The Season of Autumn: Midlife
Welcome to the first blog from Heartscapes LLC Seasons of the Heart Bog.
Welcome to this heart space about journeys of self-discovery, nurturing connection with your inner and outer worlds. This blog is being launched on a sunny, mild temperatured day in California. This has been another challenging Summer Season and we are finally arriving into Autumn weather allowing time to bring more space and air elements into the home along with the clearing nature sounds outside.
The Autumn Season is affiliated with our midlife years. These years bring new levels of change, transition, explorations into our roots of belonging, connection and transitioning our lives toward our later years. It is a long journey starting with the slightest dips in our fiery summer energies and, if we are blessed, into the late years of winter's final rest.
In Autumn, there is both a harvest of gratitude and a letting go of what has been. We shed like the trees leaves and bark, gathering our wisdom for the winter until it is time to renew again. The mild temperatures welcome musings of these themes with the last blooms of bright changes and leaves in shades of green, burnt orange and gold.
And so I'd like to invite you into a small practice of harvesting your year, and of witnessing your shedding. You might find it helpful to have a journal nearby or even a voice recorder to gather your thoughts and turn inward if only for a few moments.
And with a deep slow breath in, and a long slow exhale out, a softening gaze and maybe a lovely cup of tea, here are some prompts about your right now experiencing of Autumn.
If you take a moment to lean into your 5 senses of sight, sound, smell, tast and touch, how might you describe them? How and where do you find yourself experiencing them? For example, how do you experience the right now air? I am experiening light, gentle whisps of air currents lightly touching my forearms.
And now a little further inward. What are you harvesting this year? Have there been themes, rich harvests of some much appreciated life lessions? As I have turned 55 this year, I find a deepening wisdom of the preciousness of the moment and leaning into what brings me joy. And I'm finding so many of these are really about living simply.
And now, how would you like to be with this heartspace - you're autumn harvest. If it were a landscape, how might you imagine it to be just right now? Find a calming, pleasant sensation that matches with this harvesting, loving space within you. Draw a map to it so you can lean in when the harsh winter winds blow against your strength.
Turning to the letting go, the shedding, of this Autumn season I am curious what you might be able to identify as releasing, shifting, drifting away in your right now moments? For me, as simplicity is emerging there is some deconstructing happening in my career arenas. This is creating some reconstructing space in the emerging mid-life identities physically, emotionally and spiritually that are a part of this season of life.
How about you? And how can you honor the letting go, letting it gently release with the wind, the air and being carried by another force. What might it be creating a space for within your lifescape?
Take a few minutes allowing the page to hold the sacred letting go and the journal be a container for any challenges. And, then, as you are ready, bringing this practice to a close, taking a long deep breath in and a slow exhalation. Pausing for integration of this small practice and honoring your self-care.
I'll be offering a deeper practice in a few weeks if anyone is interested in an online event called "Embrace the Season of Reflection, Creativity and Letting Go." This workshop will offer some more Autumn Body-Mind Practices and Creativity together. I hope you will join me!
