Fall fitness, do you have a plan?

The Fall Equinox was last week. You know, the twenty four hours where the night and the day are totally equal. I like recognizing and noting the Earth’s rotations. So much of our busy 21st century life is speeded up and we seem to have forgotten that we are part of this Earth, not separate from it. The solar holidays, like Equinox, remind me to slow down for a moment and tune into the planet. 

This summer was a challenging one for me. Perhaps you can relate. Many of us thought the worst of the global pandemic was over. Then it wasn’t, and isn’t. Weather disasters keep happening. Summer happens to be my busiest season for my job at the University of Minnesota, since many students have summer internships.

On top of it all, where I live, the woman who owns the house made the brave decision to remodel her kitchen this summer. It meant that we both moved out from June 8th through September 19th. Thankfully, a friend of my housemate offered us her house for the summer. Moving is a BIG challenge for me. I need to do lots to make moving go well for me. My planning and organizing skills come in handy.

You see, as a child my family moved quite often. Often without my control or consent. Many of the moves in my childhood were extremely difficult. Needless to say, the move this summer activated a lot of my old unresolved trauma around moving. Thankfully my therapist was available for extra sessions. I also got reintroduced to TRE, which also helped quite a bit.  

From Jeanne Bain’s beautiful website Be Love Navigation, Jeanne describes TRE as follows:

Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (or TRE®) is based on the fundamental idea, backed by research, that stress, tension and trauma is both psychological and physical. TRE®’s reflexive muscle vibrations generally feel pleasant and soothing. After doing TRE®, many people report feelings of peace and well-being. TRE® has helped many thousands of people globally.

Doing extra therapy, doing regular TRE and best of all, maintaining my weightlifting and fitness routine made a huge difference in how I navigated this summer. Plus I made a new friend who lived next door to the summer house. Jaime and her dog Polly are wonderful beings and meeting them this summer was proverbial frosting on the cake to a challenging summer. It helped that Sam, my dog, and Polly became good romping pals!! Here are a few photos of Sam and Polly having fun!

We are back in our Minneapolis house and the kitchen is not yet done. Fingers crossed it will be done soon. In the meantime, we are being as flexible and gentle with ourselves and each other and our dogs as we can be. I do lots of deep breathing throughout every day, and I continue to prioritize my daily exercise and healthy eating. 

And now it’s officially Autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere. The air is cooler and despite the drought we’ve had this summer in Minnesota, the leaves on the trees have started to change colors. Riding my bike and running outside gets more challenging, but still it’s VERY fun! I found my warmer gear, key to keeping it fun when outside. 

In another few weeks, my athletic friends and I will start our monthly Winter Wellness Zoom calls to help each other stay focused on our well-being all winter long. I’ve started swimming indoors at the pool. The transition of seasons has begun.

Tell me, how are you doing with the change of seasons? If the seasons do change where you live! Have you ever heard of TRE? Please leave a comment. I love to keep up with you!

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