Metta Mind + Life

Fall Introspection

Hello Friend,

Breath. The lungs. Grief. Letting go. In traditional medicine, these are associated with the autumn season. It seems meant to be that we are entering this season now. If we pay attention and listen deeply, we know it’s time to begin setting limits and protecting boundaries, carving out a little space to settle in for winter months that require reserves and fortitude.

We are being called right now to take care in this way.

I’ve never regretted forced slowdowns. When I think back on difficult times in my life, There was always a gift in the screeching halt. The slowdown ushers in a letting go - of agendas, old priorities, things other than the here and now.

Remembering this encourages us to accept that there is something larger, a process, that we can trust when we feel ourselves grasping to hang onto an unsustainable pace or old ways. We, and our experiences, are just pieces. We are 7.8 billion instruments. Free will, individuality, all affecting one another - the whole - in remarkable, life or death ways. A beautiful, painful hundred-year-old song that we are still learning.

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." -Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

So this pause. For some - this closing that we are pushing against. We must remember the natural cycles: phases of life come to an end before another begins. What may be in slow motion now, may be giving us the time soak it all in before the picture changes and next phase begins.

This Fall is a particularly timely season to release and consider how you’d like to move forward. Here are some restorative practices to care for yourself during this time.