I was struck with cognitive dissonance the other day when I saw a pile of pumpkins in front of the grocery store entrance.
Okay, I know that many of you in the U.S. are pining for cooler weather right now. It’s been a record-breaking season for extreme heat.
But I live in the temperate coastline of California’s northernmost region. The average high in summer is 72. The sun graces us with its rare presence for about 3 months, and I can actually wear sandals.
So yeah—I’m not ready for fall yet!!
But alas, here we are. There’s no point in resisting reality (which is totally something I would tell my clients).
It is nearly September, after all.
Speaking of fall, it represented new beginnings to me for a long time. I operated on an academic year calendar for most of my life. After I finished my own schooling, I went straight into working in education.
I interned at the University of New Orleans. I taught English in rural Japan. I went to graduate school in Miami. I got a job as a Study Abroad Advisor in Tampa and then in Santa Cruz.
It’s like I was addicted to school or something!
While it’s not my first fall without the school cycle to lean on, I’m really proud to say that I’ve been learning to pay attention to other cycles when it comes to how I work, play, and rest.
When I left the 9-5 job in the education sector, my body didn’t immediately adapt to the freedom of creating my own schedule.
It took many months for me to realize I don’t have to pop out of bed by 8am every day. When I first tried to allow myself to sleep in more, I felt anxiety and guilt for “wasting time.” But now I find myself waking up without the alarm clark more often and getting some cuddles from my partner before planting my feet on the floor.
I’ve also been paying attention to my hormonal cycle, and how it affects my productivity and my social acuity. I allow myself to take it extra easy on days when I’m sluggish, and I lean into my hyper-productivity on days when I’m in a brain-exploding (in a good way) flow.
Next, I wanna see how I might be able to appreciate the seasons more. Perhaps fall is a good time to let unnecessary responsibilities and material clutter “die” to make more room for something better.
It’s amazing how conditioned we become to office and school culture. It’s taken me a lot of time to even notice the patterns, much less work on changing them up.
But it feels amazing to be on my own, reconditioning myself to be the way I want to be.
I encourage you to consider doing the same. And if you happen to be a business owner, I recommend Regenerative Business by Sam Garcia. It’s an incredible reminder of how important our cycles are.
In other news, I was published in MANTRA Magazine’s summer issue! I wrote a piece about mindset hacks.
You can get copy of MANTRA from Target, major bookstores like Barnes and Nobles, and health food stores. Check me out, I’m on page 4!
You can also just read my article here 🙂