The Pause Between Summer and Fall
Late August has always felt more like the beginning of a new year to me than January does. Summer starts winding down, kids go back to school, vacations end, and calendars begin filling again. Even if you don’t have school-age children, there’s a noticeable shift in the rhythm around us, and almost immediately, we start thinking about getting back on track. We want to return to our routines, get organized, start working out again, eat better, and maybe revisit some of the goals we set earlier in the year and haven’t thought about in a while.
There’s nothing wrong with goal-setting and planning, but we’ve become so accustomed to moving into action that we don’t always give ourselves much time for real reflection and consideration. Before we decide where we’re going next, there’s something valuable about noticing where we actually are, what has changed, and whether the plans we made months ago still make sense for the life we’re living now. Nature gives us an opportunity to do exactly that.
In the Five Elements, the system I use as part of my Seasonal Alignment Practice, late summer is associated with the Earth element. Earth represents a temporary point of balance between one kind of energy and the next, almost like the pause before a change in direction. You can see it in nature during late summer when the expansive growth of spring and summer has reached its fullness, but the leaves haven’t yet started changing color and falling. For many of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the heat and humidity have also built to a point where the air itself can feel still.
You can experience something similar in your own breath. Take a slow inhale and notice the tiny pause before you exhale, when the breath is no longer moving in but hasn’t started moving out. It happens so quickly that we rarely notice it, and I think we often miss these same pauses in our lives. We move from summer into fall and immediately start thinking about schedules, routines, projects, goals, and everything we still want to accomplish before the end of the year. The Earth element reminds us that we can stay in the pause for a moment before deciding what comes next.
Do You Really Need to Get Back on Track?
Years ago, in my early twenties, my best friend convinced me to start going to the gym with her before work, which was quite an accomplishment because I have never been someone who particularly enjoys working out. Give me a walk around the neighborhood, some stretching, or ten minutes of gentle yoga at home, and I’m perfectly content. Somehow, though, I committed to going with her, and for about six months we went to spin class almost every morning before work. I actually enjoyed it.
About six months into this new routine, we had a hurricane that shut down normal life for a while. The gym closed, the power was out, and we waited for things around us to reopen and life to return to normal. When the gym eventually reopened, I simply never went back. My friend used to tease me that I was still on hurricane break.
For years, I thought of that story as an example of how easily I could fall out of a routine. I had been doing so well, something interrupted me, and I never managed to get myself “back on track.” I look at it differently now because the interruption itself wasn’t really the problem. What I missed was the opportunity to stop and consider what I wanted after it. Did I actually want to return to spin class? Was I tired of it? Did my body need something different? I had choices, but I never really stopped to consider them.
This happens all the time. A sick child, a few nights of poor sleep, travel, a demanding season at work, a change in a relationship, or something unexpected at home can interrupt whatever routine or plan we’ve created for ourselves. We can’t eliminate interruption from our lives, but we can change the way we respond to it. Instead of immediately pushing ourselves forward or judging ourselves for getting off track, the interruption can give us an opportunity to consider whether we still want to continue in the same direction.
That has become an important part of the way I think about alignment. I don’t expect to stay perfectly aligned with every plan I make because life keeps moving and I’m going to change along with it. Instead, I think of alignment as a practice of noticing, pausing, reflecting, discerning, and returning. Sometimes returning means continuing with the plan, while other times it means changing direction because something has shifted or realizing that we’re ready to let something go altogether. The important part is giving ourselves enough space to make that decision intentionally.
Nature Gives Us More Than One Chance to Begin Again
One of the reasons I use nature to guide this practice is that our culture tends to organize life in a fairly linear way. January arrives, and we set goals for the year, establish routines, make plans, and decide what we’re going to accomplish. Then we somehow expect ourselves to continue moving toward those things with roughly the same energy for the next twelve months.
Our actual lives rarely work that way. Our energy and bodies change throughout the year, just as our relationships, work, creativity, homes, and families move through their own periods of expansion and contraction. Nature reflects those changing rhythms through cycles of growth, fullness, transition, release, and rest, and the Five Elements give us a framework for observing and working with them.
Earth gives us a place to pause between seasons before Metal arrives in fall with its themes of discernment, refinement, and release. Winter brings the Water element and a quieter period of rest and deeper reflection, followed by Wood in spring, when new ideas begin taking shape and we naturally experience more forward-moving energy. By summer, Fire brings us into the fullest expression of that outward energy before we eventually return to Earth and take inventory again.
Instead of setting goals once a year and hoping they pan out, the seasons give us natural points to check in, make adjustments, and come back into alignment with the life we’re creating.
I approach these seasonal check-ins through the framework of Mind Body Home because our plans and goals don’t exist separately from the rest of our lives. Before making the fall list, we can use the mind to look backward and consider what we’ve already accomplished, what has changed, and which ideas or intentions still feel aligned with where we are now. We can also pay attention to the body and notice whether we’re feeling energized and ready for more structure after summer or whether we could use more rest before picking up the pace. Instead of only asking ourselves what needs to get done, we can begin considering the energy and support we actually have available to us.
Home is an equally important part of that conversation, and it’s the piece I find is so often overlooked when we talk about personal growth and well-being.
Before You Decorate for Fall, Notice How Your Home Feels
We ask a lot of our homes. They give us places to work, rest, gather, create, raise our families, entertain, and retreat, and I like to think of our relationship with home as reciprocal. When we clean and maintain our homes, clear the clutter, finish a project that has been bothering us, or decorate in ways that feel meaningful, we’re giving some care back to the spaces that support so much of our everyday lives.
Before you start pulling out the pumpkins and fall decor, try walking through your home and simply noticing how it feels. Pay attention to the places that are already supporting you well, as well as the areas where you’re experiencing some friction. Maybe a surface became a dumping ground over the summer, the kitchen could use some attention before fall routines begin, or there’s an unfinished project you’ve been walking past long enough that you feel it every time you see it.
If you aren’t sure where to begin, I love starting with the bedroom because it’s one of the most personal spaces in our homes and often one of the easiest to neglect. We tend to put our decorating energy into the rooms everyone else sees while the bedroom becomes the place where laundry lands, clutter accumulates, and unfinished projects get pushed aside. Yet it’s also the room where we begin and end every day.
Consider what would make your bedroom feel a little more cared for as you move into fall. You might clear your nightstand, wash your bedding, hang the artwork that has been leaning against the wall, or finally put away the pile of clothes that keeps moving from one spot to another. You can also bring in some of the qualities associated with the Earth element through ceramics, natural materials, warm earth tones, or anything else that makes the room feel more grounded and comforting. You don’t need to overhaul the room or buy anything new. Choosing one area of your home and tending to it can become part of the reset itself.
There will be time to make the fall list, organize the calendar, settle into new routines, and decide what you want to accomplish before the end of the year. Late summer gives us a small window before all of that to look backward before looking ahead. We can acknowledge what we’ve already done, notice how we’re feeling, pay attention to what has changed, and give a little care to the home that will be supporting us through whatever comes next.
Once we have a clearer sense of where we actually are, we can make much more intentional decisions about what we want to carry with us into fall.
If you’d like some guidance through your own seasonal check-in, I created Your End of Summer Reset, a complimentary workshop with a guided reflection worksheet. It’s an opportunity to spend a little more time with the Earth element, explore seasonal alignment through your mind, body, and home, and give yourself some space before moving into the season ahead.