Resources for your late summer season
Increasingly, it seems, or maybe it’s my aging, but every year when August rolls in like an unwelcome heatwave. A bit oppressive and uncomfortable. Lots of overwhelm in all the things to do, which then increases my anxiety. Work spills over into home time more and more, the tensing of the shoulders, tightening jaw, and a dread that blankets everything.
For me, my tolerance for what I lovingly call the bullshitery is at an all-time low. Some of that is due to heat and politics. Some of it from all the things happening in the world and country. Largely, though, with the ongoing work of healing my body and nervous system since leaving academia, I’m less interested or available to put up with inhumane work norms, for myself and for you. (Psst: I started the healing work years before I left, so yes, you can begin while you’re still in the job.)
And that tolerance? It gets even thinner in transitional seasons. The thresholds between one thing ending and the next beginning. August is one of those thresholds. In honor of this seasonal shift, here are some insights and resources to help you navigate the rest of August with more ease and intention.
August is a liminal threshold, not recognized by your calendar, but deeply felt.
Liminal spaces are very sensory, which is why the overwhelm this month might feel like so much. It’s also a time of uncertainty, so that can create more anxiety since you can’t always see the other side clearly. August-as-liminal offers a pause between the fullness of summer and the demands of autumn or back-to-school season.
Use this moment to pause and reflect, especially if you feel like there’s too much to do and so many things pulling on you.
Ask yourself: What intentional step do I want to take next?
Maybe focus just on August. What in August can help you honor your energy, real capacity, commitments, and your boundaries?
Read more - Late summer transitions: August as a threshold
This kind of threshold moment is also an invitation to shift how we think about change itself. Moving away from fixed, linear pathways and moving into transitions that are more spacious and compassionate.
August as a practice of both/and
Transitions, more than any other time, invite the practice both/and thinking. As much as capitalism is already ready to pull us into pumpkin-spiced autumn flavors, linger in the in-between. Feel the energy in the tension of the push/pull. One way to work with this tension (we did this during last week’s boundary workshop) is to examine the ‘rules’ you’ve been following at work (but barely tolerating). Once you can identify those often self-inflicted expectations, you can rewrite them into healthier boundaries.
Ask yourself: Where in my work or life can I loosen an either/or mindset and replace it with a fuller both/and approach?
Read more - Embracing the mindset of both/and
Once we open up to both/and thinking, we can let it guide our actions so that are boundaries are living structures that shift with our needs each season.
Boundaries for a sustainable career
Boundary setting is not a one-and-done kind of thing. They evolve and shift, becoming flexible when safe to do so or firmer when needed. Boundaries are contextual, like seasons, evolving with your circumstances and needs for that moment and situation. Resetting them helps you step off the conveyor belt of busy and into more intentional living and working.
In my recent workshop, we worked through three activities to clarify and reset boundaries related to your relationship with your job, your body’s clues of boundary crossing, and your energy.
Ask yourself: Which boundary in my work and personal life feels ready for a reset right now?
To work without the overing is to design boundaries that help you resist the chronic burnout cultures that are so invasive in higher education, healthcare, nonprofits, and corporations. There are really few US workspaces that aren’t perpetuating this culture anymore. It’s up to you and the community you have around you.
Boundaries as seasonal containers
Nature’s boundaries shift by late summer. They feel more expansive and resistant to being contained. Marigolds and nasturtiums lean over the edge of the garden bed. Pumpkin vines are reaching out well beyond their space, looking for a gesture of support. Tomato plants start to feel heavy with the abundance of ripening fruits.
Most of us spend our days in climate-controlled boxes. While on hot, wildfire smoke-filled days like of late, that convenience is a gift of health and comfort. But generally, it also serves to disconnect us from the subtle seasonal shifts that happen in these transitional times.
Let the season guide you. Get outside anyway. Shift your morning and evening routines or rituals. Feel your environment. Let it settle into your bones. The heat, the humidity, the lack of moisture, the cooling shade, whatever your climate flavor is, connect with it. Get curious.
Ask yourself: What’s one seasonal ritual or habit I can do this month that helps me feel more grounded and connected to my environment?
As we move through August’s threshold, remember that career resilience isn’t built in the grand leaps, but grown in these seasonal pauses. Embrace these weeks as opportunities to slow your pace, practice both/and thinking, and give your boundaries the same seasonal care you’d give a thriving garden. Pick one reflection question from above and live with it for a few days. Let it walk beside you in your morning coffee, your commute, or your evening wind-down. That’s how small, intentional steps turn into a rhythm that carries you into autumn with more space, more clarity, and more ease.