In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), each season is associated with a specific organ, emotion, and energetic quality. Summer corresponds to the Heart, the Small Intestine, the Fire element, and the emotion of joy. It is the season of warmth, expansion, and connection. A time when nature is in full bloom, and we are invited to open our hearts fully.
In order to truly nurture the Heart, both physically and energetically, we must understand it not only as a personal centre of emotion, but as a gateway to something deeper: our capacity for compassion, and our ability to connect with others, with the world, and with life itself.
In wellness spaces, there is often an emphasis on individual regulation and healing- and while caring for our own nervous systems is essential, it becomes incomplete when detached from the wellbeing of the collective. The Heart in TCM governs not only our Blood and consciousness, but our capacity to relate, to extend compassion, and to love. It reminds us that our own joy and vitality are inseparable from the state of the world around us.
There is an unhelpful misconception that holistic or spiritual practice requires neutrality—that to be “Zen” is to be unbothered, disconnected, or removed from politics and suffering. That is a misunderstanding of a path to deeper awareness and feeling. True Heart energy is not passive. It is awake, responsive and deeply human. It doesn’t look away from pain; it recognises it, feels it, and responds with compassion.
To truly look after our hearts, especially in summer, is not just to seek joy but to open ourselves to the full range of feeling, including grief, pain, outrage, and solidarity in the face of injustices. This is the kind of heartfulness that heals not only the individual but also strengthens the bonds of collective consciousness.
Our wellbeing cannot be separate from that of others. In fact, the Heart thrives on connection. In TCM, when the Heart is balanced and connected to the wider consciousness, we feel happy, expressive, emotionally clear and aligned to a greater purpose. When it’s out of balance, we may feel isolated, anxious, or even numb.
So as the days stretch long and warm, we’re invited not only to rest and restore but to be present. To open our hearts, not just to personal wellbeing and joy but to collective awareness. To speak, to feel, to act where needed. To remember that the same Fire that fuels our inner spark also lights the path toward justice, compassion, and health connection with others.
Compassionate Heart energy, although soft and Yin, is not necessarily quiet. It connects us, strengthens us, and moves us to remember that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.