Travel Wellness: 3 Tips to Make Sure You Have a Healthy and Happy Fall Season
By sabriya charles, founder of project passport
Fall is the time of year when everything seems to be in transition. Not only are the leaves doing their thing, but you are either transitioning from the summer back into your workflow, or the school season is kicking off.
Fall can give you warm fuzzies if you know what you are after. However, fall can also feel like a reminder of the mundane elements of life as you wait for the big "time-off" holidays to return, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Maybe, you are a Halloween lover like me, hence, you can't wait to put up your scariest or most festive décor.
Regardless of your fall mindset, it is important to remember that each season gives you a chance to make changes to better your life, critically review elements of your life that are not working and decide to turn over a new leaf— literally and figuratively.
Boost the Physical Wellness
Fall is a prime time to get sick. The weather is cooling down rapidly, and the summer heat can no longer save you from the lurking viruses in the air.
Coming out of a pandemic, we all know that fall can preclude a brutal winter season. Flu shots and masks start to make their grand appearance at clinics. Therefore it is vital to get an early start in taking care of your physical well-being in the fall before winter arrives. You’re less likely to be eating the same summer citrus fruits that were giving you all of that yummy Vitamin C immune protection. Fall is the time to finally whip out the cranberries, papaya, and blackberries, all opportunities to replenish your Vitamin C levels.
You’re in luck because Vitamin A is in for the win, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, as it is an integral part of your immune system's effectiveness. Grandma’s yam recipe is not so bad for you after all — if you ignore the four pounds of sugar she added for flavor, of course.
Sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, and many other fall favorites are packed with the Vitamin A you need to stay healthy this fall season. Don’t forget to remain active, whether it is walking through the corn maze or the pumpkin patch to take a fall bike ride, be sure to keep moving even though you may be less active than you were in the summer.
Visit: blackpeoplesrecipes.com for some delicious fall recipes that give you the nutrients you need to stay well while also hitting that Fall soul food craving creeping upon your soul. You can always modify to reduce or increase ingredients to meet your dietary needs.
Mental Reflection and Review
A lot could have happened over the summer, good or bad. Fall is a great time to sit and process things as the dust settles and things get more into a routine flow. Whether you met your summer bae or you’re going through a career revival, fall can provide some of the calm and consistency you need to reflect in order to determine your next best move. Allow yourself to create cozy and comfortable spaces in your home where you can drink your favorite warm beverage, pull out your journal, play low music, and write or draw away.
You may feel tempted to jump back into the action of life and ignore your thoughts and feelings. Still, it is important to allow yourself to slowly re-enter life with a tapered approach. You need to stop the things that are not working, and if you do not take the time to reflect on them, you may leave the fall season with a rapid transition into the winter blues. You may not be a huge journalist. That’s okay! Use your quiet time to meditate, draw, envision, and explore. It is never too late to make a vision board or plan for the remainder of the year.
Consider the following prompts to help you get into the zone:
What would make the most of the rest of this year for me?
How did my summer go, and what does it mean to me now?
What do I need right now?
What is changing in my life, and what remains the same?
What did I accomplish thus far in the year?
What is important to me right now?
What have I changed my mind about?
What do I want to be different at this point in my life?
What makes me proud of my life?
Replenish Your Soul
Fall is an excellent time to replenish what you may have been neglecting throughout the year. Since fall is the start of the slow-down season of the year, you have a little more time to catch yourself in the cascade of life as it passes you by.
You may have overdone the sun a bit with no sunblock this summer. Fall is a great time to get back into a skincare routine to rehydrate your skin and your body. You may have gotten off track with your spiritual traditions. Fall is a great time to start attending your prayer or religious gatherings, especially since you are not having to compete with vacation activities.
Summer relationships can often be fleeting and remain forever embedded into that season’s memories. Reconnect with friends you may not have spoken to throughout the year. Fall is an important time to rebuild and develop connections before winter, as historically, it’s the season of loneliness. If you fortify those relationships early on, then it could help ensure you have a community for the winter holidays.
One way to assess what parts of your life need replenishment is using the “Wheel of Life.” This tool is an excellent way to further assess where you may need replenishment in your life. You may not know what area you are struggling in, but the wheel provides context for the areas of life that make up our overall state of well-being. Go here to explore those aspects of your wheel. We all could pump a little life into parts of our wheel, and fall is the right season to do just that!
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Fall is the perfect time to pull your bearings together and make even the roughest year end on a stronger note. By making sure you remain physically well, reflecting on your life, and feeding your soul, you can make fall the season where you can burrow in and come out ready to take on the world, just like the animals who hibernate in the wild.
About the author:
Sabriya Dobbins, award-winning Founder of Project Passport and the therapy practice Fruits of Freedom Counseling. She specializes in proactive wellness with the goal of providing preventative mental wellness tools and solutions to companies, organizations, and individuals. After experiencing severe anxiety and panic attacks, she realized there needed to be a sacred space to help people with the “little things” before they become big things that result in breakdowns. Sabriya is the author of the wellness blog Living Life Full Force and of the book, Purpose Doesn’t Care What’s in Your Bank Account. She has certifications in Positive Psychology, Cognitive Behavioral Techniques Coaching, Neurolinguistics Practitioner-style Coaching, and many other disciplines. As a traveler to various places around the world, she believes that adventure can meet well-being if intentional work is done.