Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women

(#81) Seasonal Transitions & Somatic Rituals: Honoring the Shift and Self-Regulating from Spring to Summer

• Rae The Somatic Coach • Episode 81

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In this episode, we explore the transition between spring and summer as a powerful metaphor for personal growth, energy shifts, and nervous system rhythms. Drawing from 5 Element Theory, I’ll guide you through how seasonal transitions impact the body, emotions, and your inner landscape and how you can move through them with more presence and self-trust. This is an episode you can return back to when you're experiencing any kind of transition.

You’ll learn:
 🌱 The energetics of Wood Season (Spring) and Fire Season (Summer)—and what each represents in your body and life
🌱 Somatic signs you're resisting a transition—like fatigue, burnout, and overcommitting
🌱 A personal story of resistance and recovery—how throwing out my back reminded me to slow down and listen
🌱 A full ritual practice for navigating seasonal shifts:

  • Breathwork (2:1 and halo active)
  • Cacao ceremony (I like to use Ora Cacao)
  • Meditation (Insight Timer App)
  • Journaling prompts and affirmations to support your release and renewal

💭 Journal Prompts:

  • What does this transition want to teach me?
  • What feels complete?
  • What am I ready to release to feel lighter this summer?

🌞 Affirmations to support you during the transition:

  • I am safe to not know what’s next
  • What I release creates space for what is in my higher alignment
  • Every “no” brings me back to alignment

This episode is here to remind you: there’s no rush through the transition. Whether you're moving from one season to another or through a life shift, the tools shared here will help you anchor into your body and your truth.

📅 Retreat Reminder: The Return to Soul Retreat takes place in October—aligned with Metal Season and designed for powerful release, reflection, and reconnection.

📩 Sign up for the monthly newsletter to receive somatic tools, journal prompts, and updates straight to your inbox.

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Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast is intended to inspire, educate, and support you on your personal journey. It does not substitute for professional mental health advice. I am not a psychologist or medical professional. If you are experiencing distress, mental health challenges, or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified professional.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women, a podcast for the sensitive, soulful, high-achieving woman ready to come home to herself. I'm your host, rae. I'm a somatic coach and breathwork facilitator here to guide you back to your body, your truth and your power. Each week we'll explore nervous system healing, somatics, breathwork, embodied living, creativity, self-expression and soul-led personal growth. If you are ready to soften the pressure, release perfectionism and live with more presence, more pleasure and more purpose, you're in the right place. Let's take a deep breath and let's dive in. Welcome back to the podcast. If you are new here, I'm Rae. I'm a somatic coach and breathwork facilitator. And if you aren't new here, welcome back. I'm so glad that you're tuning in for today's episode, that you're tuning in for today's episode. So for today's episode, I'm going to be sharing with you a bit about how we can transition from one season to the next with a little bit of ease and grace and compassion, and this episode is probably something that you can definitely revisit and come back to in the future when you are experiencing any sort of transition. Really. So, building off of last week's episode around nature, that is kind of what I'll be speaking to a bit more here, like those transitions and how you can see that in nature, but it does apply in all areas of life. So when we move through transitions, it's really an opportunity for us to slow down and tend to our life, tend to our needs, make some changes, some shifts, release, let go, and life can definitely be a series of transitions in all different areas of life. A series of transitions in all different areas of life. So I realize I'm just diving in right now, right into the episode. We just dove right in, but I guess I have a lot to say in this area. So we're just gonna, we're gonna keep it going.

Speaker 1:

So I want to kick things off with talking a bit about five element theory, and this is a part of Chinese medicine. It's something that I learned about and I took a course on for about one year, and it's something that I also like to integrate into my work, integrate into my personal life and my work with clients, and it is a perspective that each season represents an energetic phase of life, of nature of our bodies, and there are five different seasons. So the first is water season. This is in winter, around December to February roughly and this is a time of rest, of stillness, of deep reflection, a time to kind of regenerate our bodies, our nervous system. Then we have wood season, which is what we're in currently, and that is a time of spring. This is March through May, and it's a time of growth.

Speaker 1:

Things like to move, things also like to begin so kind of like when the things start to bloom, they like to start to grow. And this is right around where we are and we're transitioning into fire season or summer, and that's around June through August. And fire season is a time of expansion. It's a time of expression, of joy, of connection. We're outside, we're going to barbecues, we're meeting up with our friends, there's lots of laughter during fire season, the end of August and into September, and this is a time of really grounding and integrating, pausing, and it's also a time where we kind of like re-nourish and fill up our cup after all of this outwards energy and fire season. And then we move right into metal season, the fall, and this is the end of September through to November, and this is a time of letting go. This is a time of processing grief, boundaries, even making like little tweaks and refining things in our life can happen a lot during metal season as well.

Speaker 1:

So some signs that you might be kind of struggling with, maybe a transition or a transition between seasons. You might be experiencing some fatigue, you might be over committing yourself, so not honoring your yes or your no, so having some boundary work that needs to happen. You might be experiencing burnout, you might be feeling angry and you might be feeling resentful, and so these are all signs that we might experience in the body, like the somatic sensations of those emotions and seeing them come out in all different ways, and that can look like yeah, like maybe we're resisting a transition that's coming, so there's some tension there and it's causing a lot of signs to come up from our body, trying to communicate to us like we're in a time of change, we're in a time of a shift, like something's gotta shift, something's gotta shift. And I'll share a little bit for myself. Historically, transitions have been really challenging for me. I struggled with a lot of anxiety in the past and transitions were a big part of that anxiety. And they look all. Transitions can look all different sorts of ways. We have identity shifts, we have breakups, platonic and romantic endings. We have all different kinds of transitions and changes that can happen in our personal life can happen emotionally, energetically, all different things that can happen.

Speaker 1:

So one example I can share is just recently, a few weeks ago, I was gardening and I went to move something but my feet were in an odd angle and I ended up throwing out my back, which is really painful. If you've ever experienced that hopefully you haven't but what it ended up doing was it really stopped me in my tracks. Like I really really value being able to be active and being able to move my body and I was, you know, on bed rest for about four days. I was in a lot of pain. I had to rest. I do have a personal trainer, who's awesome. He was able to do some physical therapy with me and really help me, which was great. I was getting some movement in, but it was not fun. I went to acupuncture, I went to the massage therapist, I did everything and I'm feeling a lot, a lot better.

Speaker 1:

But I share this with you because the transition from spring to summer and that those few weeks it was definitely my body, was definitely communicating to me like rest ground, like your lower back as a source of your uh, yeah, your grounding, your footing, like really feel your feet on the ground, really feel connected to your sense of safety and security. And, um, regulating myself in that way was really challenging because, like I said, I was in a lot of pain and I really value being able to move, but it was needed and some of the I did a few different like rituals myself to just be able to move through this experience of processing what that brought up for me, because I was feeling really angry, I was feeling really sad, I had a lot of different emotions that I had to work through in this, yeah, in this one form of a transition. It was a seasonal transition, but it was also a time where I, yeah, I had to work through a lot of my own material right. So I want to share with you a ritual that might be helpful for you. It's something that you can use for any transition that you might be experiencing, whether it is a breakup, an ending, an identity shift, an energetic up level. It could be any kind of transition that's coming up for you and, again, this is something that you can revisit and come back to as well in the future. So, when it comes to putting together a ritual, I always like to start with like what is my intention? What am I hoping to receive and what do I think that I need? So, invitation to start with those kind of thoughts.

Speaker 1:

As you're creating your own ritual for transitions, I like to start with a bit of breath work. So that could look like doing the two one breath. So it's inhaling twice through your nose and exhaling once through your mouth. It sounds like this so inhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, inhale, exhale, and then I'll move into the halo active, which is a long deep inhale through the nose and a long deep exhale through the mouth. And so I'll do the two one breath for a little bit. I'll do the halo active for a little bit.

Speaker 1:

I'll also make myself some cacao. So Aura cacao is the brand that I like to use, and they have all different types of cacaos. They also have a variety pack that you can buy. So if you're not sure which one's speaking to you, you can buy a variety pack. I think it comes with like 10 different types of cacao with all different intentions. So, again, with that clarity, from the beginning of setting your ritual, you'll have an idea of which cacao might benefit and support you and so, depending on what speaks to you, you could also incorporate some cacao.

Speaker 1:

Then I'll do a meditation, sometimes for the cacao to kind of like use it as a support, and other times just a meditation based on what my intention is, and a resource that I like to use for that is Insight Timer. I love this resource. I think it has such a huge variety and huge library of practices and so you can just go right into the search on insight timer and you can type in exactly what you're looking for. So for me it was like sadness, anger, like those were the things that were coming up for me. Right into insight timer I went, I typed in like something for anger and I I read a few descriptions and I found one that resonated with me to help and support me with processing what was coming up for me, and then I like to also do some journaling.

Speaker 1:

So what does this transition want to teach me? You can write on that. What feels complete in this season of my life, like when I was feeling super ungrounded? What can I release and let go of to help me, like, get back to that regulated and grounded state and feel really connected in my body? Another one what am I ready to release in order to feel lighter in this next season? So for me that's summer, because I was transitioning or am transitioning from spring into summer. So what am I ready to release in order to feel lighter in this next season?

Speaker 1:

So those are three questions that you could journal on, and I also like to incorporate some affirmations, so three that might be helpful for transition. Specifically, the first is I am safe to not know what's next. The second what I release creates space for what is in my highest alignment. And then the third every no brings me back to alignment. So I like that one, especially if you have, like, a history of people pleasing or caretaking, sometimes it's hard to say no and so affirming to yourself every no brings me back into my alignment. It's okay for you to say no, it's okay for you to have a stronger boundary or take some space or, yeah, really tend to yourself and your needs. So I hope that you enjoy this ritual practice.

Speaker 1:

If you do choose to do it, you know, make it your own, really tune into what would serve you, what would support you own, really tune into what would serve you, what would support you and the journaling if you do choose to do it, remember that there is, you know, no rush through a transition, take your time, move at your pace and really listen to your body. And if any of this spoke to you, amazing, the Return to Soul Retreat is happening during middle season. So that is in the fall. The retreat is in October and middle season is all around letting go. It is all around refining in our lives, having those boundaries, your yes, your no, processing grief, so really being with yourself in the arising of what's coming up for you in a way that feels, yeah, really compassionate and safe and supported. So check out the show notes if you want to know more about the retreat.

Speaker 1:

And, yeah, I hope that you enjoyed today's episode. As always, I love creating these episodes for you and I'm so glad that you are tuning in. So I hope you have an incredible rest of your day, an incredible rest of your day, an incredible rest of your week, and I will talk to you soon. Thank you for being here and tuning in to Somatic Healing for Wellness Focused Women podcast. If you were moved or inspired by today's episode, please take a moment to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It truly helps the podcast grow and helps more people find me on their healing journey. Make sure to check out the show notes to sign up for the monthly newsletter, links to more resources, opportunities to work with me and ways that we can stay connected. If we aren't already connected on social media, head over to Instagram to follow me at raythesomaticcoach. Send me a DM. I'd love to connect with you and I answer each note that comes in. I am so happy you're here and I cannot wait to talk with you on our next episode of the podcast.