Celebrating Seasonal Shifts

by Julie Barlow October 3, 2020

It’s time for pumpkins, colorful mums, drinking apple cider and more! The fall season is upon us and there are so ways to celebrate this shift of the seasons.

Ideas for Celebrating the Season

Head to a pumpkin patch, apple orchard or your local farmer’s market to delight in the colors and scents of the season.
Take a walk in the forest, inhale the crisp light air, listen to the crunch of the dry leaves under your feet and appreciate the changing colors of those still on the trees along the trail.
Bring a few of the prettiest leaves with some acorns and/or berries home to decorate
When the leaves start to fall, rake up a huge pile and jump in.
Build a fire (if permitted in your location), roast marshmallows, and make s’mores.
Wait for a clear night, lie back on blankets on the lawn, and gaze up at the stars.
Cook hearty soups and stews. Bake gingerbread and apple pies.

These are but a few ways to enjoy the shift of the season and get the most out of the last warm days before winter begins to wrap it’s chilly arms around us. Yet if we take our cues from nature, we can reconnect even more deeply with the rhythms and wisdom of this season.

Rebalance your Home

Day and night are close to equal with the autumn equinox only a little over a week behind us. This balance of light and darkness signals us to look for balance in our lives and in our homes as well. Have you accumulated more than you need? Can you seek to rebalance your belongings? As you begin to shift to your fall wardrobe, take a hard look at what you didn’t wear over the spring and summer months. Can you allow yourself to let go of each article that no longer serves you or gives you the pleasure it once did? This goes for shoes, purses, belts, scarves and other accessories too.

Fall is a great time for balancing the home with a deep cleaning as well, for it is a good time to let go of excess in this area of your life too. Just as the trees drop their leaves and return to simplicity, so too can you decide to let go of things in the home you no longer need. Take advantage of the lingering warm days to open up all the windows and let the rooms air out, clearing out any stale or negative energy, as you set the stage for your home refresh.

Assess how each room Feels

After your home is clean and aired out, take a few moments to sit quietly in each room, allowing yourself to observe how it makes you feel to simply rest there. Do you notice feelings of calm or do they lean more toward anxiousness or friction. If the latter, you may need to find a little more to let go of to find a balance of energies in the room that will create a peaceful ambiance. Let your eyes skip from item to item in the room considering if you still find each item beautiful and if it still brings you joy. If the answer to these questions are no, do your best to let it go. Every physical item in your home is made of energy and all of these items together contribute to the overall energy in your space. Clutter truly can make you feel tired, stressed and perhaps even indecisive. Clearing out excess can be a difficult process for many people and if you find that it is just too overwhelming for you, google “home clutter” to find someone in your area to help you in this process. Before you finish your home rebalance/refresh completely, add a few touches of cozy back in to help you stay attuned to the season and celebrates the warmth of its glow. Think rugs, beeswax candles, soft throws and perhaps a plant or two.

This is a Season for Gratitude

Fall is also a time to reflect on the bounty of the season and find gratitude for all of the blessings we have yielded from it. If you don’t already have a daily gratitude practice or have let it languish, now would be a good time to make a habit of taking a few moments each morning to write down the things you are grateful for. While this was a truly chaotic year for most people, perhaps there are some hidden blessings in the changes to daily routines caused by Covid-19. Find gratitude for what you can and resolve to let go of everything else.

Focus on your Roots

In nature, plants and trees begin to send their energy down into their roots as they prepare for the winter season ahead. You can see this as the trees drop their leaves and this is why spring bulbs are planted in the fall. We too can prepare for spending more time resting, restoring and digging down into our own roots.

Make an intention to find time for periods of quiet contemplation in the season ahead.
Prepare to snuggle down in your refreshed nest with an intention to nourish mind, body and soul.
Commit to a few quiet moments for yourself daily.
Keep a journal nearby to record your thoughts so you can begin to notice patterns and find insight over time.

Ask your inner self what you most need and listen closely to the whispers of your soul in the answer back. In the months to come you can begin to use these insights and knowledge to make plans for what you wish to do in the coming year. As you harness the energy of this foundational work in this season of “energy in the roots”, you will be ready to put your plans into action when the buds begin to burst free in the spring and the energies of action begin to flow anew.