Fall Has Always Felt Like My New Year

Fall is officially here, and I have to tell you: this is my favorite season.

The cooler temperatures. Fireplaces. Fall fashion. Cozy everything. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas. (OK I know that one isn't fall, but it wraps up the end of the year and is my favorite holiday!) 

I love all of it. But there’s something else I’ve always loved about fall.

It feels like my New Year.

January gets all the attention when it comes to fresh starts, but fall has its own very obvious shift. Summer ends. School starts back. Vacations slow down. The weather begins to cool. We come back inside, both literally and figuratively.

And after the carefree energy of summer, fall seems to ask:

Okay. What do you want the rest of this year to look like? And what do you want to carry into the next one?

That’s actually one of the reasons I wanted to do our 30-Day Ritual Challenge in September. I didn’t want it to be 30 days of cute things we did and then forgot about on October 1.

I wanted September to be a reset. I wanted to give us a chance to notice ourselves again.

Our challenge officially ends this Wednesday. And my hope isn’t that you continue all 30 rituals. Please don’t give yourself 30 new things to keep up with. 😂 But maybe there were two or three that stuck.

• A morning practice that changed the way you started your day.

• A few minutes without your phone.

• A journal prompt that helped you hear yourself differently.

• A cup of tea you actually sat down to enjoy.

• A boundary.

• A pause.

• A moment of noticing.

Keep those.

Let them become part of the rhythm you create for yourself this fall. Because before we know it, the holidays will arrive, the calendar will flip, and everyone will start talking about resolutions and becoming a “new you.”

I’m much more interested in something else:

What if you entered the new year already connected to yourself?

What if January didn’t have to rescue you?

That’s what this season can be for. Not a race to the end of the year, but a slow, intentional return to the things that make you feel like you.

So as we move into these final few days of the challenge, pay attention.

Which rituals are coming with you?

I've shared what some of these 30 days uncovered for me. Now I want to know what they uncovered for you. I'd love to hear it! Let me know. 

Until then, enjoy the shift.