You've been feeling it, haven't you? That pull to go to bed earlier. The sudden craving for soup instead of salad. The inexplicable urge to organize your closet and buy candles. That's not basic fall energy, that's millions of years of evolution trying to prepare you for seasonal change.

But what do we do? We fight it. We maintain our summer energy levels with extra coffee. We keep eating raw foods when our body's screaming for warmth. We stay up scrolling when every cell in our body wants to hibernate at 9pm.

Here's what's actually happening in your body right now (whether you acknowledge it or not):

The Indigenous peoples of North America had 6-8 seasons, not our arbitrary four. They understood that the transition BETWEEN seasons was its own sacred time requiring different behaviors. Meanwhile, we pretend Labor Day is just another Monday and wonder why September kicks our ass every single year.

You know what trees don't do in fall? Hustle harder. They don't "push through" or "maintain momentum." They literally let things die. They pull their energy inward, drop what's no longer serving them, and trust that winter isn't the end, it's preparation.

But us? We're over here trying to maintain summer energy levels, summer social calendars, summer productivity. Then we're shocked when we burn out by October. The trees are laughing at us, I swear.

Tonight's Letting Go Ritual (your nervous system needs this):

News flash: fall has its own medicine. We just have to stop being so damn resistant to receive it.

Here's the thing nobody talks about, seasonal depression isn't always depression. Sometimes it's your body's desperate attempt to make you slow down. What if feeling tired in fall isn't pathology? What if it's wisdom?

We've pathologized every natural human response. Feeling sad when leaves fall? Must need therapy. Wanting to sleep more when it's dark at 5pm? Better check your thyroid. Craving warm, heavy foods? Watch those calories!

Meanwhile, every other species on Earth is like "Yeah, it's fall. Time to chill." And they're not the ones with anxiety disorders.

We've become so disconnected from natural rhythms that we need scientific studies to tell us what every squirrel already knows, seasons matter. Your body isn't a machine that runs the same regardless of external conditions. It's a living organism designed to ebb and flow with the planet it evolved on.

Fighting autumn is like fighting gravity. You might win for a while, but eventually, you're going down. And the harder you fight, the harder you fall (pun intended).

So this Sunday, instead of mourning summer or dreading winter, what if you just... surrendered? What if you trusted that your body knows what it needs? What if the melancholy you feel isn't depression but a sacred invitation to turn inward?

The leaves aren't dying. They're showing us how beautiful letting go can be. Maybe it's time we learned something from them.

Embracing the transition with you,
The Lifeuntox Team