The Autumn Equinox and Time Agnosia
Synopsis & Links
I discuss some reasons I like to celebrate the Wheel of the Year and how it can be helpful to anyone with Executive Dysfunction, witch or not.
Problem:
It's hard to remember that June and December have different struggles when it comes to productivity, mental health, and executive dysfunction if we don't actually mark the passage of time through the year.
What we can do about it:
Celebrating the two solstices and two equinoxes is a great way to welcome a new season and actually tangibly remind yourself that things are about to get different. For the upcoming autumn equinox, try some autumnal decor and recipes, but also don't forget about cleaning and decluttering to prepare your home for the winter months when you likely spend more time indoors.
Credits
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Music
Kawai Kitsune by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/4990-kawai-kitsune
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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Transcript
If you are excited about the onset of autumn and then winter, but not necessarily ready to stay in your house for the next six months, then this is the show for you. This is Ex-Gifted.
All right today what I want to talk about out is the transition that we face now going from summer. I don't know how it has been. Where you are, but the summer has been just really long and hot and wet where I live. And I'm usually a summer person I've talked about that before, but this year I feel like I'm just ready for it to be done.
I'm ready to get started with, with autumn and with some of the things that I did last year to help get me through the winter. I think that I'm in a much better position this year, as we get to the end of summer to set myself up for success in the coming winter.
Now, if you live in the Southern hemisphere, then obviously this is extremely outta season for you. And I apologize for that. Put a pin in this one for like six months and let's get back to it then.
This is my first year celebrating Mabon. Uh Mabon is the autumn Equinox. Regardless of your spiritual or religious beliefs, celebrating the sabbats,which are pagan festivals held at eight different points through the year, or at least the four solar sabbats at the summer and winter solstice and at the autumn and spring equinoxes can be really helpful for anyone. Just use some kind of a ritual that is personally meaningful to you, and it can help you get situated within the year.
It's a way to prepare and ease for whatever transition is coming up. Now in the past, I have not done this. I have never wanted to celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of fall, because although I like the aesthetics of fall, I don't like the cold. I'm not a cold weather person. I don't like the sun being gone. I love the sun. I love being warm. And so when the end of summer's rolling around, that's never been something that I've wanted to celebrate before.
Historically, my experience has been to say, yeah, yeah," winter is coming" and then just otherwise bury my head and hope that it won't affect me too much. Uh, I mean, spoiler alert, it always does.
Now with a little bit of perspective, this is my first time celebrating Mabon and I'm really excited to get that opportunity to prepare myself for the autumn and winter months to come.
So usually we think of time agnosia as being something that makes us burn dinner or get lost in a book or a video game for hours or burn dinner because you're lost in a video game for hours. Um, and it is, but for me, at least it applies to the months, just as much as the hours.
I get frustrated when October 15th doesn't work the same way for me as June 15th. And so marking my place in the year as I have done for the last several months has been really helpful.
So going through this ritual every three months, It helps to remind my brain that it's a new season beginning. The days are gonna be shorter. My kid's gonna have to start getting on the bus before the sun is up. And I'm likely to have less energy, like emotional energy, physical energy, everything. With the sun, not hanging around as long, I'm not going to have as much to give.
Having a ritual reminds me to expect that. And then once I expect it, it's much easier for me to actually accept it.
So here are some ways that I am celebrating. Some of them do come from traditional Mabon celebrations and some are just things that I made up for myself. So take any of the ideas that work for you and feel free to make them your own. What do you need to prepare your brain, body and your home for the coming winter?
If you'll remember back to March, the spring Equinox required about three weeks of effort in my home. And I expect that autumn deserves about the same, but here's the difference. In spring that's the time for clearing out and airing your home out after the long winter, but autumn is time for preparation and you guessed it planning.
There are similarities too, though. Autumn is also a good time to clear out any unneeded clutter so that it won't be taking up space in your home during the months you're going to be spending more time inside. Autumn is my chance to nest to get my home freshened up and comfortable for the months to come. To let in the cool air instead of running the AC, um, before it becomes frigid, anyway. The plants in my garden are doing the same in their own preparations for winter dormancy. I'm just kind of trying to bring a little bit of that into my life and my preparations.
So some of the kinds of things that I like to do are baking apples or making stovetop potpourri with cinnamon sticks. This obviously is going to give just a very fall vibe in your home. It's going to tell your brain. Yes, this is happening. It is fall now, but additionally actually doing some decluttering, um, doing coordinated, cleaning and clearing out practices in order to have a more comfortable home to live in for the next few months.
This can be a little bit tricky because you may not have that same push to clean up that same urge to get things cleared out that you have after you've been dealing with it. This is a lot of just doing yourself a favor and taking care of yourself, taking care of your future self by putting some of that effort in now.
I've been kind of slow to get my act together. So I think that where with spring, I kind of ended my decluttering practices around the spring Equinox. And I think with fall, it's going to be a little bit of, of the inverse. Going through the ritual celebrations of Mabon are going to help me get in that mode so that I can find that motivation to actually declutter clear out and get the house nice and comfy to live in.
If you have a fireplace or a fire pit somewhere to make a fire, that's a really great way, also. All of the sabbats are about building fires. Let's be real. It's a good way to kind of get into that mindset of the weather is cooling down. At least a little bit. Um, and we're going to need that fire to keep us warm. If you can't build a big fire, that's okay. You can always use a candle to represent the actual fire. Candles are actual fire too.
You can also decorate with pine cones or pumpkins or whatever other kind of autumn decorations you like to do.
That's all I've got for this week, so Mabon is going to be Wednesday, September 21st through Thursday, September 22nd. So that's this week. That's tomorrow if you're actually listening to this in real time. Even if you don't listen to this right away, if you come up a few days past the fall Equinox, that doesn't really matter.
You can still use these rituals to mark your time. To mark the start of autumn, even if it's technically already autumn, it's fine. It's fine.
I know this one has been a lot shorter than the last few episodes that we've had. I hope that you appreciate that. Um, I did promise from the beginning that I wasn't gonna make these super long and then...
So let me know if you celebrate the fall Equinox and what you do for it.Until next time, bye.
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