Using the Enchanting Energy of Early Autumn to Expand Your Vitality
I’ve always loved Autumn. The sense of completion for another year.
The beautiful squashes, grapes, and greens at the farmers market.
The space for bringing in new ideas.
Walking in the forest preserve, observing the animals scurrying around preparing themselves for the winter to come. Watching the plants in their fullest lushness complete their cycle of life.
It’s this profound integration that feels good. Really feels good. The mental knowing that I am changing my life and energy. The newfound ways of being and doing things. The quiet joy I feel when I notice things beginning to flow.
Although the walks in the woods show me that the year is ending, it is heartwarming because it engages all of my senses and connects me with the natural world; showing me how to slow down, observe, and experience everything all around me. Reminding me of the cycle of life.
My journey with Autumn
My journey with autumn began a long time ago. My grandparents had an acre of land in the suburbs, and I loved to sit outside between the 2 lilac bushes (just a shrub with leaves in autumn) as a little girl, having some tea with my great grandmother. We would look at the stars and enjoy the crickets and other animal sounds around us.
Then, it was about loving the sweaters, the scarves, the fingerless gloves, and the sips of hot cocoa on a chilly walk in the evenings with a friend on the lakefront.
Now, it’s different too. I really resonate with the fullness, the ripeness, and also the endings that I witness within and around me.
This year, I decided that to understand the energetics that lead into autumn and all its bold transitions, I would intentionally sit with Late Summer/Early Autumn as a season.
I asked some of colleagues, and learned that the 4-5 weeks from mid-August to mid-September is related to the Earth element in Chinese medicine.
The Earth element is all about support, sustainability, nourishment, and a sense of identity. The Earth takes care of us. And asks us to look at how we nourish ourselves. How we take care of ourselves.
What I noticed the past 5 weeks has been interesting. (and I am still digesting it all.)
As I listened to the final songs of the cicadas in the evening, I felt a sense of time shortening, a sort of condensing of time. A rush to keep up. Have you felt this too?
Feeling rushed to complete everyday tasks before nightfall - even though they are exactly the same as they have been for the entire year.
There was also a sense of feeling a bit down. Not a depression, but a sadness that the summer is coming to an end. All the glorious, luxurious, visual greenness will be resting until next year
With the cooler evenings, the sense of time constraints, and feeling sadness, my eating habits began to change subtly. I began craving foods that were heavier, starchier, even sweeter, that supported the density of my earthly body more, even though it was still hot out at times.
This season, I’ve learned that it’s not so black and white. Life isn’t so finite when the divine feminine is harmonizing all the parts of life together at once.
There’s an ancient sacred dance at play between a completion of shedding of the old, and the abundance of the new and sustainable.
For example:
-Summer is ending, but were have the abundance of fall vegetables like squash, celery, melons, garlic, root vegetables, apples and pears.
-The sun is still warm, but the air is cooler.
-there’s a sense of urgency to finish things up, but also to take it slow and enjoy the lush beauty of nature and the cycle of completion of a season.
Autumn at its highest pinnacle - there are no opposites. There is birth, life, death, and “getting ready” for rebirth with nourishment.
I see it with my own eyes, I feel it in my own body, and I have a new acceptance of the circle of life.
Expanding our vitality in Autumn’s Energies
This time of year asks us to look at all the perceptions our mind imposes on us and begin to step back, look at the bigger picture, and apply our intuitive skills and inner connection to thrive from within ourselves.
In this season, we witness the deep cycle of nature. How it is both lush and full of life, but also beginning to die away.
It’s a time of wholeness, and a time of holding space for this wholeness.
A time of holding space for all parts of us. The thriving, the shedding, the empty and idle….
Part of this wholeness is our vitality. Our core Chi. What we are born with. (and it’s actually shown in our astrological birth charts.)
It is what nourishes ALL of you; physical body, emotions, mind, and spirit.
It’s not about optimization to fit more things into your day, or take this pill for that.
Our whole, full, vibrant vitality is about taking an honest look at change and what needs to change to bring in abundance.
Wholeness takes some reflection and experimentation to re-learn, or learn, how to really sense in our body what is needed.
Using Autumn to slow down and reflect on the opposites, we’re are able to remember the ways that have supported our vitality in the past, and, look to ways we like to nourish ourselves now.
This is a time ( before the uptick of the holidays) to observe what patterns keep us running in circles without change, and which ones truly support our well-being.
Perhaps some old ways are ready to die, to be replaced by new ones.
To really thrive and feel vital from our core, we are required to look at both the light and the dark. What’s working and what’s not. What supports us and what doesn’t. What we like about ourselves and what we don’t.
These are the core teachings of the season of Late Summer/Early Autumn.
Use this time of year as a time to reflect.
As a time to nourish.
As a time to nurture and support ourselves as we make the journey into the darker time of late autumn and winter.
Some questions to ponder and ruminate over:
How can you find time (within feeling that time is rushing and being compressed) to take a few minutes everyday to ask yourself what is needed for your body to thrive? For your spirit to thrive?
How are you seeing things in black and white? Looking at your energy, your daily habits, what you do for yourself in this way or that?
How do you hold space for yourself, BEFORE tending to others?
How do you nourish yourself?
What do you do that sustains you throughout the day?
Going a bit deeper:
What in nature is mirroring your life right now?
(A leaf not falling off the tree even though it’s clearly withered and ready to fall?)
What in nature is showing you there is time for everything you need, even when it feels different in your body?
This is all you need to get started on your journey of nourishing your vitality through the energy of Early Autumn.
Over time, you’ll gain the experience and become an excellent listener to your inner voice to find ways to nourish and support your vitality.
You’ll be an expert for your own thriving!
for now, just get started by working with a question that resonates with you 😀
