From summer to fall
It’s that magical time of year again when we meet a transition of the seasons. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, we’re winding down summer and stepping into fall.
For many of us this one can be a difficult transition with lots of feelings.
Summer is a time external where we can see LIFE blooming and growing in full color all around us, and we feel that we’re a part of it. For many of us, it’s is a time that represents more freedom, fun, outside time, time with family, and less responsibility and regular schedule.
From a sun-earth perspective, the summer solstice marks the time when the day (sunlight) lasts the longest. Summer days on Earth are literally full of sun and cosmic energy being beamed directly to us.
Stepping into fall brings an inward turn. It often involves (or has involved) getting back to school, back to responsibilities, back to the regular schedule, and back to being surrounded by lots more people while being separated from our main/family support structure. Even for those of us who are adults and are out of school systems, it’s not just our adult version of these emotions we’re experiencing, but also the embodied memories from our years of going back to school that we’re experiencing too. And this is going on all around the world in the northern hemisphere— millions and millions of humans changing gears to get back into school mode. It’s a lot of transitioning and emotions floating around!
From a sun-earth perspective, the fall equinox is the time when our sun-darkness ratio is just about equal, and from there we’re moving into more darkness than light per day (until the winter solstice). There’s the knowing that colder, often rainier weather is on its way, the falling of the leaves and petals is at hand, and life is slowing down outside, presenting us with plenty of opportunity to not be distracted by external happenings and instead be left with our internal world. That’s hard! It’s like saying a slow goodbye to a beloved friend, knowing you’ll see them less each day for a while and have to rely more and more on yourself and what’s internal.
In Buddhist terms, many of us are experiencing attachment to the fun, loose, playful times of summer and resistance to the inward turn, the falling of the leaves, the coming of cold and darkness.
It’s normal and human to experience this attachment and resistance, to experience grief for the passing on of summer as we prepare to embrace fall. And it’s healthy to acknowledge those feelings are there, as they are, so that we can process them, be there for ourselves, and help ourselves move through them so that we can greet fall with an open heart.
If you’re experiencing difficult or unpleasant emotions during this transition, allow yourself time and space for these emotions to be a part of your experience right now— anxiety, grief, sadness, apprehension, tiredness, dread—whatever may come.
Know that these emotions and experiences are temporary as all things are temporary, and show up for those moments and emotions within you.
Give all humans, including yourself, grace. Be compassionate with yourself and with others too.
If you’re an adult and it’s hard to give compassion to your adult self, maybe you imagine a younger version of yourself struggling with the transition and telling them you understand, validating that it is hard to go through change like this, acknowledging that you’ll miss those parts of summer too.
By allowing the more difficult or unpleasant emotions to be a real part of our experience, and by helping ourselves move through those emotions (rather than hiding, running away from, suppressing, or ignoring them), we create more space for other, more pleasant emotions to come in and be part of our experience too.
Here’s some ideas for how to embrace the summer—>fall transition that’s upon us.
Emotionally process the seasonal change
Allow yourself some time of sitting in nature somewhere, ideally a space that feels private enough for you to feel your feelings, and where you are confronted in physical form with the reality of the season changing, but also held by the life around you. (A window with a view towards nature is fine too!) Do some grounding and connecting to the earth (meditation for connecting into Earth). Then let your eyes roam around and take in the details of the nature around you.
Notice what emotions and/or sensations rise up in you as you do this.
Journal about what you notice and what comes up in you—sensations, emotions, thoughts, memories.
Help your bodymind understand through physical acts that you’re right there listening to its experience, you’re not running away, and you can feel and see the change too. Journaling, drawing, painting, singing, crying, physical touch over the areas where you feel emotion sensations arise… anything that helps you engage physically with this process. Your body is a physical system, your thoughts are intangible things. It’s important for the body-mind system to literally feel our presence and support through physical avenues, so it knows we know what’s happening and we’re there for it.
Journal
Fall is also a time of bringing what you’ve grown throughout the year to the table. So what have you grown?
Here’s some reflection questions for the summer—> fall transition
Summer
what were the moments and experiences that made my heart smile this summer?
what did I learn about myself during these summer months?
what do I want to remember, embody, and take with me into this fall season and beyond?
what would I like to release to the summer sun? (feeling that I learned the lesson I needed to learn)
Fall
what are my hopes/goals for the fall months ahead?
what is the quality/energy I am aspiring to embody during these fall months?
what might be challenging for me this fall and how do I want to help myself through those challenges?
what am i looking forward to this fall?
what are my favorite parts of fall?
Connect with summer gratitude
Maybe you write a journal entry or look through all the photos you took during the summer and reminisce with gratitude on all that you got to do and experience over these summer months. If there’s any moments in particular that really make your heart smile, practice imagining those moments as if you were there again, notice the feeling and sensations that arise, and if it feels good, breathe that feeling into your heartspace. Notice what happens when you do. Seal these moments into your heart and mind for feel-good resources you’ll have inside your body and mind when things get tough.
Find joy in fall bounty
Make a list of all the things you love that come in the fall. As hard as it is to say goodbye to the long days of summer sun, fall is also a time of bounty. It’s a time of sunflowers, of pumpkins and squash, of apples and cranberries and pomegranate, of cabbage and onion and cauliflower… there is so much Earthly goodness to be had in fall.
And that’s just the produce!
There’s also hot soups and crusty breads, steaming beverages on chilly mornings and nights, cozying up under warm and fuzzy blankets, pumpkin and apple pies, busting out all of your badass fall jackets, gorgeous orange and yellow and red leaves fluttering through the breeze, spooky movies and Halloween, witchery and feeling closer to the spirit realm…
That’s my list, what about yours? Write it down or think through it and notice if there’s any feel-good sensations that arise in your body as you do. Lean into those and tell your body-mind “I’m looking forward to this.”
Tune into fall spirit
Autumn is also a time when the veil between the physical world and the subtle/spiritual world is said to be thinnest. This means our communications and blessings for ancestors and those who have passed on can travel more easily during this time, as well as theirs to us. This time is honored and celebrated by humans around the world, from Halloween to Samhain to Día de los Muertos to Chuseok and on.
Create an altar for your beloved dead with pictures, candles, crystals, herbs, snacks.. whatever you like or helps you feel connected to those you’re remembering. Take time this fall to visit with those you love at your altar, just sitting quietly, speaking out loud to them, or writing in your journal to them.
Reflect on what you’ve learned through them, what lineages and lessons have been handed on to you through their experiences.
And remember… nothing lasts forever. Fall will turn into winter, which will turn into spring, which will turn into summer again. You’re brave, you’re strong, and you can do this.
Wishing you many fall moments of joy and embracing the ever-present nature of change.
