Moving up here showed me that Alaska summer is the head of the coin when winter is the tail. Instead of too little daylight, there’s almost too much — nineteen, twenty hours of it, sometimes more depending on where you are. It’s a gift and it comes with its own kind of chaos. Everyone tries to cram a year’s worth of outdoor plans, projects, and social commitments into a few short months, and the constant light makes it easy to lose track of when to actually stop. Your body naturally is more energized and awake. But I discovered a way to outgrow the intensity with mindfulness during summer.
Here are five small, realistic ways to stay grounded when the season is pulling you in every direction at once.
1. Give Yourself an Artificial Bedtime
With neuroscience logic we understand that when it’s bright at 11 p.m., your body doesn’t get the same cues it normally would to wind down, because it directly affects your circadian rhythm. Pick a stopping time and treat it like a rule, not a suggestion — blackout curtains, a set alarm to start winding down, stop screen time, whatever it takes. Mindfulness starts with actually sleeping, and sleeping good.
It is actually funny, because although we have more day-light hours, meaning more time to do fun stuff, meaning more energy; everybody is tired during summer because nobody handles a proper sleeping schedule to recharge.
2. Do One Thing at a Time, On Purpose
Summer here tends to turn into constant multitasking — fishing while planning the next trip, hiking while thinking about work waiting at home. Pick one activity a week and commit to doing only that thing while you’re doing it. No mental to-do list. Just the task in front of you.
Having our brains running at 110% is actually exhausting and not productive at all. It is the “Netflix effect”, having too many options is overwhelming and the same as not having any.
3. Notice the Season Instead of Just Using It
It’s easy to treat the light as purely functional — more hours to get things done. Try pausing at least once a day to actually notice it: the quality of light at 9 p.m., how long the shadows are, how different the world looks lit up at an hour that would normally be dark. Noticing rather than just using is the difference between rushing through it and actually experiencing it, adding mindfulness during the season, in this case, summer.
4. Build in Deliberate Stillness
With so much daylight pushing you toward constant activity, stillness has to be scheduled rather than assumed. Sit outside without a task for ten minutes. Watch the water, the mountains, the birds. It will feel unproductive. That’s fine — that’s the point. Our brain gets inspired when it meets boredom. Being mindful about the sensations around an activity actually heals your nervous system and body. You can start by taking three deep breaths before eating, which is clinically proven that allows your digestive system to absorb better and faster the nutrients in the food.
5. Let Yourself Miss Things
Summer FOMO is real here — there’s always another trip, another event, another window of good weather that won’t last. Staying grounded is accepting you can’t do everything the season offers, and that missing some of it doesn’t mean you failed at summer. Choosing rest over one more activity is still a valid way to spend the daylight. Lets mindfully choose JOMO, which is just being completely present in what you are living in that precise moment. The biggest gift is the present.
The Bigger Picture
None of this requires a retreat, an app, or a formal practice. It’s mostly about resisting the pressure this particular season creates — the sense that endless light means endless obligation. The light will still be there tomorrow. You don’t have to use every hour of it to have had a good summer.
From Alaska with Love, GS.
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