The Sparkle of Fire - Summer Cleansing — Core Potentials - Osteopathy, Energy Medicine, & Nutrition

“The Earth would die if the Sun stopped kissing her.” ~ Hafiz

All living creatures, including plants, need the sun to grow and thrive. We depend fully on its life-giving energy, to instigate our life force. It provides us with light and warmth; without it, humans, civilization, and our global ecosystem would struggle to survive. We need just the right amount of sun to activate vitamin D in our skin, which is responsible for healthy immunity, regulating appetite and sleep, supporting muscle and bone growth, and keeping our mood lifted. I couldn’t help but notice, when my children were growing up, how they would have huge growth spurts in the summertime; thriving and blooming from the sun’s potent energy.

In Energy Medicine, the Fire Element is connected to summer! It is associated with the yang energy of the sun and its masculine energy is motivating, expansive, and driven. During the summer, we see this manifest in long days and warm weather, which motivates people to get outside and pursue exciting activities. It’s a perfect time for you to cultivate more Fire energy in your life. Spending time outside, soaking up the sun’s life force, camping, hiking, or spending time at the beach is revitalizing and uplifting. It is also a great time to harness the Fire Rhythms influence to strengthen your connections with loved ones. Some of my favorite times have been when I am sitting around the firepit on our deck at the cabin, drumming on my Djembe while laughing and singing with a group of family and friends to the music.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine the Fire Element energy system connects to the Heart, the Pericardium (protector of the heart), also known as Circulation Sex in the Eden Method, and the Small Intestine organs. It’s also associated with your Triple Heater (Triple Warmer system), which also regulates your internal body temperature. When your Fire energy is strong and balanced, you can experience greater physical endurance and resilience against various heart and intestinal issues. When you have an imbalance in your Fire Rhythms it could lead to various health challenges.

Physically

· When your Fire Rhythm becomes too excessive it can result in painful inflammation of the joints, chronic infections, dryness of the lungs, and inflamed throat and sinuses. It can dry out your stools and cause chronic constipation. It can affect the heart, causing pain in the chest, high blood pressure, heart palpitations, hypertension, and anxiety. We are all born with one element that might be more pronounced in our personality than another. If you are strongly influenced by your Fire Element, you may be more vulnerable in very hot weather. Other health challenges that may arise could be buzzing in the ears, having bloodshot eyes, shortness of breath, flushed complexion, sleep disturbances, and sores in the mouth and tongue. Your energy may tend towards always rushing and hurrying.

· When your Fire Rhythm is deficient it can lead to chills and numbness of the extremities, impaired circulation of the blood and bodily fluids, menstrual, urinary and sexual dysfunction, lung and nasal congestion, sluggish digestion, abdominal pain, watery diarrhea, adrenal fatigue, burnout, anxiety, and sleep disturbances.

Emotionally

· The positive emotions of Fire include love, joy, and excitement. When it’s balanced within you, it’s easier to feel inspired, full of life, and deeply connected to your loved ones. To understand how the Fire Element manifests emotionally, think about when you were having fun with your friends or family. Perhaps, you were exhilarated hiking to the peak of a mountain, adoring playing a game at the park or beach, or laughing around a campfire with people you love and enjoy. The Fire Element thrives within you when you lose track of time in blissful excitement and connection with others. Internally fire creates and stirs up deep desires. It’s the passion behind what we’re trying to bring into the world and it’s what makes us embrace life fully. Inner fire generates heat and kindles our need to follow our life path. If you have a strong Fire, you’re likely very social, easily excited, and action-oriented. You probably follow your dreams while also prioritizing connection with loved ones. You’re someone who pursues their goals, which often includes creating rewarding experiences with friends and family members. You likely have a strong intuition and thrive when serving others.

People with a strong fire element in their constitution have leadership qualities and are adventurous, brave, confident, motivated, energetic, and progressive. They are eager to pursue goals and are full of youthful spirit. These qualities are certainly wonderful, but they can also lead to challenges. If you have a lot of Fire, you might have a habit of taking on more than you can handle. This can lead to being overly busy, which can cause stress, fatigue, and burnout.

· The negative emotions of fire can stir up irritation, frustration, anger, and aggression. If you have too much of the Fire active within you, your critical nature can flare up, fueling over-fixation on the need to control yourself and others, and the need for perfection. Because of your highly productive nature, you may have trouble relaxing and be susceptible to experiencing burnout. When the warmth of your flame is depleted, you can become upset and impatient. When there is a lack of fire you might become depressed, lazy, miss that passion for life, are low on energy, or feel lonely.

When such emotions bubble up inside you, it’s important to recognize the true source of your feelings, so you don’t express them in destructive ways. Misdirected emotional energy can be very damaging to those around you, as well as to yourself.

Spiritually

“Fire” represents our passions, compulsion, zeal, creativity, and motivations – as in “put a fire under it!”, inner spark, energy, action, sensuality, creativity, illumination, and expression. Fire represents light, heat, energy, metabolism, and the power of transformation.

Relate this to a forest fire that can completely clear out an area of flora. That fire is needed to germinate evergreen seeds (like pine). Fire is a very effective way to break open those cones, germinate the seeds, and spread them further on the wind. When that space is cleared of extra trees the burned matter goes into the Earth and creates a more nutritious soil. That then supports new life coming back up in the space that was made. Fire is needed in nature. It’s part of this endless cycle of death and rebirth. However, other fires are not helpful. Like house fires – there’s nothing good about that! It’s simply destructive. We also need to respect the fire within our inner world. Similar to what happens in the outer world. Too much fire, or in the wrong context, can be bad. Balance is needed!

Rituals to Balance Your Fire Element

You may feel your Fire Element is deficient in your life or would like to achieve one of its benefits.

For example:

· If you want to experience greater motivation – you can use fire energy to light that spark inside of you to push you forward to act.

· If you feel apathetic, disconnected, disinterested, and need to find more passion and engagement in life.

· If you desire a better spiritual connection on your life path.

· If you want to transform or transmute negativity, old habits, ego identification, and limiting beliefs that impede self-growth.

· If you need a boost in immune health.

Take a deeper dive below into ways you can balance your Fire element through the cleansing art of ritual.

Flame Gazing.

The ancient practice of flame or candle gazing offers benefits including improved vision, memory, clarity, willpower and decision making, anxiety and stress relief, strengthened intuition, and better sleep. Set a candle on a fireproof tray that’s propped up on a few books so that it’s closer to eye level. Sit in a comfortable position in a darkened room or under the night sky and set a timer for 4-5 minutes to start. Light the candle and gaze into its flame – see how long you can continue without blinking. Allow the sensation of this light to be absorbed into your awareness and your physical body. When you have to blink, close your eyes – you may still see the flame in your mind’s eye…when this image fades, reopen your eyes and begin again.

Safe sunbathing.

Safe sunbathing is a Fire ritual to get vitamin D from the sun. There are several ways you can connect with the sun but one of the best ways is to go outside and feel the warmth of the Sun directly. When sitting in the sun imagine the healing energies of its rays filling the cells within your body with their radiant warmth, energy, and lightness. Close your eyes. Raise your face toward the Sun and feel the warmth on your face. Take a deep breath in and breathe out slowly. Relax, continuing to breathe deeply until you reach a light meditative state. When ready, slowly raise your arms, palms facing toward the sky. Feel the sunlight on your palms, the sun's rays slowly warming them and traveling through your body. Soak in the light, allowing the warmth and golden light to fill your entire being. Visualize your body glowing bright and golden, radiating the sun's energy outward. Continue soaking in sunlight while meditating until you feel full of energy. In the Eden Method, we call this Heaven Rushing In. Once your hands are full bring them to your chest and hold this vibrant effervescent energy throughout your day. You can then harness this life-giving energy into your projects and intentions. If you notice it makes you too jittery or agitated, allow some energy to soak into the Earth through your feet until you feel better. The Earth is happy to absorb the excess.

Sun Salutations.

Sun salutations are more than an exercise or movement practice. Traditionally, they are done facing the east, facing the rising sun in the morning. And they’re done as a prayer to the sun. Intention is key to developing your inner fire in this practice. You can put intention and your life force into each mindful movement. Or it can also just be a symbolic gesture of appreciation and gratitude to the sun for providing you with an extra day of life. Bring in the fire properties that you’re trying to build up within yourself. With each breath, feel yourself becoming more alive and powerful inside.

Cord Cutting.

With a clear intention, a fire ritual can help cleanse stuck emotions or repetitive negative patterns. Fire can be a destructive energy, but we can also think of it as a transformative energy. It helps something end so another thing can begin, bringing regeneration and rebirth. Burning has long been used as a ritual of release. A simple way to mark fresh starts is to write down everything that’s no longer serving you – from toxic relationships to self-sabotaging habits to outdated beliefs – anything you’re ready to let go of. Sit in front of your fire pot or burning space, hold the images/paper in your hands, and just speak from the heart about what this represents to you and why you need to let this go. Finish with the words I release you. I am done. Then burn that stuff to ashes! Feel the flames eating up and rendering that old energy into nothingness. Let it all go. It’s best to do this ritual outside, where the old energy can escape and be diffused by the wind, rather than inside your home as you want that old energy gone! Note***never burn in the heat of the moment! A calm, thoughtful, and considered burning is much more powerful and effective. Don’t burn any legal documents. Don’t burn anything out of spite. All you are looking for is material that can symbolize what you wish to release. For example, old photographs or letters, old newspaper clippings or advertising – anything that holds emotion for you and that you can afford to send up in flames. If you have no images or material, then sit down and write a letter to the person or persons involved, or a summary of what has gone wrong and what you wish to let go of. Honour any emotions that come up for you but allow the ritual to give you a sense of finality. Allow yourself reflection time, to recognize that you have closed the door on that part of your life. In burning the past, you leave yourself free to claim a brighter future.

Sweat.

Detoxifying the body through sweat is one of the oldest and most effective ways to break up energetic patterns to make room for new ones. Try a steam room, sweat lodge, sauna, or heated yoga class to help stimulate the release of toxins that may be weighing you down!

Burning Sage.

Although burning sage has become a trend that everybody does there is a reason for it. Just like some of the other cleansing rituals mentioned here, sage burning or smudging is another ancient cleansing ritual that has been practiced by Mayans, Middle Eastern Cultures, Jewish culture, and more. Sage is known to move stuck negative energy and help with clarity and stronger intuition. As a plant, sage is known to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Through centuries, different civilizations used it for healing and cleansing.

Saltwater soak.

When your fire becomes too big, and you are looking for a way to douse its flames try swimming in the ocean. one of my favourite things to do at the cabin is a long ocean swim off the end of the dock in our bay. The coolness lowers my temperature from the day’s heat and makes me feel invigorated and refreshed. Salt water and salt have significant powers to cleanse and transform in general. If you are not by the ocean, you could take a warm bath using bath salts to calm and cleanse your body and mind. Salt, especially rock salt, also has cleansing properties because it’s a natural crystal! It’s known to transform negative energy into neutral energy.

Final tips on how to cultivate more “Fire” within you.

Have fun regularly, even if you have to work at it at first. Make it a priority - schedule your fun, if that's what it takes. Don't compromise. Consider fun as important to your well-being as work or anything else you do.
Give of yourself to others. Take the time to listen. Take the risk of dipping into your own heart and finding what you have to give to others unconditionally - then just do it.
Live your passion, whether it be singing, dancing, preserving the environment, or writing poetry. If you don't know what your special passion is, stay amused and don't stop looking. When you find that great interest, dive into it wholeheartedly and enjoy!
Get physical. Get into your body and out of your head. Love, exercise, move, run, play. Get your circulation going.