August is a time for Celebration & Integration

August golden sun rises and sets as our harvests, our farms, our gardens and our hearts bloom, soaked with sunshine. Liquid gold. We watch our kids play over the summer; explore our gardens as they flourish and share drinks and meals al fresco. Naturally, we arrive to a time of harvest at this time of year. August is a time of energetic abundance: nature's wisdom is in full harmony.

We reap the benefits of sowing those early seeds in spring. Whether you grow your own garden or share a neighbour's patch, or support the local farmers market: you are enjoying the fruits of hard labour.

What have you planted this spring? What do you see yourself harvesting now? Have you tended to strong, seeded beginnings this spring and dedicated yourself to diligent maintenance over the summer?...have you grown?

Abundance radiates like the hot sun, smiles of sharing meals and laughter at family gatherings: all signs of our great fortune and blessings in growing our own personal harvest. It is an opportunity to embrace integration. Putting it 'All together'. This is a time to harmonize, share, integrate our experiences and new found wisdom.

We can integrate what we have learned this year from the cold, dark, quiet Covid winter, to the hope of growing fresh roots 'n shoots this spring, to our vibrant, colourful expansive summer. But there's more to expansion and integration than that.

Did you know that we can integrate wisdom, strength and 'thinking' in our body too? Yes, we have more than one brain with which we learn. There are actually 3 brain centres in our body. We have our mind brain (we all know that one, it's loud and very persistent and often gets in the way at the oddest times, you notice that?), we have a heart brain - no joke. Our heart brain can tell us we feel 'heart ache' or suffer from a broken heart . 

Dr. J. Andrew Armour (1991) has shown in his neural research (neuroscience) that our heart "has a complex intrinsic neural network sufficiently sophisticated to qualify as a ‘brain’" 1

Not to be outdone - our stomach wants to be heard too! Yes, that's also true. Michael Gershon (researcher and expert in the field of neurogastroenterology), wrote in his revolutionary 1998 book 'The Second Brain' that our gut can be seen as a second brain since it contains some 100 million neurons. Our gut 'brain' sends information to our mind brain all the time. We literally feel emotions through our gut. Gives a new, radically more important meaning to 'butterflies in the stomach'.

Did you know that 95 percent of the body's serotonin is found in the bowels? When we feel good or bad it is often due to what's happening in our gut brain! Ready to integrate that into a different kind of harvest? A harvest of life, of love, of rich experiences. This offers our summer harvest, our meals and our gatherings a new perspective.

Whether it is our family or our garden, our business or community: integration is key to great success, health and growth. We have known this for eons, in our native lands, around camp fires... Now, science has come on board and shown us that even in our bodies, integration of knowledge is vital for true health, for illness recovery and for being your best self. That is something we can all celebrate.

As the golden summer sun sets lower on the horizon, kick your feet up on the patio or lounge chair, take a moment to count your blessings, take in the warm summer air, invite the senses to relax, absorb all that is around you, integrate the sounds, the smells, the textures of this summer, this harvest of energy. Soak it all in. Allow it to feed you and strengthen you. That is what summer is for, after all. You have grown wiser.

"Intelligence is present everywhere in our bodies . . . our own inner intelligence is far superior to any we can try to substitute from the outside."  Deepak Chopra

Tell us, what have you 'learned' this summer?