Fall Is Approaching: 6 Practices to Help You Align With the Unique Energy of This Season

The fall season is quickly approaching. Each of the four seasons has its own unique energy and offers its own unique wisdom. To live in accordance with the seasons is to honor the fluctuations and changes in nature, as well as within ourselves.

By coming into a synced rhythm, we flow with the changes, rather than resisting or ignoring them. In this state of flow, our health – on all levels (physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual) – finds greater resilience and vibrancy.

To put it simply, to live in sync with the seasons is to honor our instinctual selves.
 

The Energy of the Fall Season

In ancient times, we honored “The Wheel of the Year.” This wheel is divided into the four main seasons and four smaller sections. “The Dark Half of the Year” refers to autumn and winter, and “The Light Half of the Year” refers to spring and summer.

Autumn (just like its counterpart, spring) offers an in-between phase of preparation for the more “extreme” seasons – winter and summer, respectively.

If “The Wheel of the Year” were likened to moon phases, autumn would be the waning phase before winter’s new moon and spring would be the waxing phase before summer’s full expression.

Just as in those lunar phases each month, we are impacted. And since the Earth is doing the shifting (as opposed to more subtle cosmic influences above), the impact of seasons is even more palpable.
 

To live in sync with the seasons is to honor our instinctual selves.

 
The fall season can also be compared energetically to the luteal phase of a woman’s menstrual cycle (the phase between ovulation and menstruation).

The four seasons can also be thought of as the four parts of a breath cycle. In this metaphor, fall is the exhale. Winter is the space between the exhale and the inhale. Spring is the inhale. And summer is the fullest part of the inhale.

These are the energetic qualities of this transitional season.
 
 

What Does the Fall Season Symbolize?

The fall season marks the beginning of the deep introspective journey we embark on throughout winter. It’s about reflection and assessment. It’s about honoring and harvesting the literal and metaphorical fruits of our labor. The entire autumn season is a time of melancholy, grief, and preparation.

Days get shorter and darker. The fields that are alive with earth’s abundance will soon be fallow. The outward, gregarious energies of the year reach their climax. The chaotic, expansive energy of summer settles and we begin to unwind and recollect ourselves. It’s an especially important time to stay grounded.
 

The fall season marks the beginning of the deep introspective journey we embark on throughout winter.

 
Modern life isn’t very synced with seasonal living. Discomforts like fall allergies and flus can be avoided when we make a few subtle shifts in our lifestyle and routine. These shifts support us physically, as well as energetically and emotionally, to align with the offerings of autumn.

Need help feeling grounded this autumn season? Try Earthing: How This Practice Connects Your Mind and Body
 

Use These 6 Unique Practices to Fully Align With the Fall Season:

1. Create an Ancestral Altar

Fall is a time for honoring those that have gone before us. From Halloween to the Day of the Dead, there are many ceremonies to honor ancestors during this time. Ancestors come in many forms and they don’t have to just be the humans of our lineage. Animals, plants, crystals, and more can all be thought of as our ancestors.

By intentionally recognizing the physical and energetic components that create our unique expressions, we are able to slow down and receive guidance and clarity on our path.
 

Autumn is a time for honoring those that have gone before us.

 
Try this: Create an ancestral altar with photos, items that belonged to members of your lineage, your favorite crystals, plants, etc. This is uniquely yours and there’s no “right” way to create it. It is intended to inspire reflection and gratitude.
 

2. Practice Pranayama to Move Stagnant Emotions

The fall season is a time of melancholy and grief. Often, we’ll resist these “unpleasant” emotions, which causes them to stagnate. We’ll feel heavy, fatigued, and foggy – and, then, not understand why. When we allow our emotions to flow freely, our health remains vibrant on all levels.

Try this: With the palm of your dominant hand, gently tap at your heart center. Take a full inhale and exhale audibly through your mouth (as if your breath is falling out of you). Continue tapping with your palm at your heart center the entire time.

Go on for several minutes, and let your intuition guide you to know when you’re complete. Allow whatever is present to arise. If there are tears, sounds, or screams, let them out!
 

3. Make Simple Lifestyle Changes

Fall is a time for reflection and introspection on all that has come to fruition this year. Just as the earth is giving of her bounty, we too are harvesting what we have sown since the beginning of the year.

Ensure the stillness and spaciousness necessary for this sacred pause with these simple lifestyle changes:

• Meditate to support your immune system, stay grounded, and receive insight from within. Experience your feelings as they arise out of this introspection
• Journal, produce creative expression, talk with close friends and loved ones, cry, dance, scream into a pillow, swaddle yourself, etc. These are all excellent ways to support your emotional body
• Prioritize adequate rest
• Maintain regular meal times
• Sync with the sun as much as possible as another way to stay grounded and increase your resiliency

4. Use Plant Medicines

Herbs such as lemon balm and passionflower can offer relaxation and better sleep when we’ve pushed ourselves too far and upset our nervous systems that become more delicate during the fall season.

For deeper rejuvenation and restoration, adaptogens such as ashwagandha, mucuna, reishi mushrooms, and holy basil are lovely.

Herbs are best used under the guidance of an expert who works directly with you. Warming spices for cooking such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, or ginger are lovely for body and spirit this fall.
 

Fall is a time for reflection and introspection on all that has come to fruition this year.

 
Flower essences, a form of energetic plant medicine, can support the transition into fall, as well. Tree essences help to ground and root you. Red cedar is excellent for deep feelings of safety and rest. Magnolia can open us to higher realms through our upper chakras. Blue spruce helps to restore overworked minds and bodies.

Learn more about energetic plant medicine: How to Use the Healing Power of Flower Essences to Reduce Stress
 

5. Eat Seasonally

Simply, eat seasonally as much as possible and you can’t go wrong. To say nature is “smart” is such an understatement that it’s almost disrespectful. Things are in season at a particular time for a reason. They support our bodies with what they specifically need during each distinct season.

During the fall season, enjoy all the root vegetables like pumpkin, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, parsnips, turnips, carrots, and beets. Savor deep, mineral-rich, life-giving greens like collards, arugula, kale, and Brussels sprouts.

Relish the succulent fruits of the season like apples, pears, cranberries, grapes, pomegranates, and more! To check what’s in season locally for you, use this great resource.
 

6. Exercise

The fall season is the time to trade in higher-intensity practices for more restorative and introspective movement. Things like walking, yoga, Pilates, hiking, and light cycling are fantastic. Restorative and Yin Yoga practices can be exceptionally beneficial during the autumn season.

Need some gentle Yin Yoga in your life? Practice Yin Yoga Remedies with YouAligned.com Classes!
 
 

Enjoy the Transition of Fall

Enjoy this beautiful transition and all that it teaches us. Earth is our mirror and we are all in this spirally dance of life, death, birth, spring, summer, fall, and winter together.

Embrace the changes and dance the dance. Honor your needs during this time and all that you notice. Don’t miss this potent opportunity for reflection and growth, restoration, and preparation.

What do you notice during this transitional time? How do you honor and celebrate the energies of the fall season?

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