Did you know that you can actually learn how to fall better? I was so surprised the first time I learned that was a thing, because I always thought of falling like most of us do, I think: belly flops. Falling down and hurting yourself. Flailing as you fall down the stairs after missing a step.

But it turns out that falling is an actual art, and one you can learn to do better, in a way that makes it less likely you’ll hurt yourself.

It turns out, one of the main tricks is learning not to brace.

Which is totally counterintuitive, right? We brace because we want to protect ourselves, but going into a fall stiff actually makes it more likely you’ll end up hurt.

I’m thinking about this as we go into Fall because we’ve got a lot of things coming up. The election in the US. The holidays, which can be hard in lots of different ways. Some fairly  spectacular astrology.

And as we move into this, I want it to be as ease-ful as possible. Here’s what I’m putting on my list of resources for the fall. You might want to put these on your list, too:

• Deliberately relaxing, and finding ease in my body rather than bracing for what might come.

• Approach myself with compassion, especially when things get tough, and recognize that some times just have extra heaviness to them.

• Giving myself extra grace when it comes to uncomfortable feelings, mistakes, things going wrong, and anything that would normally have me frustrated in self-judgment.

• Planning extra space and time around everything I possibly can, so I can move through things feeling calm, instead of rushed.

• Doing the self-care my body tells me it needs in the moment, rather than performing “Self-Care”. This is so important – it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to optimize our self-care by performing it perfectly. Your mindfulness app says you have too much screen time, so you cut that out, right? Except what if those extra NYT crosswords are actually making you feel better? You know what you need. Trust yourself.

And of course, I’m reaching out to my own support sources and resources around me. If you don’t have that kind of support right now, know that I’m here for you, and I would love to support you through all the ups and downs of the rest of the year. Everything’s less scary when you have a trusted confidant by your side – find out what our work together could look like here.