The Breaking of the Heat

Summers are hot here in the south. They're long, steady, and staunch. Growing up in New Orleans, you learn to mildly tolerate the heat and humidity as it stretches on for nearly half of the year.

While I continue to work on moving through it, the long summer marathon always ends up delivering an incredibly special moment. It's something to experience...that first hint of a slight coolness on the breeze after months of staggering heat. The city's shoulders relax and lower with the promise of relief. There's a comfort and ease to folks, knowing they made it through.

Ever since I was a kid, that first instance of heat breaking has been incredibly special to me. It's no wonder I've come to love Vedic Meditation. Our collective has been stuck in a long, hot summer of stress for generations. There's so much firiness in our world, literally and figuratively. Our world, plagued by stress and over-excitation, has normalized the burden of fight, flight, or freeze.

What a wonder it is when, in the first few days of teaching folks to meditate, I see their shoulders relax. They ease up, having experienced the promise of relief.

We live in fiery times. We see it in our current climate crisis and in our many collective, societal crises. What are you doing to cool the collective consciousness? If only a few folks in every community would prioritize daily de-excitation, we'd have rapid solutions to global problems.

As without, so within. As you enjoy the creeping in of cooler times, do what you can to give yourself the relief of cooling down your nervous system. The world desperately needs you to do so.