Fall is my favorite time of the year. I don’t know if it’s the crisp air, the crunchiness of the ground, the burst of colors the trees shower upon us, or the lovely festivities of the season. But whatever the reason, something about fall always beckons me. Characterized by cold and movement, I see glimpses of fall within my own body, and by no surprise. I am no different than nature. Ayurveda, the science of Life, says: The outer reflects the inner.
Reflecting on my experiences this fall, I find myself cold in the extremities, dry in my skin, and ungrounded and mobile in my thoughts. Which colors of my emotions are showing up, ready to be released? Maybe it’s fear, maybe it’s loneliness, or at times anxiety. My dreams have become more vivid and, at times, nightmarish. My regularity seems to be comprised, too, and constipation has revisited me. Do I need to battle this, or is there something I can do to help balance me?
I remember, one year, snow hit us early, not giving the trees a chance to shed and empty themselves. It is the shedding of the leaves and the drying of the bark that makes them light. Without that, the weight of the snow cracked the trees in half. As I peek through the window and look at my beautiful trees, they remind me to stop holding and allow myself to flow.
But it sometimes seems daunting when we are in the midst of all this movement and commotion to find our footing. How do I find my balance and ground myself? Ayurveda says to imbibe the opposite. So, I include the opposite: warm, stable, and oily for everything: cold, mobile, and dry.
Nature sprouts our medicine for us by the season. Eating locally has many benefits: the ground we walk on knows what our bodies need to heal. Eating seasonally offers us the chance to assimilate the nutrients that will help us bring balance to the changing seasons.
As I hold a pumpkin from my local farmer, its sweetness is the perfect food to ground me with other root vegetables. Warm spices like cumin, cinnamon, and nutmeg add heat enough to secrete serotonin and melatonin, stimulating my parasympathetic nervous system and helping me ground myself and sleep better. The oiliness of the fats in my meals (I love ghee: it has butyric acid, which our gut bacteria produces in our intestines as well) and the regularity of a routine in my daily schedule help with my bowel movements.
Historically, all cultures worldwide sensed these imbalances of the seasonal transitions and created festivals inviting people to bond, socialize, and heal. Halloween makes light of the fear we witness inside, telling us not to be afraid, let’s laugh, and celebrate the sweetness of life. Diwali lights up our inner darkness. The Day of the Dead or All Souls Day both honor our ancestors who have passed. In truth, their legacy lives on through us in our genetic expression.
This intelligence is so palpable it exists indelibly in nature. It guides the trees to shed their leaves, bears to go into hibernation, and the playful squirrel to hide acorns, nuts, and berries in the hollow of trees or the safe deposit of the ground. So why do we not listen to this inner intelligence? Maybe because the noisiness of our busy lives drowns this gentle whisper.
The anatomy and physiology of fall guide my anatomy and physiology to connect to my inner intelligence that asks me to slow down, breathe, and nourish my body and soul. I’m willing to follow. Are you?