Best Inspiring Summer Solstice (or Winter) Reading for Finding Your Inner Light!
- Jun 5
- 2 min read
One of my favorite readings to help you—and your yoga students—reconnect to your inner light, be it in the season of light, near the shortest day of the year, or any time you need to cultivate a bit more brightness.
I discovered the poet Danna Faulds just a few years ago, in the throes of my healing and yoga teacher training journey. Her musings were a secret weapon of sorts employed by many of my teachers at the legendary Kripalu Center in Western Massachusetts, a place with which she's deeply connected.
I can't tell you which of her poems I heard and was broken open by first, but I know that every time I'm at the Center now, I pick up a new volume of her work and pore over it for months. Then I scatter her words around as much as possible in classes and workshops and retreats and conversations, hoping the seeds germinate for others the way they have for me.
Here is my all-time favorite of hers, which I read aloud fairly religiously in my yoga classes and other programs around the Solstices...and, really, anytime. Because we can always use a reminder of and a little more fuel for our inner light. If you're looking for the perfect inspiring Summer Solstice or Winter Solstice reading, this might be it!
Inner Light
by Danna Faulds
The inner light is always with me.
When I slip beneath the agitated
surface of the mind, I find it,
like a fragment of the Big Bang,
still glowing. This energy doesn't
depend on health or strength or
even mental peace. It isn't a
product of belief, nor is it "me" in
any egocentric way of speaking.
The inner light is always there,
waiting to be felt and seen, waiting
for me to release it through my
choice to be still and recognize
its presence. The illumination
grows the more I let it go. Like
radiant heat it flows out of me,
flows from my whole being
without leaving me depleted.
We're all like this - whether we
know it yet or not - tiny stars,
glowing in the dark.
Reflection Questions Inspired by "Inner Light"
Close your eyes, take a few soft breaths, and begin to visualize your inner light at your heart center. What color, consistency and size is it? Does it sparkle, pulse, vibrate, buzz?
What helps you reconnect most with your inner light? (Practices, places, activities, quiet moments, songs, etc.)
WHO, if anyone, helps you reconnect with it?
What barriers might stand in the way of you shining more brightly for yourself, AND in the world? What could you let go of so that your light could shine brighter?
What's one small way you could cultivate more light within yourself today?
