In Season: Honoring the Transition from Summer to Fall
Understanding the energetics of fall to support your body, mind, and life
There’s something romantic about this time of year, right before the leaves change color and the temperatures begin dropping. A cool morning breeze travels through my kitchen window to caress my cheeks as I am writing this to you. By the end of the day, the sun will warm things up and I’ll have to peel my layers off, one by one. While there are still many warm days ahead of us, the crisp morning air brings a promise of another summer coming to a close. My mouth begins to water as I think about crisp apples and hearty stews. I daydream about crunching leaves, carving pumpkins, and the subtle romance of knowing another year is slowly coming to a end.
Late, late summer is a moment of in between – neither this, nor that. A pocket of time often overlooked. A few weeks that mark an ending without the true guarantee of a new beginning follows shortly after. Late summer calls for early morning walks and the first harvest of the heartier root vegetables. It’s about listening to the leaves dance in the wind, as if they are giving you one last performance. Late summer breeds way for early fall; a season of pumpkin, squash, pears, apples, and dark leafy greens.
Fall is the season for letting go. After the peak of the year, we must gather our harvests and prepare for the season of going inward. While fall in New York almost feels like a second summer (honestly, maybe it’s more like a first summer since so many people are away for the summer months), I believe there is wisdom to note in the energetics of this season – even in the produce we will begin to see at the farmer’s market as we get into October and November.
As we begin to wind down our year, the produce begins to get heartier, heavier, more substantial. To prepare us for our winter hibernation, of course. But that transition doesn’t happen overnight. If you visit a farmer’s market in early fall, it’s likely you will still find juicy red tomatoes, some berries and/or stone fruit, zucchini, and peppers just as you have since July. Slowly, as the temperatures begin to drop, you’ll notice more and more apples, pears, root vegetables, cruciferous vegetables. Just as the produce takes time to transition into the next season, it’s important that we do as well.
In A Year in Practice,
writes about the transition between summer and fall:Be slow as you start to turn inward. Remember that you have three whole months to do the work of shifting from the external to the internal, so don’t rush it. Steal any moments of summer that still exist and exalt the season of togetherness with as many gatherings as you can manage.
To stay satiated during this time, it is important to listen to your body’s innate wisdom. What are you craving? What do you need more/less of? What feels supportive for you today? If you feel ready to wind down and turn inward, go ahead. And if you, like me, feel like fall is the season you come alive, ride that energy. While there is wisdom in following the energy of nature, there is even deeper wisdom hiding within us. I like to take insights from the world around me without allowing it to inform my entire experience – our personal seasons are often different than the ones outside, and that is more than okay.
One of the biggest principles at SATIATED is to honor your own cravings. Don’t just do what you are told to do, follow your curiosity to lead you towards a path that best supports you, trust your instincts to know whether or not you need something right now. You can do this at the farmer’s market, when decided whether or not to stock up on sweet potatoes and ingredients to make chili when it’s still 85 degrees outside. And you can also do this in life – when deciding to date someone new, to end a friendship, to move to a new country, to keep moving up at your job or start over and volunteer at a meditation center in Hawaii (been there, done that…highly recommended).
As we transition into fall, I invite you to use information about the season as a general direction and your cravings (aka intuition) as a guide. Remember, there is no one way to live this life. There’s no right, or wrong. Maybe a better or worse, or more supportive or less supportive. But there’s no right or wrong. Allow the understanding of this season to inform your experience. Trust that you have the answers. You know the way forward.
What cravings are calling your name this season?
What are some themes that have come up for you in past seasons of fall?
At this point in the season, how are you feeling? How is your energy, inspiration, and drive for life? What things (people, foods, places, etc.) are you drawn to?
Where in your life do you feel like you are pushing yourself to do something that you don’t want to be doing? What would you rather be doing? What could you do to make the initial thing feel more supportive OR get you closer to what you would rather be doing?
What do you need to let go of? What do you want to welcome in?
Where in your life have you grown this year? What experiences have invited the most growth? What have you learned from the growth?
BOOK: One of my favorite favorite favorite resources to help me tap into the energetics of each season is A Year in Practice by Jacqueline Suskin. I refer to it at the beginning of each season, using it’s prompts and poetry to inspire my intentions for the three months ahead.
EAT: In terms of produce, early autumn is one of my favorite seasons. You still have the vibrant produce of summer, the short and sweet grape season, and you begin seeing heartier root vegetables. It can be tempting, especially as the weather staying warmer for longer, to want to hold onto the lighter summer foods but according to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), it’s important to transition to more warming foods earlier than we think – this will give our body ample time to prepare before the first frost. Ease into the season with a nourishing harvest bowl or a hearty stew using the last of the summer tomatoes.
For more information on the TCM approach to fall, and how to nutritionally adapt to each phase of the season, I love this blog post.
PREP: Fall is a fantastic time to reup all of your immune boosting, wellness recipes. Ever since I was a little girl, I’d always get sick as soon as the air began to chill and I am focused on doing everything in my power so that doesn’t happen this year. I prepped a batch of fire cider which takes 3-4 weeks to ferment and have been loving homemade wellness shots. Add some raw local honey and elderberry syrup to that mix and I can guarantee a healthy immune system all summer long.