What My Body Needs This Summer: Slowness, Salt, and Stretching

Summer reading with Maxx and Clawed.

It took me years to stop chasing a version of summer that didn’t belong to me.

I used to think summer had to look like something: loud, tanned, beach-salted and fast-moving. But this summer—like the one before—I’ve softened my grip. I’m listening to what my body actually needs, not what a calendar or commercial tells me it should want.

This season, I’m craving three things: slowness, salt, and stretching.

Slowness, like the kind you earn after a long morning walk. The kind where the sun makes your shoulders warm, and you come home to stillness and dogs curled on the cool floor. I’ve been waking up early not for productivity, but for presence. A slow pour-over, a journal that doesn’t require answers, and a moment on the porch to notice how the trees move when no one’s watching.

Salt — not just in my food, but in the bath. I’ve found that an evening soak with Epsom and a few drops of eucalyptus oil does more for my spirit than any workout. The dogs lie outside the bathroom door like soft sentinels while I steep myself in peace.

And finally, stretching. Gentle, intuitive, with no pressure to push further. I move in ways that feel like unwinding, not performing. Sometimes Maxx joins me on the mat, which always reminds me how much joy there is in simply being here.

My summer wellness isn’t a checklist. It’s a pulse. A returning.

Try This:

• Add sea salt and lemon to your water in the morning.

• Stretch on the floor with your dog nearby and call it sacred.

• Take one moment each day to do absolutely nothing—and love yourself for it.