Seasonal Mindfulness Practice- Happy Equinox

Today’s Autumnal Equinox- the “day” when we are “exactly” half way between the summer and winter solstices and the daylight hours equal the dark. In my coaching, I use quotation marks because I recommend using the timestamps as guidelines. Missing the day is no reason not to acknowledge or practice on an adjacent day, or earlier/later in the week.

This day marks the end of summer and beginning of autumn and (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway) each day becomes shorter until the cycle begins again at Winter Solstice. Now is a time for harvesting the mental, emotional, spiritual, and material fruit of the passing season and begin the transition to a season of increasing dark and quiet, and hopefully, rest.

It is a kindness to acknowledge seasonal living doesn’t come easily in a capitalist society. We are all encouraged in quiet and loud ways to do the same things, perform the same work in similar patterns day after day regardless of the season or environmental energy. Countering the push of this force requires practice.

If you are interested in supporting a practice of seasonal living, I hope you’ve already checked out The Moon Practice. Developing a moon practice connects us with our external environment and tunes us into rhythms outside our own. We can use the cyclical rhythms and practices of the monthly moon cycle and translate them to accommodate larger cycles, like the year. The timing of the autumnal equinox is analogous to the Last Quarter Moon, and we can apply the waning moon practices this season.

I offer these questions in support of seasonal mindfulness practice this autumn:

• What is shifting since the height of summer?

• What are you allowing to pass?

• Do you see aspects of your life in transition? If so, what are they? What is the quality of the change? Does it have a “flavor”?

• How do you feel about this information?

• Knowing these things, what does self love look like right now?

• Tomorrow? Next week? Next month?