.

We, are in fact deepening our intuitive capacities, increasing our capacities for subtle perception, we are bravely stepping into community, we are humbly stepping into our mastery. And some of what is pushing us into these new terrains is actually the discomfort of trying to live in the old way.

So what do we do? When there are still schedules that need to be made, and bills to be paid? This is a great question, and maybe it's solution is different for each of us. But I also suspect that the solution might not be found by focusing on the challenges that we are having, but by focusing instead of those places where we are expanding into. Focusing our resources and our attention into what is actually thriving. I bet it's there somewhere. I bet theres something in life that gives an energetic lift when we engage in it. I even bet, when we do engage in it, we suddenly have more headspace and somehow even more time in the day, to handle whatever we need to do.

When we invest our energy at the front of the ship,

the other things will get pulled along in the wake.

Invest energy into what is flowing, and divest energy from what feels painful, to the extent that you easefully can. And here's maybe the most important part-- If you can't see a way to divest from a certain system of bureaucracy (maybe you've got kids that you need to send to public school, or you've got to pay taxes), lean into self-compassion. I honor the female friends in my life for helping me orient to this wisdom when I need it, when I feel overwhelmed with the pain of my entanglement in old systems that I can't yet find a way to divest from. These wise women, these mothers, teach me that change, transition, and birthing a new way of being is a process that benefits from patience. And everything we do benefits from self-compassion. If love is the answer, and it is, it begins with loving the self.

The bricks with which we build the new way are forged in grace, compassion, and love.

These are challenging, magnificent times. In the heat of summer solstice and the pressure of solar max, we're also finding more light, to help us see together. This light directly (and clinically), benefits our clinical wellbeing, the health and thrivingly creative creation that together, we are.