3 Ways To Stay Balanced During Seasonal Changes

Autumn is a time to harvest the fruits of your work and your life. It's a period of transformation and letting go symbolized by the earth element, a stabilizing force during this season's dramatic shifts. 

Autumn offers a special gift from the trees: the splendor of transforming foliage. A light show of blazing red, orange, and golden leaves enchants many locations. In the spirit of the leaves, celebrate the progress you have made this year. 

Autumn is also a teacher of change. School and work resume, and soon the year begins to wind down. Following the harvest, the growing season ends, and we enter a period of decline. The equinox—when day and night are of equal length—is a perfect time to meditate on balance. As days become colder and darker, leaves stop making chlorophyll, their green color, which triggers them to age and decay. 

Many people—and, in particular, empaths (highly sensitive people that can feel other people's emotions, energy, and physical symptoms in their bodies)—can be uncomfortable with aging and the unknown. We feel safe with what's predictable. A part of us may resist change because we fear it. But that's not nature's way. Self-care helps us accept our inner shifts and growth. 

Autumn invites you to reflect on your priorities. It's an opportunity for metamorphosis, a chance to liberate yourself from outdated beliefs, resentments, or relationships. Ask yourself, "What are my burdens? How can I release them?" Autumn offers a deeper experience of your own transformation and spirituality.

A danger of denial and unconsciousness is that you will ignore your intuition and lose the benefits of an accurate inner guidance system. But when you stay awake and aware, you can experience the many passions of life. You're not too busy to marvel at the tiny flowers on your path or too tired to enjoy the gifts of nature, spirituality, and play. 

A regular meditation practice helps you remain conscious. It trains you to drop deep within yourself to connect with your essence and, even more, to the essence of life. When you practice conscious breathing, you are exhaling stress and emotional sludge from your body. 

Tolerance is the philosophy of "live and let live." It makes you curious about different opinions, cultures, spiritual beliefs, or lifestyles. Tolerance gives others room to be who they are. It means holding space for diversity without creating an us-versus-them mentality. Also, practicing acceptance for our own and others' human failings is crucial when learning compassion. 

Throughout the day, be mindful of when you are flowing with life and when you are resisting it. Flowing feels energizing, fun, joyful, even effortless. Resistance feels tense, tight, and stressful, as if you are pushing a giant boulder up a steep hill.

When you encounter inner or outer resistance, pause to evaluate. Perhaps you've reached a stopping point on a project, yet you're still trying to force it to proceed. Or you're convincing yourself to go on a date with someone to whom you're really not drawn, though your friends are all crazy about this person. Or you've had a disagreement with a colleague: You keep making a point, but they resist it, and you get nowhere.

Compassionately evaluate resistance in yourself or others. Consider the wisdom it imparts. To find its greater meaning, practice softening around it instead of becoming rigid. Then notice any new, intuitive insights about your resistance such as the timing isn't right for a circumstance to manifest.