Autumn Harvest: Taking Care of Our Tools

Bleeding Hearts and Pines                                        Catherine Al-Meten Meyers

"If you want to see what your body will look like tomorrow, 

look at your thoughts today."--Navajo Proverb

Autumn is harvest time. A time for gathering in what has been growing and what is coming to fruition over the summer and start of the season. It's a time for preserving and preparing for the days and nights ahead. Days are growing steadily shorter as nights and darkness fill in more of our lives. Yesterday while it was still dark the lights of the school bus drew my attention to the house across from the end of the drive. Children were leaving for school already, in the dark. Our bodies, minds, emotions, and spirits are waking up to what has been growing in us all year.

Up here in the North, a good portion of our time for a good deal of the year is a time of darkness. Darkness doesn't mark  the end of the day, but defines a difference in the kinds of activities, the level of energy, the types of food and clothes and shoes we need to sustain and warm us. It's a time when cold chills our bones, and when we wrap our fingers around hot cups of tea, coffee, chocolate, or soup to keep those fingers nimble and ready for the work of the day. A few years ago, I noticed a couple of writer friends wearing fingerless gloves. I discovered the gloves were used by writers to keep their fingers warm. I got some, and now see them as a vital part of my wardrobe, my writing tools.

Fingers and hands to writers, are our tools. Our entire body, mind, and emotional make up are our tools as well. Our imagination, intuition, and intellect serve us well. All of these parts of ourselves serve us well when we take care of ourselves in the midst of living. We are reminded how hard we can be on ourselves when we get so busy we forget to take care. Something happens, and we think, "Well how did that happen?' We might have a fall or catch a cold, feel our neck or back seize up, or forget to take care of some simple but necessary task. Letting something burn on the stove or forget the laundry in the washer from two days ago. I'm not saying any of this has ever happened to me, but they could have.

Life tends to creep up on us, and before we know it, our lives are turned upside down because a simple thing or two have turned into a crisis. Why does this come up at this time of the year? With our bodies, when seasons and weather change, and when the climate or environmental changes call for adjustments or changes in our lives, it is a good idea to take a little time to reflect on what we have gathered in our experiences and daily lives. What have we accumulated and what are the effects of this accumulation? What can we reasonably do without, or what do we need to organize, tend to, or eliminate altogether? This has to do with things, but it also has to do with habits, patterns, and ways of looking at life.

Much of what we do on a day to day basis is unconscious. We don't stop to remember how to wash dishes, or drive a car, or button a blouse every time we do it. We know how and we go through the motions, unconsciously. We do the same thing in the way we respond and react to life and people in our lives. As we review our lives, it's a good idea to look at what kinds of relationships we've made part of our lives. How much of our day do we find ourselves distracted by something or someone? What is calling for attention in our lives? Where do we need nourishment, compassion, connection, and where could we use more space, room, quiet, or places of calm? Becoming more conscious of what lies beneath the surface, can be helpful in staying more attuned to what we carry with us.

Whenever a seasonal shift occurs, it's a good time to reflect on what, in the past, has been a soothing, comforting, energizing, or fulfilling experience. For example, it may be that getting outdoors becomes more enjoyable, as it does for me, when the weather cools off. Being outside is something that I enjoy most in Autumn, and so when I see that I've become too much of a cave woman, I venture out. I take my camera, my sketch book, or a notebook and plop myself down on a bench after a long walk, and work. I photograph the colors that can only be found in Autumn at certain times. Some of us get into the holidays, others of us get into the natural worlds' majesty. Whatever 'it' is that grabs you and fills you with joy, do that now.

Nourishing and preserving our bodies, also involves feeding our souls. Doing what gives us peace and joy. What fills us with satisfaction and makes us feel good from head to toe. From inside out and outside in.  Putting on a sweater for the first time in the season, and putting summer clothes away until next spring. Making a big pot of soup or stew and sharing with friends. Every year for a few years now, I've been inspired to make homemade chicken soup. While I love to eat it, the making has become a chore that marks the beginning of a season of tending to the health and well being of myself and others. It's a time when we need to tend to those who need support and to support and care for those parts of ourselves that require assistance and ongoing love and support.

Some of us have chronic issues that remind us through pain, when we've neglected ourselves too much. We, as writers, need to pay attention to the calls and cries of our bodies, minds, and spirits, for in those twinges and pulls, those highs and lows, those frustrations and nightmares, we get hints of what the darkness inside us is longing to bring into the light. Pain is a signal that something needs tending too. Depression or feeling blue, is a call from the soul to face some shadow piece, some part of ourselves that we might be afraid will be too difficult to cope with. We may need support and help to do this. We may simply need to start taking care of our tools--body, mind, emotions, psychological issues, and spirit--in a more intentional, consistent manner.

While I do not believe we should feel responsible or guilty for illness or other challenges we face, I do fee we are co-creators of our health. Raised as a Christian Scientist, I have been well versed in how illness is a reflection of imbalance in our thinking. And again, that doesn't mean, we must be made to feel we have done something wrong or aren't 'good enough' if we struggle with imbalances. Imbalance is part of living a spiritual life in a physical world and body. It's who we are. What we can be responsive to though is how we take care of ourselves. Because we believe all is well and we just need to 'know the truth' doesn't mean we can dart out in front of ongoing traffic and expect to be 'saved'. We might be saved from our own ignorance or false theological thinking on occasion but that's not what is meant by being a reflection of the Divine being.

What is meant, I believe, is that we are given gifts of intellect, wisdom, experience, training, knowledge, intuition, and reflection to pay attention to how we are living and treating ourselves and others. We can prevent ourselves from placing ourselves in dangerous situations, eating and drinking irresponsibly, pushing past the limits of good health and good sense. We can take the necessary time we need to heal, repair, and learn new ways of using our tools so that we can adapt to changes and adjust to times when we have to slow down or take breaks. When we push ourselves past the limits of our human endurance, we will suffer. Paying attention, becoming more conscious of what our bodies are telling us, and then taking steps to cope with issues that are endangering us, is key to maintaining optimum health and well being.

With this in mind, pay attention to illnesses that linger, pains that signals an injury, lack of range of motion that shouts out to you. Autumn is a time when our bodies send out signals, and when we can build into our lives, some simple ways to help us pay closer attention and take better care of what is going on with our essential tools--our body, mind, emotions, spirit.

With this in mind, my choices this fall have included increasing my yoga practice to include more yoga therapy classes (focus on coping with chronic and troublesome issues like osteoarthritis, regular wear and tear from sitting and writing, and others serious conditions like pulmonary and cancer-treatment conditions, pre and post operative rehab). This Fall I have begun to   address  issues that have gotten progressively worse with my hand. Getting physical therapy and learning how to do things differently is a beginning. What really matters is how I adjust and change to meet changing needs. I've adjusted my writing, sleeping, exercise, and work schedule. I've changed some of my meal habits, to more directly reflect my needs and lifestyle, and I've been noticing where my life lacks certain necessary support and connection. We don't fix everything by making a few changes, but we start living more in alignment with good health and well being when we make awareness and change a regular part of our routine.

Some of us get so fixed into a particular pattern or set of habits, that we think we have no choice. Seasonal changes remind us that we need to mix things up now and then, and so taking some time right now to reevaluate all areas of your life, is probably one of the best things you could do for preparing for what is ahead. Review doesn't mean you have to change everything. It simply means we take time to look at what we're doing, ask ourselves why we're doing it, and then ask if it's adding to our optimum health or not. If something is detracting, numbing, or deadening you in any way, consider how you could change it. For example, if you're putting up with chronic back pain, thinking that's normal (it's not), consider what you could change to prevent the pain and what you could do to deal with the pain when you get it.  Then do something positive about that.

Living our lives as writers and creative people demands a lot of self discipline. Our schedule and work style doesn't have to look like anyone else's but in order for our lives as creatives to provide us with optimum health and well being, we need to be paying attention to our whole selves, not just the mechanical or imaginative pieces. Take time to get a good massage now and then. Enroll in a yoga class that deals primarily with shoulders, neck, and joint pain. Get up and go for a walk every day or jump into a pool and do some laps. Get down on the floor and stretch out. Take action.

To do this requires being intentional, and that is something only you know how to do. a million good ideas are useless without the desire to act on one of them. Give yourself the best chance to live a healthy, productive, fulfilling, and well balanced life by taking charge of your own health and well being. Be intentional and start now.

A good place to start considering how this might help you and your health, is to read what Dr. Caroline Myss has to say about taking care of your body.

Carolyn Myss Taking Care of Your Body