Guided Meditation Script for the Summer Season
Summer is a time to recharge, explore, and turn toward the abundant sun. For many people, summer is also a time of nostalgia in remembering family vacations, time off from school, and even special annual community activities like camps or team sporting events and trainings.
There are so many beautiful ways to incorporate the seasons into your yoga teachings, from chest-opening sun-facing poses like Camel or Tree pose, and guided meditations to root your students into experiencing this present season that offers so much. We’re going to focus on the latter, guided meditation for the summer solstice or season itself, that you can read and find inspiration for your own practice, expand or edit to fit your students’ needs, or take and share with your students exactly as it is.
Guided Meditation Script for Summer
“Find an easy seat on your mat. You may find comfort in full lotus, half lotus, one foot stacked gently on top of the other, or maybe lifting your seat by choosing to sit on a bolster or cushion. Allow your hands to find a resting place softly on top of your knees. Allow your palms to fall open, facing upward toward the sun. Eyes gently close. Take in a deep inhale through the nose, and exhale through the nose. One more time - Inhale through the nose and exhale through the nose. Allowing your shoulders to rise and fall softly toward the ears, then down the back. Relaxing the jaw, unfurrowing the brow.
As you settle into the mat, bring to mind a cool and crisp fall day. Maybe the smell of wet leaves, the dense gray puffy clouds above. Inhale and exhale, finding gratitude for the transition this season brings, preparing life to go safely dormant to weather the incoming cold.
On your next inhale, bring to mind a chilly day in winter. Large mounds of snow may cover the ground, the tree tops, and the streets. Inhale the cold air and allow gratitude for this season of togetherness, reliance on others, and stillness to fill you up. On your next inhale, bring to mind the first day of spring. Birds chirping in their nests, flowers beginning to poke up from the soil, and a newfound sense of joy and relief taking over your senses.
Each season has its place in the balance of the world and the balance of our lives. Bring your attention now to this upcoming summer season. The season of sun that allows crops to grow, children to run and play until their cheeks are rosy, and nights spent sitting outside listening to the crickets and watching the flight of lightning bugs.
Today, we experience seasons through months on the calendar and interact here and there with nature itself. We no longer have to water the crops in the summer, salt and can and store food for winter, and welcome baby animals in the spring. Our modern world allows us heat and cooling and water and refrigeration and quick transportation to stores for whatever we may need.
While each of these things brings us comfort and ease to life, they also remove us from the ebb and flow of seasonal change. Change in the weather, changes in our needs and responsibilities and change in our understanding of the Earth and its importance.
Take a moment to inhale deeply through the nose for a count of five, then exhale for a count of 7 or even 8. As you breathe, imagine each season and how it serves you. Imagine summer, this upcoming gift, and how you can be more present in this experience of being closest to the sun, closest to warmth, and maybe even closest to yourself. Inhale, reaching the crown of the head upward toward the sky, as if it were attached to an invisible string tugging you just a bit closer upward. Exhale, letting the shoulders fall down the back, the jaw relax, and the tongue drop from the roof of the mouth.
Bring your awareness to the palms of your open hands. Imagine that because they are open, they are receiving the warm, energizing glow of the summer sun. Feel this warmth sinking into your palms, radiating up your forearms, and settling in your chest at the heart center. Inhale and exhale, letting the warmth of the life-giving sun settle in your chest.
When you are ready, bring your palms together at heart center in a prayer, and bow your head ever so slightly. Finding gratitude for all the gifts that the summer season brings us. When you are ready, gently lift your head and blink open your eyes. Namaste.”
Final Thoughts
If you have enjoyed this piece and are inspired to add more time-relevant meditations, flows, or workshops to your schedule, you may decide to poke around online for notable dates (such as National Women’s Day, Global Family Day, the longest day of the year - Christmas Eve, etc.) and design your own. I hope this script offers you inspiration for your own practice, a newfound gratitude for our rotation of seasons on this beautiful planet in which we find ourselves, and provides your students with the same.
