The Art of Grounding: How to Stay Balanced as the Seasons Shift

I don't know about you, but the transition from summer to autumn is one of my favourites. I personally love when the mornings and evenings are crisp and cool but the afternoons can be warm and still reminiscent of summer. However, with the transition to fall comes colder temperatures, shorter days, and internal shifts. I acknowledge that this can be hard for people as the energy of summer is so go, go, go, while fall has the energy of slowing down.

I wanted to share some insight into practices that can support your mind, body, and soul during this time.

The Energetics of Fall

During the fall season you have to admit, seeing the changing colour of the leaves really is a sight to see. I guess I am speaking from where I live in the world, which is British Columbia, Canada. The way the maple trees (and I am sure other types of trees) leaves change from orange, red, and yellow is so stunningly beautiful.

But then what?

The trees then shed the leaves to the ground. This is symbolic as this is what we should be doing in our lives - shedding what not longer serves us. Let that shit go, you feel me?

I find that during the transition from summer to fall I repeat the quote "this time of year nature shows us how easy it is to let things go." Although in our world, this is easier said than done...

Fall leads us to nourish ourselves with warming foods such as soups, stews, bone broths, squashes, oatmeal. I’m hungry….🤤

In addition, fall is about leaning into being grounded and return to routine. The tone is very much ‘routine’ for so many people. September is the time we would be going to school for so many seasons of our lives and even more if you do continued education passed high school.

Why Grounding Matters

What does grounding mean to you? I invite you to journal on this or type it in the notes app in your phone.

Grounding practices during fall are important for many reasons, but the ones I wanted to touch on in this post are the importance of hormone balance, digestion, mood stability, and immunity.

Grounding regulates the nervous system and can assist you in getting out of “fight or flight” and into the healing and balanced state of “rest, digest, repair” which can lower cortisol, balance your energy, and improve resilience.

When we are grounded, our body can better digest the food we are eating and absorb its nutrients, especially if we are focusing on the grounding foods listed above.

Glowing skin, anyone? Grounding matters because it can lower inflammation and regulate hormones. These are two key factors in obtaining that glowing skin (among so many other things, let’s be so for real).

Speaking energetically, grounding matters for our nervous system because it creates emotional stability and p r e s e n c e. It helps us anchor to this present moment, which isn’t where a lot of us spend majority of our time … but it should be!

So, if you wanted to learn more about what grounding practices you can begin to implement or reimplement into your routine, keep reading 💙.

Grounding Practices

• Morning sunlight (versus artificial light) first thing - instead of going on your phone right away or turning on the TV and watching the news, take a moment to go outside and get that morning sunlight first. This helps with not bombarding you with all these updates and comparing yourself to other people, but also to balance your circadian rhythm which is your sleep/wake cycle.

• Barefeet on the earth - this grounding practice seems so simple, and it is. Go outside at least once a day and put your barefeet on the natural earth. Touch grass, sand, dirt from the forest floor if you can. The negative ions in the natural earth provide a host of benefits. Try it out 😜.

• Yoga posss for grounding - try forward folds or child’s pose. You can search for a YouTube yoga class for grounding and practice that too!

• Practice breathwork - a great breathwork practice to ground yourself is box breathing where you inhale to a count of 4, hold the breath in for a count of 4, exhale for a count of 4, and hold the breath out for a count of 4. Repeat at least a few times in a row and notice the shift!

• Include warm cooked meals - things such as root veggies, soups, stews, broths, etc. to promote better digestion (bonus if you eat it without distractions such as going on your phone, on the go, or working).

There you have it, my friends. Thank you for reading this post and hopefully having a few takeaways of what you are going to shift and change to promote your overall wellbeing. But I’m curious, where can you slow down and root deeper this season?

Peace, love, & organic avocados,

Katie

xoxo