I soaked in the dappled light that filtered through the trees. Splays of sun and shadows danced over my body while I sat down to meditate and journal at the water’s edge.

My favourite spot.

I hadn’t had a chance to come to this place since I’d been back from my holiday, so I was grateful for a moment to rediscover the magic of this natural space. It was the beautiful, grounding soul medicine that I needed to bring me back to my breath and to myself.

I noticed that the place wasn’t as lush and vibrant as it usually is in January. I hadn’t expected to find some already yellowing trees and a ground full of dead leaves in the middle of summer, at least two months earlier than usual. Yet, there they were. While the elderflowers, white stinkwoods and willows were still singing the lush melodies of mid-summer, around them so many of their companions had skipped ahead to autumn.

The more I reached into the energy of the space, the more I saw that there was a special wisdom about the fallen leaves. They had a lesson about self-preservation in times of struggle.

Trying times, like drought in the case of these trees, often call for drastic shifts in order to sustain and nurture one’s inner being.

Sometimes the only way forward is inward.

You may have experienced this at one stage or another. There reaches a point during extreme periods of struggle when life calls us to draw our energy inward. So, we retreat into our soul space to gather strength, healing and deep inner wisdom to carry us through to the other side. Struggle causes you to sort through what matters most. To survive, one must take only what you need, what nurtures and inspires your being and leave or cast aside all that is unnecessary.

To a tree in a severe dry spell where rain is scarce it means shedding leaves and heading into a dormant season months earlier than it normally would. Depending on what your circumstances are in the midst of a difficult time, you have to ascertain what it means for you. You are called to sift through questions like:

What is important to you? What can’t you live without? What mends, soothes and keeps you sane? What do you need to release from your life in order to survive?

It may be necessary to de-clutter or shed old patterns and distractions so that you can realign your authentic intentions in your life and work in a way that serves your true wild and gentle nature or essence.

What modes of self-preservation nurture you through traumatic or challenging times?