Hooray for Autumn I hear you say! This time of year in Perth we are all ready for a little cool down, the Summer can feel long and drawn out or a bit overwhelming! Autumn offers a sense of relief to the heat and begins our transition towards Winter. The environment, bugs and even the Earth beneath our feet change and adapt to signal this shift is upon us! Autumn is active in a completely different sense to Spring – the earth itself is preparing to go deep and slumber down as opposed to the awakening after the renewal from deep winter that we tend to experience in Spring.
In our gardens and open spaces we notice the drawing back and dying down of flowers, some turning into seed that will hunker down into the soil where it all combines and works behind the scene to once again evolve at the start of Spring. Think of this in the way mushrooms/fungi do all of their building and growing deep underground before finally emerging as nutrition and nourishment.
The qualities that we notice and are associated with Autumn – light/dry/mobile/rough, airy, spacious. We notice a drop in temps and much more of a breezy environment. We experience cool, dark mornings & evenings, everyone is talking about it at our 6am classes at Mysa! If we make changes now, we’ll all be more equipped and ready when Winter hits us once again in June…
Dry skin, anxiety, sleep disturbance (lack of day light and increased artificial light) can become apparent during this season – do you notice a change in the way you feel physically/mentally? What do you notice? Perhaps there’s a significant change in the way you and your energy levels feel pre- & post- practise?
For me, the first signs of Autumn reveal themselves through my hands – noticeably becoming dryer and roughness reappears as soon as we hit this unpredictable time of year, adding to this, its the time of the year when everyone is so hectically busy, we’re into the full swing of the year now and gearing up with stuff in preparation for those quieter winter months.
If this is you and you can sense the unease and restlessness kicking in, here are a few suggestions you might like to experiment and observe or add to your Autumn routine that can help ease the effects and help you to smoothly shift your own system before Winter.
Movement Practises
- Take your time! Try not to leave class with sweat on the body, exposed to the winds and cool weather
- Have you thought about treating your system to warm/hot water instead of iced, even if you’ve sweated it out during class, a slice of gingers adds a lovely depth and helps ignite the digestive system, great for those sluggish mornings when breaky is on the cards after class.
- In Yoga, always covering the body during Savasana, allows the body and nervous system to fully rest and the addition of a light weight over the body works wonders
You may see more bends, twists and rotations in class at Mysa for grounding, digestion and movement through the torso and the organs. Take your time to enjoy the rest & relaxation practises, guided meditations or breathwork.
Lifestyle Practises
- Treat yourself to a fave pair of slippers, or your comfy Club Martyn socks, keeping the feet warm to prevent internal chills
- Have a layer handy in your car to throw on when needed especially post-practise
- Protect from wind and dry air – hydrate and lubricate from within & outside, think rich, cold pressed ghee, avo oil, sesame oil for external body massage.
- Reduce extreme movement especially in wind/cold-
- Warm and ground as much as possible!
- Create routine & rhythm within the system and daily life, simply take time to observe the shifts of light during the day. Bhav can help with suggestions if you wish to explore this further…
Food Practises
- Herbs – warming, grounding – Cumin, fennel, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamon, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt
- Include sweet, bitter, astringent foods
- Moist, warm, cooked food to ground, light proteins to nourish
- Preparing to store nourishment in tissues
- Moist grains – wheat, rice, oats
- Root Veg (Sweet taste)
- Sea vegetables (Salty taste)
- Warm & spiced milk, especially good before bed
- Sweet, heavy fruit – banana, mango, apples, pears,
- Legumes – red lentils, mung beans, split peas, tofu, eggs, adzuki beans (astringent)
- Establish regular meals, do not fast, adding to the rhythm of routine
- Reduce dry food, crackers, crisps.
- Caffeine always good to monitor intake if not ready to fully cut back, try adding Bliss Complex to your flat white to minimise the jitters…
- Carb drinks – aerated in nature, avoid
- Raw foods including raw vegetables especially if digestion is sluggish or any issues/complaints
- Overall, anything drying in nature
Woody fragrance to wear – sage/cedar
Find what resonates with you, try it, if you love it continue it and let us know how you find it. This may be a new way of approaching and thinking for many but this is how our ancient ancestors would have observed the changes in season and wisely shifted their own systems and lives accordingly, living truly in line with the principles of nature.
Let us know what you incorporate and how you feel!
Love as always,
M Y S A
