Summer Solstice 2024: Watching Clouds Pass

The sun shines in the sky for all

Summer Solstice is the time of the sun. The photo shows the sun shining through a vast blue sky full of fluffy clouds. Photo by Chuttersnap at Unsplash.

Abundance of Light

Summer is the season of Yang at its highest point for our hemisphere on the planet: it is SUN time, and there is an abundance of light. The sun is bright, and there is a sense of expansion and flourishing and of things heating up. The Yang energies are about things that grow, and it is natural to experience an energy surge during the summer. It is a time to get things done. Seeds are bursting and growing, the weeds are coming up, and this is the time to work hard and cultivate the garden or to work hard on anything you are trying to grow, like a business or a friendship. This can literally mean toiling in the garden under the hot sun or putting in some good honest hours of effort at your craft. On the social front, it can mean inviting people to join you for activities and dates and speaking from the heart with one another. The hard work of the summer is joyful, and the organ of the summer is the heart, considered the Commander of the body and heartmind. You can think of the summer as a time to put your heart into things, into your work and relationships. It is the time to be bright on the inside and to look on the bright side.  The heart is the seat of the Shen, or Spirit, so it is a time to encourage it to shine. The heart energy expresses in laughter and joy when it is in balance. When the heart is not in balance, there can be anger and impatience. So, make peace in your relationships during this time for the sake of your heart!

A Great Time to Practice and Cultivate Energy

In terms of the practice of Qigong and Tai Chi, summer is a time of cultivation, which means practicing what you know about balance and harmony and bringing it forth into life so it becomes real. Since the days are longer, there are literally more hours of daylight in the day, and this gives you more daylight hours to practice. The summer is also the time when school is out, and so you may take vacations and do things that take you out of your comfort zone or take you away from usual routines. Feeling like “a fish out of water” in what feels like a new undiscovered country to you and trying to figure out the ways of the world wherever you find yourself are great ways to apply the principles of a quiet mind as you move about and live your life. At such times, you can practice staying calm and not losing your center as you deal with the adventures of summer travel or the harshness of current events and world news. Breathe deeply and quietly. Repetition helps, and clarity comes at the right moments. You can encounter life and develop new perspectives. Rethinking your life at such times can also happen.

Make good use of the supportive energies around you.

Watching Clouds Pass

Watching Clouds Pass is the movement to do during the Summer Solstice to protect your energies, cultivate calm, and see near and far.

Watching Clouds Pass: How to do it

To do the Watching Clouds Pass movement during the Summer Solstice, see if you can practice at dawn or at dusk as the sun is going down. To do the movement, hold your arms out in front of you as if you are hugging the air that is 12 inches or so from your chest, elbows softly bent, one hand up and one hand down, palms facing you. You will be holding your arms out as if you are holding a slightly overfull big brown paper shopping bag (supporting the bottom of the bag and the top), and then to do the movement you hold your arms and hands fairly still as you turn your torso and shift weight to the side of the body that corresponds to the top hand (for example: with right hand in top position, turn your torso right). You want to feel your arms are being moved by the leg and torso movement as the arms are hugging the air just in front of your body and following. As you rotate your torso, you let your arms come along for the ride, and you notice that you can, as my teacher said, “move your arms without moving your arms.” Your arms can be light and effortless like a cloud. Try it now in your mind or physically in the space where you are now. It is okay if the floorboards or the chair you are sitting on squeak as you move.

Watching Clouds Pass to Handle Distractions

The busy summertime may be so full of activities that you need a way to handle distractions and saying no to invitations. Watching Clouds Pass, which is also known as Cloud Hands or the Hand Maneuver in Tai Chi, is a sort of active resting period during a practice or class or in a Tai Chi form. Whether you do this movement as a stationary form or sitting in a chair or as a walking form, the idea is the same. As you imitate the clouds passing by moving your hands gently in front of your heart space and your belly space, you can think of three things: holding your hands in such a way that it looks and feels as if you are protecting the belly and protecting the heart and also: swatting away distractions with an easy bump of your shoulder, hip, elbow and leg as your body does the Watching Clouds Pass movement. Watching Clouds Pass can also include a sideways walking movement, which I think of as a movement you use for navigating carefully through tight spaces, like walking between rose bushes or parked cars. If you add walking to the Watching Clouds Pass movement, it can literally feel like changing direction or walking away from distractions or unwanted invitations in a relaxed and even playful and clear manner.

Watching Clouds Pass as an Eye Exercise

There is also an opportunity to use Watching Clouds Pass as a vision exercise for your eyes and attention. As you do this full-body exercise, you can add the eye exercise by actively and mindfully watching your hands: notice the fingernails, the lines, the little wrinkles of the fleshy parts for your palm, and the pattern of your fingerprints. This is exquisite! It is a way of knowing yourself and staying with yourself. Continue the movement with this up-close hand awareness, and then, every now and then, as when you switch hands and then rotate your torso the other direction, you also take a moment to look far away beyond your hands, as if you could see the edge of the world and imagine its curvature. This can be breathtaking, but also a way of actively resting your eyes. It can feel very refreshing. Finally, see if you can look far and also notice the lines and details of your hands simultaneously. Ah! I have a friend who says that is the best part of the exercise in that you can, for a moment, experience no difference between the outside world and your inner experiencing! Another friend says his arms are so light at this point that he feels you don’t even need arms to do this movement. Yes! I say do it your way, enjoy it and share what you find out with others.

Enjoy the Summer Solstice energies however they appear, and remember to take breaks and go slow sometimes. It is a long summer!