It’s HOT! This weekend features a potentially stressful Mars-Saturn square, which can stimulate feelings of frustration, impatience, stagnation and anger. Add high August temperatures, which affects our moods and energies, and it’s a perfect moment to place our awareness on ways to help ourselves to cool down.

–collagen/hydro-jelly face masks cools a hot head, where many of us generate too much heat with our thoughts.

–ice face masks also bring down surface temperature of skin (also helps with heat based breakouts). Just make sure you only leave it on for a few minutes or you will generate red splotches.

-iced latte with collagen and adaptogens, to bring down excess stress/heat. Make it cool butterfly pea blue!

-yin movement flows, like yoga and xi gong. Both decrease Yang (heat) and increase Yin (coolness).

-cold washcloth on the back of neck and bottoms of feet. Also fun bonding time with your partner 🙂

-play in the yard with the garden hose and sprinklers – like you did when you were a kid.

-un-cooking – eating more raw, cool and juicy vegetables, berries, fruits, salads

-stay hydrated, and in air conditioning* as much as possible.

-do more Yin or COOLING activities: gardening, sleeping, napping, bathing, resting, reading books, doing quiet creative activities, slowing down and de-stressing, generally

This is also a great list for peri-menopausal and menopausal women. According to Chinese medicine, during this time of life we are deficient in YIN, or feminine/cool, and have an excess of YANG, or masculine/heat energies. Becoming conscious about and intentionally incorporating more YIN activities into your life balances out the excess YANG in your body right now, thus reducing uncomfortable symptoms of peri-meno, like hot flashes, sweats, mood swings etc.

In addition to doing things on the list above, I recently had our air conditioners cleaned (who knew I needed to do that?!) and it made a huge difference in the output of cool air and its more energy efficient. With such high heat AC’s are a necessary luxury. The reality of climate change makes this fact a double edged sword; we need the AC more than ever now but it’s also a contributor to the problem. I remain humbly grateful for the ability to stay cool.

Stay cool, friends!