Stepping out into full sunlight feels a little different every year. This past year has taken all of us to some interesting and challenging places. We've all experienced some startlement, some sadness. And we maybe feeling nervous about the future. After this year of extremes, we may feel a little more tightness - and a little less lightness, laughter and love than we'd like. Or maybe a lot less.

Our Hearts have had a lot to handle! In Asian Healing Arts we say the Heart is in charge of how we manage all of this.

Our heart

• Opens and closes to connect every cell in our body with life-giving vitality,
• Connects us to each other with love and compassion, and
• Keeps us in touch with our Spirit guides and our highest and best self.

We say our heart is the part of us that knows what we can control and what we can't. What's OK for us and what's not. And it does this in every moment with every beat. How this shows up now may be quite different from a year ago. Our heart is 'at the heart' of all the changes we are experiencing.

Summer is Prime Time for Heart health. Sparks of warmth can help melt hardness of heart around experiences of trauma or betrayal. The beauty we find all around us in the natural world can help our hearts open and heal.

This year, more than ever, we need all that Summer brings to replenish our hearts.

It can be tough to settle into a heart-healing mode when we feel unsafe or bonds of trust have been broken. Appropriate touch, safe play and good humor all nourish our hearts. Inappropriate touch, betrayal and startling jolts can injure our heart. And too much Isolation and too little touch can actually weaken our hearts.

When our hearts are weary we can find ourselves restless, sleepless, unsettled or anxious. We can also feel heavy-hearted with sadness and uncertainty.

There are simple little medicinal movement and meditation practices to gradually restore our hearts. They were used by ancient Chinese Warriors to help them quickly regroup and recover from the strains of battle. We can use them to gently free our hearts to open to all that we need to heal. They are easy to learn. Some of their benefits often show up in a matter of minutes: Easier breathing, relaxed muscles, mental focus and genuine joy.

In three short video classes during the first three weeks of June, you can explore (or review!) some of my favorite heart healing QI Gong practices. I'll guide you thru a selection of medicinal meditative movements that affect all aspects of what our Hearts do for us. You can also join me to do these practices together in one interactive (live or via Zoom) at noon on the Solstice June 12. This optional live-time class be an opportunity to ask questions and fine tune these practices. And for practitioners to learn to modify them for specific clients and circumstances.

PDA's from NCCAOM are pending for acupuncturists from.

Enrollment for these classes is now open

Go to FiveSeasonsLearning.com to sign up.

For more information about Healing with the Seasons, go to Ruscombe.org.