September is for Slow

Simple Ritual and Recipe for the Season's Change

I have been feeling the season change here in Western Montana.

The days are still warm and sunny, but the nights have a bite. It’s that time of year where I can’t wait to pull out my wool sweaters so I wear them over top of my tank tops and bike shorts, with my earthrunner sandals for a classic native Montanan look.

There has been a confluence of synchronicity around me, bringing the same subject into my awareness again and again, and this subject is the power of slowness, slowing down and the cultivation of blank space within our days.

I tend to be a fast paced person. I identify as a highly functional and on default will typically get a lot done.

Execution is not my weak spot. If anything, I “do” preemptively. I am definitely someone whoes primarly dysregulated nervous system state is fight aka GO, DO, and FAST.

The summer is such a go and do time. It’s full of activities, social gatherings, tasks, and trips. I’ve had a great summer. It’s been full of really fun, pleasureful experiences. I recently posted on instagram about my“soft girl summer.”

However, the later part of August, I kept finding myself searching for stimulation. I found myself resisting quiet stillness. I felt that familiar overstimulation feeling I have come to know as low level dysregulation. Kind of like my system gets jammed in overdrive. I need to stop, but I just can’t.

I’ll listen to an audiobook while I workout. I find myself looking at my phone if there is even 2 minutes of downtime. Whenever I get a text or email message I feel I NEED to answer it, NOW. I find myself doing things like cooking, folding laundry, sweeping, and trying to engage with my kids, all at the same time.

My system starts to search for stuff I need to do and take care of, urgently. It feels like getting the mail or remembering what to add to the grocery list are matters of life and death.

As we move into Autumn, the natural world around us is starting to slow down. I see it on my land and I feel it in my body.

We get back to our routines.

We crave the grounding of structure and sameness.

There is a call towards releasing and shedding.

I have been really in a process of tightening up our home life and making sure everything has a place; energetically and physically.

When I came down off of my stiumlation high, I can feel how much I am actually craving the exact opposite of stimulation; blank space.

Not meditation. Not scrolling. Not walking or moving my body. But even simpler. A little rest to put my feet up, in the quiet and stare at the sky, or lean against a tree.

Our ancestors would have had plenty of time during their lives to just space out. Animals, no matter how busy, always take time during the day to laze around, rest and recharge. Our precious animal bodies need this space.

I can easily get out bed in the morning and not have any blank space until I lay back down for bed. Just… Life be Life-ing.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to be moving a lot. We’re all busy. We need to do things. We need to get things done. But it’s the never stopping for even just a little pause for some intentional breaths and a gaze out the window that really starts to build the pressure in my system.

With this in mind, these are my nourishing tips (and a recipe for my favortie chill out beverage) for you this week…