Falling Inward

These days, as I walk my dog in the parks and trails I hear the crunching of leaves under my feet, feel the cool, fresh air on my face and the fall light pouring though the trees to bathe me in its waning light. It’s a time when I naturally slow down to reflect on the moment and to connect into the rhythm of the season. Fall season has always been special to me. I love the quietness, the smells, the soft rains, the brilliant colors and the slow calm that descends on the community in preparation for Winter.

During this time I start to move into forgotten places in my body; places rushed through in the summer in an effort to build muscle and squeeze into a bikini. I start to find my breath again, steady and familiar and fill my movement with intention. I teach with a little more calm, taking my class though deliberate, end range movements so we can feel the full arcs, curves and  lines of our bodies. We sweat, a more internal inner warmth radiating kind of sweat that takes longer to build and stays longer throughout the day.

Fall is a great time to drop into an inward focus and let the body/mind/spirit unravel. We unwind the doing of the Summer, slowly, bit by bit, wring out the spirit free of worry and the muscles of excess tension.

I look to the fall to teach me what I must re learn every year. To let what is no longer alive die away and fall to the ground to become useful fertilization for a new seed, for another year. I walk, take deep breaths, place my feet into the wet earth, with a deep inhale and exhale, I give Thanks.

This Fall season we can move with grace and intention, letting ourselves unwind the doing and start to find the more inward pulls and tugs to relax, slow down and dive deep- to return into ourselves and ready ourselves for some alone time, some darker, more internal winter time.

To move with the Fall season is to take stock of what is still new and green and alive inside and what is not, and to work from there. To address underlying body concerns, to assess usefulness of movement strategies and goals.

Perhaps more importantly, to take a deep breath, exhale to let go, and see what arises. In the space of an exhale to an inhale what shows up, that motivates us to move?  Is it motivation itself? An eventual, tiny inspiration to get the body moving? What is the quality of the movement needed in the space of letting go? Fall teaches us these inquiries. In the span of time it takes to notice a leaf untether itself from an aging branch and make its way to the earth below—this way we can begin to feel and move.