Dear reader,
At last, it feels autumn in North Texas. In my backyard, the sugar hackberry drops its yellow leaves onto the horseherb. Today is overcast and cool. I have pie crust in the freezer and apples to peel. On the town square, someone stands on a ladder wrapping Christmas lights around the trees. Tomorrow morning I teach How to Reimagine and Manage Your Writing Practice - and I cannot wait to share virtual space with writers.
The season change from summer to fall is often a creatively energizing one.
As the days become shorter, darker, and cooler, and the nights longer, my body naturally drops inward. I experience nostalgia, tiredness, and the call to move slower. When I don’t fight these shifts and instead I let myself rest, a sensibility grows. It feels tender and tingly. Like a warm fire stoked by my grandfather’s spirit. But also like the precipice between sensing a sadness and letting it pour forth in a salty drop. It compels me to write poems. Photograph morning light. Harvest sage from the garden for a pumpkin quiche.
There is a link between our stress levels and our creativity.
When our sympathetic nervous system is in control, our creativity is prohibited. Our bodies are focussed on survival. Fight or flight. Do do do. Go go go. Solve, pivot, execute. Protect. But when we relax into our parasympathetic nervous system - rest and digest - it can feel easier to tap into our creativity.
To slow.
To sit.
To be.
To experience. Experiment. Delight.
I feel my body relaxing out of the stress of heat and summer yang.
Into the rest of autumn yin. Rosemary tea and staring idly out the window. The stress will return, of course, as it always does. Even in this season.
But until then, there is now. And for now I am thankful.
How does the season change affect your body, mind, and spirit?
Sending love,
A
Last chance to sign up!
How to Reimagine and Manage Your Writing Practice
TOMORROW - Saturday, November 18th
9AM -12PM Central Time
This class is for all creatives (and secret creatives) who feel their practice may be lacking structure, consistency, or direction. I’m so excited for it.
For more information and to sign up click here.
Newbies on my blog:
www.annaadami.com
IG: @aadami_writing