It’s officially fall, even here in Los Angeles.

I won’t lie and say I haven’t been craving cooler temperatures, warm socks, the smell of wood burning in the air, and changing leaves. I’m actually drinking a pumpkin spice latte while writing this, and it’s almost 80 degrees outside (I know, I know #sobasic).

As the days get shorter, our energy typically starts to wane and move inward. While spring and summer can be a time of rebirth, extroversion, and outward energy, fall and winter are typically a time of going inward, reflecting, and nesting.

I like to take this change in season and its introverted energy to reflect on the changes I have implemented or that have come about since spring, and how I plan to nurture them and allow them to continue to grow throughout the rest of the year and beyond.

My mindful fall challenges for you are this…

>> Use the cooler weather as an opportunity to slow down and reflect. What internal shifts, changes, or growth have you experienced over the past few months? Take this prompt as an opportunity to strengthen your journaling practice. Remember, language is our secondary processing tool. If we don’t talk something through or write it out, the emotions and experiences get stuck in the physical body (the primary processing tool) and have a hard time being released.

>> While we’re in reflecting mode, set a timer on your phone to ding every one to two hours, stop what you are doing and take an inventory of your inner landscape at that moment. What emotions are swirling around? What feelings are coursing through your body? If you notice clenching or tightening, can you let the muscles soften?

>>Pay attention to patterns in thoughts and feelings. Instead of getting frustrated with yourself, play anthropologist. Take note. Do you find yourself ruminating on an event, a person, an interaction? Whenever you catch yourself lost in a pattern, make a note and scan your body for physical and emotional sensations. See if sensations are also a part of the pattern.

Be well, stay cozy, and embrace the pumpkin spice.