A Summer Ritual: Stay Cool, Soft & Hydrated

Cover photo by Diego Acosta

There is a certain kind of heat that asks you to stop pretending you can move at your usual pace.

The afternoons get longer. Your skin stays warm. Your glass starts sweating before you do. Suddenly, everything in your body is asking for water, shade, fruit, fewer clothes and a little less urgency.

So give in.

Summer doesn’t always need to be conquered. Sometimes the ritual is simply learning how to soften inside of it.

This is your invitation to make staying cool feel beautiful. To hydrate like it’s part of your beauty routine. To turn an unbearably hot afternoon into something slow, juicy, creative and a little sexy.

Open the windows if there’s a breeze. Put your phone somewhere you can’t mindlessly reach for it. Wear the tiny little thing you’ve been saving for vacation, even if you’re spending the afternoon at home.

We’re making heatwave survival pretty.

Set the Mood

Start by slowing the room down.

Light your favorite incense and let the scent move through the space. Keep the curtains slightly drawn against the strongest sun. Put on music that makes you feel like you’re somewhere tropical with nowhere to be.

Bring out the good glass.

Yes, that glass.

Hydration tastes better when she’s dressed appropriately.

Fill it with cold water, citrus, herbs and fruit. Sit somewhere comfortable and give yourself permission to move slowly.

Today’s energy is not productivity.

Today’s energy is pleasure without urgency.

Make Your Water Juicy

Plain water is beautiful, but summer gives us entirely too much fruit not to flirt with it.

Fill a pitcher with cold water and whatever looks delicious:

● Watermelon + mint

● Pineapple + lime

● Cucumber + lemon

● Orange + hibiscus

● Strawberry + basil

● Mango + lime

● Coconut water + fresh mint

Let your fruit infuse in the refrigerator, then pour it over ice.

Keep the pitcher somewhere visible throughout the day. Every time you pass it, refill your glass.

Consider it your little hydration altar.

Make Coconut Water Ice Cubes

This might be my favorite tiny summer luxury.

Pour coconut water into an ice tray and freeze overnight.

Drop the cubes into sparkling water, fruit-infused water, hibiscus tea or your favorite summer mocktail. As they melt, your drink gets more flavorful instead of becoming watered down.

You can also freeze little pieces of fruit, mint or edible flowers inside.

Tiny. Pretty. Useful.

We love a multitasking soft girl.

Make Herbal Fruity Popsicles

Turn hydration into dessert.

Brew hibiscus, mint or ginger tea and allow it to cool completely. Blend or combine it with fresh fruit and pour it into popsicle molds.

Try:

Hibiscus + Strawberry
Cold hibiscus tea, strawberries and a squeeze of lime.

Watermelon + Mint
Fresh watermelon, mint and a little coconut water.

Mango + Ginger
Ripe mango, cooled ginger tea and lime.

Pineapple + Coconut
Fresh pineapple blended with coconut water.

Keep a few tucked in the freezer for those afternoons when the heat starts behaving disrespectfully.

Take a Flower Bath

Later, when the sun begins to soften, run yourself a cool or comfortably lukewarm bath.

Scatter fresh flowers or petals across the water. Hibiscus, rose petals and whatever beautiful blooms are available to you can turn an ordinary bath into something that feels almost ceremonial.

Bring your cold fruit water with you.

Let your body sink.

No scrolling. No answering anyone. No mentally reorganizing tomorrow.

Just water against your skin.

Notice how your shoulders drop when you realize nobody needs anything from you for the next twenty minutes.

Stay there.

Read Something That Makes You Dream

After your bath, moisturize slowly and put on something loose, tiny or deliciously comfortable.

Then find somewhere cool and read.

Not because you’re trying to finish another self-improvement book.

Read something beautiful.

Something romantic.

Something sensual.

Something strange.

Something that makes your imagination wander.

Creativity needs empty spaces to crawl into. Give it one.

Your Summer Journal Ritual

Pour another cold drink. Find a shady corner. Open your journal and don’t worry about making your answers sound profound.

Write what comes.

What would summer feel like if I stopped rushing through it?

Where in my life am I craving more spaciousness?

What has been making me feel alive lately?

What does pleasure look like for me when nobody else is involved?

What am I curious enough to create simply because it sounds fun?

What makes me feel sexy without needing anyone else’s attention?

What does my body seem to be asking me for right now?

What can I do less of this season?

What do I want to taste, touch, smell, experience and remember before summer ends?

And finally:

If this summer became a memory I returned to years from now, what would I want to remember about the woman I was becoming?

Don’t rush that last one.

Summer Affirmations

Say them after your bath. Write one across the top of your journal page. Whisper one while you’re moisturizing your skin.

Whatever feels good.

I am allowed to move at the pace my body needs.

Rest keeps my creativity alive.

I make room for pleasure without needing to earn it.

My body deserves water, nourishment, shade and tenderness.

I am still powerful when I am resting.

I let summer soften me.

My sensuality belongs to me.

I create from curiosity instead of pressure.

I am allowed to feel beautiful simply because I exist.

I choose experiences that leave me feeling nourished, inspired and alive.

There is no prize for exhausting myself.

I am becoming softer without becoming smaller.

Stay Here a Little Longer

Maybe summer isn’t asking you to do more.

Maybe it’s asking you to become more aware.

Of cold fruit against your tongue.

Flowers floating beside your skin.

The condensation running down your glass.

The book waiting beside the bed.

The way your body feels when you stop demanding that it hurry.

The ideas that finally find you when your mind gets quiet.

So when the heat rises, don’t automatically reach for another thing to accomplish.

Pour something cold.

Take off a layer.

Find some shade.

Read.

Write.

Float.

Let yourself be a little lazy, a little juicy, a little dreamy.

Hey Soft Girl, you don’t have to outrun summer. Let it melt you into someone softer.