“The time has come to turn your heart into a temple of fire.” — Rumi
by Astara
Today’s summer solstice kicks off the longest day of the year. Chinese medicine tells us we are entering the season of the heart and the fire element. It’s time to enjoy crisp watermelon slices, summer campfires, and more socializing. It’s also a good time to learn the subtler gifts of the heart.
I was born on summer solstice — perhaps that is why I hold such affinity for the heart. HeartMath Institute research reveals there’s one hundred times more electromagnetic activity in our heart than our head. Our heart is intelligent, sparks our electricity, and is our built-in bonfire.
Some old stories hold sweet nostalgia, yet most eat away at your well-being like acid. Especially outworn beliefs about your ability, worthiness, or enough-ness. Thoughts that spin in your head like a clothes washer out of balance. Thump whap bump goes the defeating thought spin cycle. That held unprocessed energy and unresolvedness results in exhaustion, anxiety, and physical symptoms.
Is there something in your life you want to throw in the fire? That old old limiting wound, story, or belief is causing a wobble in your field. Stuck spots held deep inside your magnificent body.
To stoke your heart fire, land in your body. Squeeze your heart from the inside out. It’s like giving yourself a hug. Breathe slowly into your belly from below your feet. Exhale to the stars through the top of your head. Inhale slowly from the top of your head into your belly and exhale into the Earth. Recall something you love. Feel into that memory as if it is happening now. When you breathe, breathe that feeling of love in and out with each inhale and exhale. Repeat a few minutes up and down the channel. You’re tending to your heart’s bonfire.
The heart knows every experience big or small serves to return you to love.
Next, toss any well worn story, difficult emotion, and limiting belief into the flames of love growing in your heart. Sadness, grief, despair, anger acts as the fuel that amplifies love’s fire. Your heart loves all of it. Make sure to feel it fully and deeply. Don’t turn away, avoid, or ignore. And there is no need to pitch a tent and stay there for very long. The heart does not designate good or bad, right or wrong, its only purpose is to reveal to you how to love more fully. Feel the feeling and breathe it into your heart as your breath goes up and down the central channel of your body.
Like the universal solvent it is, love dissolves the story and leaves the gift.
The first law of thermodynamics demonstrates nothing is created nor destroyed; the energy just changes form. Memory holds, but the emotional charge softens — love’s campfire transforms you. As Rumi says, the time has come to turn your heart into a temple of fire. This is your birthright. Your inheritance from the universe. The simple gift of your breath. The power of your attention. The miracle of your heart. It’s time to breathe in a new story of benevolence, possibility, and love. Happy summer solstice to you and your heart’s intelligence.
This post is an expanded version of Astara’s post in the Omaha World Herald. If you would like to learn more about the energy you are and Energy Codes, Astara provides one-on-one sessions for a deeper dive into your soul. She teaches aspects of her Heartifact Archaeology eco-system online in the Inner Space Academy.
