Adjusting, adapting and acclimatising to the rhythm of summer
Long and languid afternoons, turquoise pool mornings and the saltwater goodness of the sea. The long days of summer arrive and at this time we adjust, adapt, acclimatise. Each summer has rhythms. When it first begins, we look ahead to expanses of time with no plans, quiet holiday hours that can take some time to feel normal, with our minds and bodies so inclined towards productivity and action. And no doubt the holidays bring with them obligations to be present and active for days on end. Yet the starkness of summer’s sudden arrival, a scorching hot day, the first beach trip, a few days away from our daily lives, can still have a kind of magic about them, recalling childhood and the unplanned hours of summer. The pastel pinks and deep oranges of a slow-coming summer night, which the author Wallace Stevens called ‘like a perfection of thought.’ We can romanticise summer for all the right reasons: a releasing of obligations, realignment with our body’s call for sunlight and movement, a natural pull to be outside more, on screens less, even forgetting for a moment what day or hour we’re in, because we are simply in it.
It’s not always an easy transition. For our bodies, the heat can feel like an extra layer of skin, a heavy coat that we have to carry around. For our minds, the intimidation of expansive time ahead can paradoxically make us feel like we aren’t relaxing ‘enough’ or quickly enough, that we need to hurry up and switch off so that we can savour the precious holidays.
Perhaps approaching this time with a gentle sense of adaptation can help. Just as our bodies go through a process of adjustment in summer, it’s normal for us to feel a little untethered and restless as we enter both summer and the holiday season.
Thinking of it not as a time we dislike or can’t get used to, but as a period in which we can be okay with not diving straight into a season with absolute ease, we can gradually adapt. Take our time.
Adaptation also takes place with a summer sauna or spa trip. As we make our way back to the cities or towns where we work and live, and we get back into summer working routines, a spa and sauna can cleanse the city sweat and dirt from our bodies, help our muscles relax and warm up after air-conditioned offices cause aches and stiffness. A summer soak can even help us feel an improved capacity to take on yet another hot day outside.
Whether you are back to regular routines and work, or absorbed in a few more days of summer holidays, the longer days are the perfect reason to savour a little more time outside or an after-work sauna and soak. With change comes adaptation, a necessary dose of adjustment that we can embrace as we meet each season.
Words by Katherine Brabon