3 Autumnal Equinox Rituals for Celebration, Gratitude, and Looking Forward
The word equinox comes from the Latin word aequus (meaning ‘equal’) and nox (meaning ‘night’). The autumnal equinox is one of the two times of the year where night and day are nearly equal in length, spanning about 12 hours each. This is a powerful time to seek equilibrium and, because it’s nestled in the midst of the season of fall, the event is imbued with themes of harvest, transition, and commemoration. This is a time to celebrate your successes, to experience the bounties of your hard work, and to embody the well-deserved rapture reaped from months of perseverance, patience, and steadiness.
In the Northern hemisphere, this day (and night) marks the shift into longer and cooler nights, a welcome reprieve from summer’s longer and warmer days. As such, this is also a time for replenishment, for remembering the importance of (and practicing) the act of slowing down and seeking the middle way. The busy-ness of harvest season is a given; there is always some work to be done in the actual process of reaping the benefits of past effort. But/and, a big part of our enjoyment of the abundance of these year’s efforts will come from pausing just long enough to enjoy the small pleasures. The changes during this time can be subtle, especially in the places closer to the equator. If we’re keen to listen, these subtle shifts in energy are sure to reveal a beautiful symphony about the nature of existence written in the language of time.
Some of the big questions we’re asking are:
What are our successes this year (thus far)?
Why are we proud of them?
Who can we thank for walking beside us?
How can we honor our achievements?
Where are we excited for upcoming growth?
Congratulations! You Did It — How to Celebrate Big and Small Wins
What would you do to celebrate a friend’s, family member’s, or significant other’s success? A good rule of thumb is—whatever you would do for someone else, do that for you. Send yourself flowers, book a massage (or a spa day), take yourself out to dinner (alone or with a friend—you can even tell them that the theme is to celebrate recent successes, and invite them to share what they’re most proud of over a meal), write yourself a sticky notes of affirmation around the house, blast music for 15 minutes and go wild. The way you celebrate is entirely personal and the only reminder of note is that balance is the key; there’s a difference between commemoration and over-indulgence or partaking in activities that are bad for you in the name of a one-time only congratulatory treat.
Some other ideas for commemoration:
Immortalize by physicalizing — take a photo, add a page to a scrapbook, or write yourself a letter — I love the idea of having a photo printed or taking a polaroid, sticking it in an album with a caption detailing the success and the year. It’s a great way to make your success tangible in the now whilst also preserving a method for future recollection, a double-win.
Make it communal — host a dinner or a get-together with the theme of celebrating personal success. Ask your guests to come prepared to share their 3 biggest successes.
Perform a ritual — taking inspiration from a puja, offer flowers, incense, and other acts of devotion to an altar or sacred space while thanking the universe and your support system for providing the abundance of harvest and success after all the perseverance.
The Art of Appreciation: How to Craft a Digital Thank You Note like a Master of Gratitude
Once we’ve identified our successes, it’s important to recognize those that helped us get to where we are today. While achievements can seem singular on the surface, a deeper examination will always reveal that it takes a village to accomplish any worthy task or goal. Who can we thank for walking beside us?
Identifying who you’re grateful for can be a mile-long list. You can approach it generally or specifically. It’s just as valid to feel thankful for someone for a specific reason (for example, by showing up for you in some particular way—like how I feel towards my dad for carving the time out of his day recently to help me master how to park a car) as it is for a general reason (for example, by being generally there for you—like how I feel towards the friendship that has blossomed in this past year with my friend Jyoti). Still, for the purposes of this gratitude ritual, it’s best to get specific, even if you’ve approached the task first through a general lens. That’s because thank yous can start to feel inauthentic (even if they’re anything but) when they’re not grounded in details, especially when communicated through digital mediums. So, for the example above, I can say that while I am generally thankful for the friendship with Jyoti, I am especially thankful for the effort she has put into maintaining contact while in Bolivia through biweekly nightly phone calls.
Once you’ve identified who you’re thankful for, narrowed your gratitude down to specific actions (for the sake of this exercise), it’s time to ask yourself: Why? Continuing the example above: I am thankful for the nightly phone calls with my friend Jyoti because they have given me a space to honestly explore my shifting worldviews this year.
Now that I have my who, what, and why, it’s time to craft a thank you note to send to her:
Jyoti, this is a little note to say thank you. You’ve been an incredible friend this past year. When I left the ashram and came back to Miami, I felt lost and confused. I had no idea how to incorporate the good and leave behind the bad. The transition definitely wasn’t easy and without your friendship, I wouldn’t have had a safe space to explore my evolving worldviews. With you, there was no thought that was too scary to say out loud, no feeling that was unacceptable. Thank you for being that person. I’m excited to continue to grow with you on this journey called life. I love you!
Thanking others for their presence out of the blue can feel awkward and vulnerable, but there’s a lot to be said about the things that remain unsaid, especially between us and those that are closest to us. Gratitude can often seem implicit. In the most intimate of relationships, it often is; still, there is something magical about expressing your thanks in concrete ways. To celebrate this year’s harvest, take the time to offer gratitude to those who have helped walk you home. By saying thanks, you’ll feel bigger and realize that life is one big celebration—for all of us.
What’s Next? Cultivate a Growth Mindset With a Goal-Setting Letter to Your Future Self
Life comes in cycles. Growth naturally leads to harvest, and harvest to a period of dormancy or hibernation. From the stillness of hibernation, regeneration springs forth new growth—which leads to another harvest and the pattern of existence repeating itself. Planting the seeds of future goals intentionally can be a powerful way of celebrating during the autumnal equinox. Acts like writing your future self a letter can help you connect the dots in the now and give you the opportunity to start the explore what you want the future to look like. The important thing here is to go about the whole process with an attitude of play: you’re not writing your future, you’re musing about the myriad of possibilities and you’re opening the door to those potential realities through your words. You’re planting seeds with the understanding that the nourishment will determine (in this case) not only the health of the plant but the type of plant itself. As a rule of thumb, it’s good to think big and then come up with more specific ways that big idea might manifest—for example, you might tell the future you that you’d like to see more of the world, and go on to mention some possibilities: travel, meeting new people, reading more books, seeing more art, learning a new language, and so on. Or… get specific, if that’s what works for you, especially if you have precise goals in mind that you know you want to accomplish. There’s really no right or wrong way of doing this; just the right or wrong way of doing this for you. The jist is to create a time capsule in the form of a letter that not only recollects your current (soon past) accomplishments, but also sets the seed for future goals and wants.
Here’s your outline for your letter to your future self:
Start by placing yourself in space and time. Remember you’re writing to a future you, and memory is a fickle thing. Write down where you are, what date it is, and how you’re feeling.
Take this opportunity to tell yourself you love you and you’re proud of you. Mention some of your recent successes, how much you’ve grown, and the surprising turns along the way.
Remind yourself that you’re not alone. Mention all the people that have offered their support and stood beside you.
Outline goals and wants for the future, big and small. Get as specific or stay as general as you’d like. Remember to have fun with it while remaining intentional; go ahead and ask yourself, ‘What do I really want?’
Seal your letter in an envelope with big, bold letters ‘DO NOT OPEN UNTIL…’ and add your date. Set a calendar reminder and put the letter somewhere safe.