Center Pensées - French Center for Psychotherapy in Berlin
Mid-season hope: Healing properties of summer
By Dr. Dipl.-Psych Sarah Fitzroy - English psychologist in Berlin
Healing properties of summer
The summer solstice is a tradition celebrated in many cultures as the midpoint of the year. St. John's Day takes place at the time of the summer solstice and is known in Germany as "Johhanistag", in reference to John the Baptist. There was a lot of superstition around Midsummer's Day, as it was believed that Midsummer's Day plants had healing properties. The day before, bonfires were lit and dancing took place. This tradition, which dates back to the 12th century, was a means of warding off evil spirits from livestock, preventing disease and protecting the coming harvest1.
Midsummer is an ancient ritual with healing and protective properties from ancient times. However, it can also be applied to modern times in terms of its benefits for mental health and well-being. Indeed, celebrating midsummer, when daylight hours are longest, can naturally have beneficial effects on the circadian rhythm, responsible for the 24-hour biological clock. Having more hours of light in the day also means being outdoors more often, which can provide a sense of well-being.
The herbal principle suggests that midsummer was also considered a time of healing and hope before the harvest and winter months. The winter months are when people experience the most mental health problems, which have been linked to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and/or depression2. Indeed, depression is often characterized by a lack of hope for the future. Research has shown that depression can also be reflected in the perception of the probability of experiencing positive events as low and negative events as high3. Learned helplessness theory4, according to which a person can be conditioned to believe that a negative situation cannot be changed, may explain why people suffering from depression may attribute negative events to internal, stable, global causes and may therefore be resistant to change.
Center Pensées - French Therapy Center in Berlin.
To find out more about the healing properties of light / summer
1.Alumni Porti Deutschland. Midsummer when Germany's St John's Day bonfires burn. 2011.
https://www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/germany/traditions-festivals/midsummer-when-in-germany-st-johns-fires-burn
2. Meesters Y, Gordijn MCM. Seasonal affective disorder, winter type: current knowledge and treatment options. Psychological Research and Behavioral Management, 2016;(9): 317-327. doi: 10.214/PRBM.S114906
3.Thimm JC, Holte À, Brennan T, Wanng CEA. Hope and expectations for future events in depression. Frontiers of Psychology, 2013; 4:470. doi: 10.3389.fpsyg.2013.00470
4.Seligman ME. Helplessness: On depression, development and death. San Francisco. W.H. Freeman.
5. Peterson C. The future of optimism. American Psychologist, 2000 ; 55(1) : 44-55. Doi: 10.1037//0003-066x.55.1.44
6.Harris R. The happiness trap: stop struggling and start living.
7.Tarhan S, Bacanli H, Dombayci MA, D'émir M. Quadruple Thinking: Hopeful thinking. Procedia : social and behavioural sciences, 2011 ; 12 : 568-576. Doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.02.069
8 Yang Y, Zhang M, Khol Y. Self-compassion and life satisfaction: the mediating role of hope. Personality and Individual Differences, 2016, 98:91-95. Doi: doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.086
9 National Health Service. Treatment: Seasonal Affective Disorder. https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder-sad/treatment/
*The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines do not specify why light therapy is effective.
Center Pensées - French Therapy Center in Berlin.
Creating a sense of hope and optimism
Whether summer improves mental health because we're more hopeful and optimistic about the future, or because the daylight is brighter, it does seem that we're happier at this time of year. There is an overlap between the concepts of hope and optimism. Hope can often support goal-oriented behavior by providing motivation and a sense of purpose, which can be useful in the treatment of depression. As for optimism, it is often perceived as a personality trait linked to extraversion and better mental and physical health5.
Therefore, the summer solstice is both a celebration of summer light, but it also has much to offer mental health in terms of creating hope and optimism to provide resilience before the onset of the winter months. It's also a time to be mindful of and grateful for the happy days of summer, which can also provide a sense of hope during the darker days of winter. If you're someone who suffers from a lack of hope during the winter months, you can create a sense of hope in one of the following ways:
-Know your values: take the time to determine what's important to you, such as your values, because research shows that people who live by their values are often happier6.
-Creative thinking: devote time to creative thinking, as it's linked to increased hope7 and creative thinkers are used to finding different ways of solving problems.
Be kind to yourself: practice self-compassion, check out Dr. Kristin Neff's website for ideas on how to practice it (https://self-compassion.org/category/exercises/#exercises), as self-compassion is positively linked to hope and life satisfaction8.
If you suffer from depression or SAD9 during the winter months, you can also seek additional therapeutic support to improve your mood, or try light therapy*.
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