Your Fall Wellness Bucket List

How do you know when the seasons are changing?

• People at work are complaining of the cooler temperatures.
• You notice pumpkins and pumpkin-spiced foods are everywhere.
• School buses full of kids are on the roads during your daily commute.

Like the other wonderful seasons, fall has its own spirit and call to action. The gardens are winding down the summer’s outpouring of vegetables, herbs and fruits. The sun shifts its schedule and the amount of light in our days is decreasing.

The energy of fall involves three key elements:

1. Turning inward. While summer encourages picnics, pool time, concerts and cookouts, fall takes us in another direction. There is a stronger calling to reflect, rest and recover from our active summer schedule.
2. Purging. Although we normally associate the spring season with cleaning, fall has its own organizing pull. Fall’s gentle pauses provides opportunities to take inventory of our physical surroundings and relationships. Somehow there is enough energy circulating in the air to let go and free up space for your home and heart. (emotional clearing tips)
3. Change. Summer’s magic can be a major distraction when it comes to dealing with our pain. It’s natural: most of us prefer to fill ourselves up with sun and fun. Fall is the perfect time to harness all of that positive summer fuel to help us recover from tough times. It’s gentle energy provides the safe cushion needed to settle into a softer part of ourselves.

Falling Forward

Your fall bucket list is here! Make the most of fall’s energy by scheduling these wellness activities on your calendar.

Body

1. Ask your body what it needs right now. Have you been staying up late and missing rest? Could your body use a massage, energy work or more physical activity? Could your system benefit from diet improvements?
2. Adjust your self-care routine to align with fall energy. Autumn can serve an ideal time to prepare the body for the cold winter days. Build up the immune system by drinking more water and brewing ginger tea with cinnamon and honey. Eat seasonal foods like apples, carrots, sweet potatoes and cauliflower. Autumn brings cooler temperatures and a drop in humidity, which makes for stale air and dry skin. Care for your skin with hydrating moisturizers or using a humidifier. Search online for a homemade hydrating mask. Lie down for 10 minutes and enjoy this double bonus of skincare and rest.
3. Take an energy bath/shower. Water rebalances and relaxes overworked minds and dulled senses. Showers and baths invigorate and replenish the whole self with positive energy. Heading for a rinse? Wash your energy “clean” in three easy steps:

When you’re in water, visualize yourself covered in white light or your favorite color.

Send negative and unwanted energy down the drain.

Say out loud: “In the name of Love and Light, I cleanse my body, mind and spirit. All is well.”

Mind

1. Write down a list of the top five things you think about everyday. Do you like your responses or does your mind need a makeover? Does your mind need a place where you can reset your beliefs and strength your values?
2. Fall is the perfect time to gain and share knowledge with others. As children fill their backpacks and sharpen their pencils, there is a natural openness to discover and learn something new. Regardless if you are a teacher or a student the sharing of information and wisdom encourages growth and movement. Are you a student or a teacher right now?
3. A fall mindset includes plenty of opportunities to ease out of our summer-active minds. One way of relaxing the mind is breath work. When you have a few minutes, sit in a quiet place where you won’t be distracted. (Put the phone in another room!) Check in with your mind and don’t attach to any one thought. Close your eyes. Breathe in to a count of 4 and breathe out to a count of 5. Do this ten times. Open your eyes.

Emotions

1. Pay attention to how your feelings and emotions throughout the day. Journal your emotional state and feelings first thing in the morning, mid-day and before bed. Do your emotions and feelings empower you or make you feel empty? Do you experience so many emotions and feel overwhelmed or confused by them? Read here for emotions vs. feelings.

“Choose one person or story you are willing to see with love. Visualize light passing between you and the other side until you feel calm. If you don’t feel calm, repeat as needed.

— Rita Abdallah

2. Did you have a recent loss, trauma or life change? Are you an emotional wreck? When we are in this place in life, time seems to be an endless drift of nothingness. Lift yourself out of this rut by connecting with your senses. Leaning on a tree, laying on the earth holding a rock are grounding exercises to pull you into the present moment.

Spirit

1. More than anything, your spirit craves a daily practice of Peace, Love and Joy. Autumn provides a safe space to look inside and ask really important questions about our commitment to this lifetime practice. In what ways am I invested in peace, love and joy? Who helps me maintain this practice?
2. With fall’s gentle spirit we can summon the courage to forgive ourselves and others. Once we realize we don’t need to carry our wounds, our imagination can access the necessary energy to stop any more torture. More fall spiritual practices