Living Seasonally – Tune Into Autumn

Living Seasonally – Tune Into Autumn

Seasonal advice from yoga, Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine will help you feel better in Autumn.

We can witness one of the best examples of a true seasonal shift as the bright, hot days of Summer fade into the colder, shorter days of Autumn. While Summer is the apex of extroverted 'yang,' Autumn ushers us further into a quieter, more introspective state of 'yin.'

Tune Into Spring demonstrated in earlier seasonal articles that humans have been living in harmony with the seasons for thousands of years, and that our minds, bodies, and emotions require various sorts of nutrition at different times of the year. We looked at how aligning with the energy of the season benefits the sorts of movement, social connections, and even the way we schedule our projects and job obligations in our Tune Into Summer post.

Remember that, despite spending the majority of our days in insulated buildings surrounded by screens, artificial lights, and cuisines from all over the world, we formerly had a close relationship with nature that required us to live in different ways depending on the season. When we eat seasonal foods, we get the vitamins and minerals we need at the time, and when we allow ourselves to relax during the 'yin' seasons of the year, we're better able to bounce back when the warmer 'yang' months approach.

Read on for your guide to tuning into Autumn, whether you're interested in the healthiest meals, movement routines, sleeping habits, or specific organs to care for according to Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Increasing the Yin energy

Autumn asks us to begin calming down after a summer of putting ideas into action, taking on challenges, and embracing a more adventurous lifestyle. As the amount of 'yin' energy in nature increases, now is a good time to consider how we may live our lives with a more 'yin' approach. Instead of starting new initiatives, now is the moment to finish what we've been working on for the past few months. Consider finishing up loose ends at work or with your home tasks, and perhaps pick just one area to focus on in the fall.

Summer energy may have allowed us to manage several responsibilities, but Autumn is the perfect time to focus our attention on one single item that counts. It may be upgrading your home, enrolling in an online school, or maintaining a regular yoga practise. Autumn is ruled by the Vata dosha, which is characterized by coolness, dryness, irregularity, and lightness, according to Ayurveda, yoga's sister science. Because of these features of lightness and irregularity, we're more prone to feel scattered and nervous if our attention is divided between too many things, so take a moment to think about what actually matters to you right now and what doesn't.

Autumn exercise routines

Autumn is the 'pivot,' according to Dallas Hartwig, author of The 4 Season Solution, when we need to shift from an expansive, dopamine-driven, go-go-go Summer lifestyle to a different way of being. 'As the leaves change color and the colder winter approaches, we'll naturally spend less time outside and, as a result, undertake less general movement. During these months, our entire world should contract, both physically and figuratively, as we spend more time recovering and nesting at home.'

Despite the fact that we are changing to a rest and nest lifestyle, Dallas reminds us that we must not become sedentary till Spring returns. Summer encourages us to stay active for long periods of time by doing low-impact activities like strolling, foraging, trekking, cycling, or swimming, but in the fall, 'we should alter our motions by substituting shorter, harder workouts with interval-based or sprint-based training.' In other words, make it a priority to strike a balance between how much you move and how much you rest; locate endorphin-releasing classes or yoga practices that make you feel powerful, elevated, and energetic, but also rest frequently to replenish both your nervous and immunological systems.

Improve your lighting exposure (and release expectations)

You may link the transition into Autumn with dark nights, gloomy days, and poor mood levels, especially if you suffer from Seasonal Annual Depression (or SAD). However, as we enter this new season, it's critical to maximize the quantity of sunlight you get each day. When we step outside in the morning and the sunlight strikes our eyes, the brain produces dopamine, a hormone that is responsible for motivation and drive as well as pleasure.Studies show that the later we experience this initial hit of mood-boosting light, the more likely we are to feel low and lethargic. Aim to get between 10 and 30 minutes of sunlight in the morning, and if the majority of your day is spent working indoors, try using a light box with at least 10,000 lux of brightness, as this can provide you with enough brightness to keep energy and mood levels balanced when you can’t get outdoors. The key is in trying not to expect to feel low when Autumn arrives, and instead of linking this season to a state of sadness, try to engage in all the positives Autumn offers – like the beautiful colors in nature, the harvest foods, and the opportunity to nurture yourself with restorative yoga practices.

Autumn dishes

Autumn is harvest season, which means there are plenty of root vegetables, leafy greens like kale and spinach, and vitamin C-rich foods like broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cabbage. If you ate a lot of fruits and herbs this summer, you gave your body the natural sugars it needed to stay energized throughout the day. Autumn is the perfect time to enjoy seasonal, lower-sugar fruits like apples and blackberries, as well as medicinal hedgerow berries like elderberry for immune-boosting tonics.

Remember that Autumn is the season when the Vata energy of coldness, dryness, lightness, and irregularity can throw us off balance, therefore we benefit from incorporating the qualities of slow, grounded, warm, oily, and regularity into our daily routine. This means choosing seasonal foods like beets, potatoes, pumpkins, leeks, and butternut squash, cooking them with ghee or coconut oil, and adding warming spices like ginger, cinnamon, clove, black pepper, cumin, and chilli if you reside in the Northern Hemisphere. Instead of grabbing snacks on the fly, try to eat at regular intervals.

Introversion and autumn sleep patterns

Hopefully you had a lot of great nights beneath the stars this summer, whether you were camping or feasting with friends in the backyard. Because the sun sets sooner in the Autumn, it's time to start going to bed earlier. Consider adjusting your sleep to the light-dark cycle — when the evenings are short, you could feel better with a little less sleep. However, when the nights are long and extremely dark, we must ensure that we receive enough deep, restful sleep to feel our best.

Along with getting more sleep, this is a good time to avoid outgoing gatherings and activities with new acquaintances and instead focus on reinforcing the bonds we currently have. Invite close friends to an Autumnal meal, make extra phone calls to relatives, and plan family nights in.

Autumn organs to look after

Autumn is the time to focus on the lungs and large intestine in order to encourage good breathing, a robust immune system, and easy digestion. The lungs are thought to retain the emotion of grief in Traditional Chinese Medicine, so if you've been holding your emotions in recently, let yourself to let them out with a good weep. To shift'stuck' feelings and thoughts, you could do the Emotional Release Practice with Afke or start a writing practise.

Autumn-themed yoga poses

It's time to start developing your digestive fire (also known as 'agni' in Ayurveda) and adding more grounding, relaxing postures to your yoga practise. Try to strike a balance between warming, stimulating asanas like Navasana (boat pose), Ardha-Navasana, and twisting postures, and asanas that can deeply relax the nervous system like Viparita Karani (legs up the wall), and Balasana (child's pose) in Autumn, just as you might balance the amount of movement and rest you do.

Autumnal Pranayama

This is the season to increase your lung energy, and in addition to focusing on the yin practises and meridian lines that nourish this organ, we can also strengthen the lungs by changing the way we breathe. Throughout the day, strive to breathe just through your nose (rather than your mouth), as this is your body's first line of defence against germs. Try Kappalabhati – which can help with a congested nose – or the Wim Hof style of breathing for a stimulating and warming pranayama practise that also strengthens the immune system. Choose Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) or a simple Sama Vritti (breathing in and out for an equal count) for increased serenity.

I hope these suggestions have motivated you to live more seasonally this fall! If that's the case, make a point of including more seasonal foods on your shopping list this week, consider what projects you can complete this season, and strike a balance between exercise and rest.