JUNE SOLSTICE 2025

Assia Richardson
Jun 20
4 min read

FOR THOSE WHO PREFER TO LISTEN

Writing this from Hotchkiss Park in Santa Monica because the Valley is too hot during the day, and Nike deserved some cool park vibes with momma working next to her. These past few weeks have been days of foggy mornings and cloudy afternoons – now the Sun is in full force and I’m missing those chillier days.

Last season I wrote about resistance and resilience and shared my focuses of releasing grip on resistance and using resilience as a tool – so let’s do a quick self check-in: how did you do with that? For me, releasing grip on resistance has been a lot of letting go:

Letting go of my want for certainty in my artistic pursuits and using resilience to remind myself that I am forging my own artistic path that is unmistakably mine.
Letting go of the future I thought I’d have with my partner and using my resilience to keep an open heart not letting heartbreak make me bitter.
Letting go of the past traumas that make me triggerable and using my resilience to remind me that my past does not need to determine my future. This one is a slower process and I’m still actively unpacking in therapy, but I’m proud of myself for being on the journey.

Maybe write down your own recap of last season.

Today marks the June Solstice, so happy Summer for us in the North , and welcome Winter for those in the South. As we dive into this solstice, after practicing resistance and resilience, I offer us two new words: consistency and confidence.

☀️ SHIFTING INTO SUMMER ☀️

Summer is the season when everything comes alive! Nature is in bloom, stretching to reach her full potential, striving for greatness, soaking up nourishment from the Sun and everything around her, because soon the Sun will move on and nature must prepare for the fall harvest where everything she’s nourished is ripe enough to feed her through the winter.

Soaking up nourishment can look like:

Dedicating time to your friends, celebrate their presence in your life
Dedicating time to personal growth, learn something new whether for work, hobby, or self
Dedicating time to your inner child, get outside and play, go to parties, hit the beach, try that food festival, dance for no reason

Shifting into our summer is all about coming alive. Striving for our potential will require consistency and confidence. So how are you being consistent? Are you consistently show up as yourself? Are you consistently practicing that thing you said you would? Are you consistently working on behaviors you say you want to change? Take some time to think on your own versions of consistency.

Then we examine confidence, and if we’re truly acknowledging our full selves. I know for me confidence has been a struggle. The reality that calling myself a multi-disciplinary artist is very hard for me – though I write poetry and shoot photography and act in films and write screenplays, the title of artist still feels too dignified or professional for me.

So this summer I’m inviting you to join me in discovering confidence in the things we downplay about ourselves, the things we’re humble about because maybe to shine would feel too undeserving. I dare to be like nature, soaking up everything with consistent action and stretching to my full potential with confident belief.

❄️ SHIFTING INTO WINTER ❄️

Winter is opposite summer, but instead of thinking the opposite of "coming alive" = dying, think of winter as everything going dormant. Dormant is a temporary cease of activity, but not death. Nature goes into hibernation to rest up for her rebirth in the spring. So instead of soaking up nourishment, she's steeping in stillness.

Steeping in stillness can look like:

Dedicating time to rest, sleep in without guilt, take naps, and say no
Dedicating time to reflect, think or write about your dreams, put your thoughts on paper
Dedicating time to your space, declutter, make a cozy nook in your home, light candles and take baths

Shifting into winter is all about going dormant. Hibernation also requires consistency and confidence. Many of us struggle giving ourselves permission to sit still. How can you practice consistency in your rest? Maybe a bedtime routine to help you wind down. Or do you need consistency in your reflection? Maybe dedicate "me-time" once a week to sit with your thoughts alone for a few hours, don't busy yourself to run away from your inner world, learn to sit in it.

Then we examine confidence, and if we're truly letting ourselves enjoy our stillness guilt free. Confidence to tell ourselves, rest is just as important as productivity. Confidence to tell ourselves, we deserve a nap or a cozy bath with candles. Confidence is demanding, so how can we demand stillness in this season?

So for those in the Southern Hemisphere I'm inviting you to discover consistency in your stillness practice, and confidence in demanding your rest. I dare you to be like nature, steeping in stllness, like tea in hot water, not in a rush, nothing to do, nowhere to be but in your cozy restful, reflective, space.

🎵 A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey