As fall settles in with the days growing darker our family starts to slow down. I have found myself asking myself “What am I supposed to be doing?”. I knew changing my home, lifestyle and career would take a while to find my groove but now I’m faced with free time. It’s funny to say the word FREE TIME because we create busy lifestyles for ourselves and family. I often tell myself I SHOULD be busy and constantly doing something to feel accomplished, but that isn’t true. I am learning I CAN have free time to create and rest. The past several years I put my body through many sessions of fight or flight responses and I didn’t know how to rest. I moved fast to avoid the pains in life and kept creating more noise in hopes to move past the hard times. There was never a time where I slowed down, until now.
Summer was a blast for our family and we spent much of that time on the water. The water element brought us together and helped us create a peaceful bond between the three of us. It was also a very energetic time with lots of adventures. We entertained guests in our boat and in our Airbnb. There was so much movement in our home and lives. We never stayed locked up inside, and if we did have a day to retreat indoors we at least had our doors and windows open to feel outside. We acclimated our bodies to the season of heat, energy and light.
Now what? Autumn is a time of transformation and reflection. A slow down time to look back on the past year. To also give thanks to the opportunites and challanges. I picked up my journal the other day and flipped through some of my past entries from last year and tears ran down my cheeks as I read what I was feeling. The sadness was hard to read day to day and week to week, but the determination was there. I knew that life could get better, I felt it deep down and that’s why I didn’t give up. I started a new journal this fall because its a new chapter in life. We'll always be transitioning into something new and it may seem like the change is moving extremely slow but reflecting on the past will help you see the shifts that are happening.
I write this blog post to express my feelings on seasonal change. Trust the guiding energy that you feel. If you are feeling a burnout in life then make a change. We are not built to run ourselves 24/7. Accept the rest if it is given to you and know that life will eventually speed up. A great reminder is to watch the plants in fall as they prepare for winter. The seeds drop, then the leaves fall as the energy of the plant retreats to its roots underground. That is where the energy will live until spring. The seeds have a nice layer of protection from the leaves and will rest until the ground warms and it is time to make new roots.