While this was an overarching theme through September, the tides continued shifting into October. I feel it in myself, and sense it in the surrounding community. It seems like many are working through a wide range and highly intense scope of transitions and challenges. It has been a dynamic time, to say the least.
I've rewritten this message a handful of times and either lose steam or get distracted. Over the last few weeks, I've noticed a certain amount of "spinning" through my days, stacking one event against another with hardly a moment to think in between. As a result, I was finding myself being short with my kids and with myself. I realized a need to slow down, and say no to more things so I could fully say yes to others.
It's an interesting time of year. Nature reminds us to begin pausing, draw inward. Look to the trees and the plants - now is the time to harvest and return to your roots, bring your energy back down to regenerate and restore. Yet society has us doing more out in the world – more parties, more plans, more things to add to the list.
If you're starting to sense this pull in two different directions, I invite you to resist the urge to do more, and choose less.... though it's not really less. It's saying yes to all that you are, giving your full self space to simply be. That is one of the most significant gifts you can give yourself, and a little truly can go a long way. It might look like going on a walk, setting an intention to watch the sun set every day for a week. Maybe it's reading a book, journaling, or creating for a certain amount of time each day or week. Perhaps it's going to yoga or taking a bath, or standing on the earth with your feet on the dirt.
This slowing down is not to add another thing, or to dismiss all social interactions, but to rediscover what's important to you in your life right now. Taking a bath might feel like a lot of work (maybe your bathroom is a mess like mine, and while my future self would enjoy a good soak, it would require my current self to sacrifice some time and elbow grease to that cause). Watch the wind move through the trees, watch your kids play, observe the way birds move on the wind, fully taste each slice of an orange, continue the exploration inward to balance all the ways we exert and focus outwardly.
Below is an astrological perspective of these times. Before parting here, I'll add one more reflection. I've noted many times to friends recently how I've started relying on more luxuries, like grocery delivery, yet don't feel the actual luxury of more time. How can that be? There is someone else who shops for my groceries and drives them to my front door, yet I'm not sure where that extra time has gone. Something has shifted in the quality of time, it seems, and I want to be more conscious of what I do with that extra time, how I spend it, where I focus that energy. Because all of these small things add up to the way I spend my time, and my life.