Harvest the Healing Energy of Fall
Mid-September—how I love this time of year! As someone who naturally wakes with the morning sun, I’m sleeping later with the longer nights. I enjoy how dusk arrives not too long after dinner, giving me plenty of time to settle down before bedtime. The days are still warm, but the nights are beginning to have a pleasant crisp chill that freshens the air.
This time of year brings a bountiful harvest. At home on our little farm, we’re picking apples, Asian pears, raspberries and the last of our mulberries. Local farmers market stalls are still overflowing with peak summer produce—sweet corn, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes, beans, strawberries, zucchini, and cucumbers—while pears, figs, and fresh winter squash are finally here, displaying their wide variety of beautiful shapes and colors.
Although most of us don’t spend the autumn months busily canning and drying food to last through the winter like our ancestors did, this season can still be a time to store up, share and celebrate. No matter how urban and sophisticated our species has become, we are still part of nature. Staying in sync with her rhythms makes us healthier, happier and more peaceful.
Hilary Nicholls, the gifted healer who leads Quest for Eternal Sunshine’s nature-based guided meditations, sees staying attuned to the natural cycles of the seasons as particularly important now that we experience so much of our lives through computer screens that emit artificial light around the clock. Hilary views autumn as three distinct, albeit overlapping, phases. The first phase, with the equinox in September, is about coming into balance. The second phase, in mid-fall, is about storing up—final harvests, celebrations and sharing. The third phase, as the leaves fall and winter arrives, is about letting go.
With the first days of autumn, when length of days and nights equalize, we have a special opportunity to come into better balance within ourselves. Hilary encourages us to pay attention to this shift and gradually spend more time going inward. In the mornings, before we get drawn into our cell phones, tablets or computers, we can step outside, take some big relaxing breaths, and consider how we can best nurture ourselves and bring more balance into our lives. She suggests doing a similar ritual after dinner, before we pick up a device or turn on the TV.
During the second phase of fall, nature’s cycle is all about nourishment, gratitude and love. We can focus on bringing what we most cherish to the fore. “In summertime, we think of branches reaching out and leaves gathering the light. In the fall we are scooping that energy in, feeding ourselves and sharing with others. Just as animals prepare for winter by concentrating on what’s most important for their sustenance, right now we have a wonderful opportunity to rediscover what is most important to us and where we want to focus our awareness and attention. It is a time of regeneration and reflection on what sustains us—a time to ask ourselves how we can show our love for ourselves more.”
Myra’s grandson, Feliciano, enjoying the pumpkin harvest at Earthbound Farm’s farm stand, October, 2019
The opportunity of final phase of fall is to relax and let go of what is no longer essential so we can conserve our energy and focus on what we need to do to strengthen our connection to our own deepest center, each other and nature. This can happen in any arena of our lives—from sorting through our clothing and donating what we no longer use, to dropping items from our diet that don’t support our health and wellbeing, to consciously releasing emotional baggage we have been carrying for too long.
Throughout this season, Hilary suggests that we repeatedly ask ourselves these essential questions:
What balances, sustains and nurtures me? What do I want to store up more of?
What am I holding onto that it’s time to release? What burdens am I ready to let go?
What do I feel grateful for? Where do I want to place my energy and attention?
“Gratitude is a central theme of autumn. It is one of the highest vibrations we can embody,” Hilary says. “We can feel gratitude for so many things, including the brilliant shoutout of the fall colors, and for simply partaking in the flow of life. Just like the bountiful harvest of fall, gratitude nourishes us. Our hearts feel full, and there is an inner replenishing. This is a very important time to re-embrace our humanity with gatherings, feasts and smiles.”
Hilary and I would love you to join our free 30-minute nature-based meditation on Tuesday, September 21 at 5:15 PM PDT—Harvest the Healing Energy of Autumn—where we’ll contemplate Hilary’s questions for the season and focus on tuning into the unconditional love of the Earth and gratitude for her generosity.
