Breathing Techniques

The autumn equinox – the year as one long breath

Petra Peyer · 3 min read

Spring is the inhale. Summer is the fullness. Autumn is the exhale.

Today is the autumn equinox.

For one day, light and dark meet as equals. Day and night, almost exactly the same length. The sun crosses the equator, and from tonight the nights begin to grow longer than the days.

For thousands of years, people have marked this moment. Harvest festivals, gratitude for what the land gave, preparing home and body for the darker months. Not as an ending - but as a turning.

I like to think of the year as one long breath.

Spring is the inhale. Summer is the fullness, the lungs wide open. Autumn is the exhale. And winter is that quiet pause at the bottom of the breath, before the next inhale begins.

So today is the moment we start to breathe out.

One last breath, all the way to the tips of our fingers - into everything we've had our hands in this year. All the projects, the plans, the people, the activities we've been spread across.

And then, slowly, we begin to draw that energy back in. Toward the heart. To rest there, protected, so it can wake again gracefully in spring and start to stretch and spread once more.

The equinox is also an honest moment.
Where did I put my energy this year that didn't need it?
What did I keep feeding that wasn't feeding me?
Because whatever we don't look at now, we tend to sow again in spring.

A farmer doesn't plant straight into last year's field. First the soil is prepared - ploughed, the old growth turned back into the earth so it can become nourishment.

This is autumn too. Letting the old become compost for what's next.
This too is balance.
If you'd like a small ritual today or this week, here are a few old ones:

Light two candles - one light, for the summer that's ending, and one dark, for the winter that's coming. Sit between them for a few minutes. Nothing to do, just be with both.

Clear your home - a proper clean, and if it feels right, some smoke cleansing with sage, mugwort or pine resin. Open the windows and let the old air out.

Write down what you're ready to release - a habit, an old hurt, a fear. Then burn the paper safely, or bury it in the earth.

And of course, a breath.
Tonight, try this for a few minutes:
Breathe in gently through your nose for a count of 5.
Breathe out gently for a count of 5.
Equal in. Equal out. Like day and night today.

No effort, no force. Just balance.
Wishing you a soft, grounded exhale into autumn.

~ Petra