Our October Self-Care Guide Is All About Gratitude
There’s a chill in the air, more color in the trees, scarves coming out of hiding, and hearts opening. It’s officially autumn, and I can literally feel everyone harvesting their vibrations. I’m ready for change, I’m ready to let go, but I’m also prepared to appreciate what is. In that spirit, this month’s self-care guide theme is naturally, gratitude.
Fall often leads to transformation as everyone collectively tries to accomplish leftover resolutions, find love before winter, and use their remaining vacation days. Before we get ahead ourselves, I recommend we take a moment to appreciate how far we’ve come. I usually wait until the end of the year to do this; but to raise my vibration this season, I’m choosing to do it early. I recommend you join me!
In this series, you’ll find practices, products, and inspiration that will guide you through the month and help you unearth your full potential. Be kind to yourself and don’t feel pressured to try everything. Instead, feel free to pick and choose what speaks to you from the guide below, and remember that there is no wrong way to engage in self-care.
Self-Care For Your Mind
Listen to this meditation:
I challenge you to start every day, for the rest of the year, with a morning meditation on gratitude. It doesn’t always need to be this one, but I encourage you to choose one that helps you appreciate the now. There are just over 90 days left in the year. Imagine how amazing you would feel accumulating 90 days of gratitude. Feeling warm and fuzzy yet? Yeah, me too.
Claim this affirmation:
“I am so thankful for the journey I’m on”
This affirmation holds SO.MUCH.POWER. Why? It helps you be grateful for your past but also acknowledges that you have so many amazing things ahead of you. I’ll admit that sometimes I get anxious about not being who I’m meant to be just yet, but then I realize what a gift it is to have the room to continue to evolve. It’s not always easy, but it’s also often magical. Plus, this affirmation makes detours a little less intimidating.
Order This Self-Care Journal:
The Five Minute Journal
This month I encourage you to be not only a reader of life but also a writer of life. I’ve personally been using this gratitude journal for a few months now. This journal has truly changed the mindset I start and end each day with. The title is also true to its word; it really only takes five minutes. If you worry about not having the time for it, then your real worry should be, “why don’t I have five minutes to care for myself?” Trust me, you do, and this month is the perfect time to get started.
Read Past Self-Care Guides
Self-Care For Your Body
Practice this yoga flow:
Typically I choose one yoga pose each month, but in the theme of gratitude… there are so many things to be grateful for! So, instead, I invite you to practice a sequence to enhance your physical experience with gratitude. This yoga practice will allow appreciation to not just live in your mind but flow through your entire body. Welcome gratitude, feel gratitude and move with gratitude.
FYI, Try to perform each pose to the best of your ability, it’s not about getting it “right” it’s about moving your body and allowing energy to flow through it.
Write Thank You Letters
While there is so much to be grateful for, there are also so many people to be grateful for. Buy some cute stationery and spend an afternoon writing letters to people who are important to you. Tell them how thankful you are for them and how they impact your life in a positive way. A handwritten letter could affect someone so much more than hundreds of likes on Instagram, so share your heart and feel the energy the universe sends you in return.
Smell this aroma: Cedarwood
First of all, this scent smells like fall. Second, it’s also good for you. It does everything from improving skin conditions like eczema to strengthen focus to fight stress. Cedarwood essential oils are also natural deodorizers, sedatives, and diuretics.
Can’t get enough of that fall scent? Head outside and breathe in the fresh air. After all, you can’t practice gratitude without being grateful for the environment you get to create your best self in.
Self-Care For Your Spirit
Read your horoscope for October
In the theme of gratitude, read your horoscope with an open heart and thankful spirit. Use October to ground yourself so that you’re able to evolve even further with the tools you already have. This welcoming mindset will make you happier and help guide you toward your real purpose. Want to go even deeper? Draft your birth chart prior!
Leverage this crystal: Tiger Eye
This crystal will help you feel grounded, boost commitment, and bring you harmony. Tigers Eye gives you the space for acknowledgment as well as the room for change. This crystal also instills confidence so that you’re more prepared for the battles ahead - eye of the Tiger, anyone?
As for how to use it, this is a great stone to pair with the earlier mentioned meditation. You can also choose to wear as jewelry since the color is natural to match with.
Recite this mantra: Video: Kritajna Hum
This mantra (a sound, word, or phrase practiced in repetition) actually means “I am gratitude.” Take this guide one step further by not just feeling gratitude but embodying it. This mantra will help you connect with the universe so that you can see all the little things you have to be thankful for that you may have otherwise missed. Be one with yourself and the world through the repetition of this mantra.
Remember This Self-Care Quote:
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
I once participated in a 100 days of gratitude challenge years back. During the challenge, I wrote one thing I was grateful for in my phone each day for 100 days. At the end of the 100 days, I reread the list and was shocked by it. There were so many beautiful things that had happened in my life across three or so months.
While they sometimes seemed small in the present, they seemed magnificent all together in retrospect. That’s why it’s so important to be grateful every single day because it all collects into this magical recipe that we call life. You are already full of light, love, and potential. Take this month to recognize your abundant being and then share it with the world. From there, watch the magic happen in your wake.
As always, may this upcoming month open your mind, heal your body, and strengthen your spirit. What do you want to see more of in November?