Season Series: Autumn Equinox
Balance Presented By Mother Nature
Lynn’s Note: Enjoy the next installment of the Seasonal Series Interviews. Christina Ducruet dives into the Fall Equinox. On September 22, we experience one day of equal day and night. Autumnal shifts are both emotional, structural and energetic.
The Fall Equinox is the pause and indication of deeper change. Often in resistance to change, we forget that the micro shifts in nature, like the trees shedding leaves, mark movement towards acceptance and a letting go of what might be eluding us. Summer sun and heat move towards a backburner, illuminating new introspective quiet darkness.
Truthfully, Christina was the only woman on my list of interviewers for the Autumn Season Series interview. She thrives in-between, moving in and out of the winding road of life, grief, motherhood with a substantial desire to bring a holistic approach to the busiest of professionals.
Christina, Founder of Labryxnth, and I were connected through a mutual business connection over a year ago. Labyrxnth, is, as the name implies, helps clients navigate life’s fullest expression of ups and downs with personalized structure, practices, and support for inward exploration, healing, and evolution through life’s inflection points. In the Labryxnth container, clients have access to a variety of coaches, healers and leaders which bring about deep meaningful connection to a bigger picture of work and life.
Christina is at the forefront of linking milestone moments with holistic support.
She dove head first into my Autumn questions inspired by the WSJ Magazine Cover story Q&A.
Q- What’s your favorite part about Fall? How does that translate to how you work differently than any other part of the year?
Christina: Fall brings a sense of crisp energy. I can’t shake the back to school feeling and the urge to open a fresh notebook in all facets of life. Work at this time of year comes with a sense of renewed urgency and clarity. The disarray of summer days is replaced by the comfort of steady routines. That brief window between the kids restarting school and the chaos of the holidays is something I have learned to really cherish as a window of opportunity for building momentum.
Q: What symbolizes Fall for you at work? What does it mean for your personal life and life as a working mom?
Christina: Fall symbolizes a return to routine and structure and with that comes a renewed sense of clarity and energy. As a business owner and founder, knowing that we’ve entered the final stretch for the year gets me focused on what activities will move the needle.
Q: Autumn is about letting go as the foliage tells a gorgeous story of release. When you think about major shifts, what is your best recipe for letting go of what isn’t working?
Christina: First of all, I love the term recipe here. My recipe for letting go starts with allowing myself to clench tightly around whatever that thing is I can’t seem to relinquish.
Instead of pretending I am not holding on to an unmet wish or ruminating on something out of my control, I will myself fully indulge in that grasping. Almost like making a fist. That holding naturally precipitates release and the sigh of relief that follows. I do this through free writing. I show up to the page and let it rip. Then through that intensity I find the tight hold dissipates and suddenly, that thought or wish releases.
Q: You and I have bonded over the realization that major milestones can create huge transformations. What is one thing you'd share with someone struggling in the freefall of a hard time that can help bring work and life together?
Christina: The idea of a “freefall” is a perfect way to capture what it feels like to get knocked off our path into the unknown. There is no clear up or down. No way to orient to what’s forward and what’s behind. Whether you arrive in this state due to a personal event or a change in career, these moments are one of our best opportunities to reorient the totality of our life around our core self — the part of us that is unchanged, steady, authentic and true. Turning within, we can find a durable source of meaning, agency, direction and energy where the divides created by our external identities fall away and reconstitute around one integrated sense of self.
Q: Fall days get dark earlier as we move towards the Winter Solstice. In your leadership/work roles, how do you help clients transform the way their mind and body move through hard periods that feel dark, fear driven or scary?
Christina: Many Labyrxnth clients are walking the dark, twisty paths between two seasons of life. We help them reconnect with the light of their own essence or core self to illuminate their path forward. Through immersive 1:1 sessions in soulful modalities with multiple expert guides and a communal container with like-hearted peers, clients reconnect with their essence and come home to themselves and expand their capacity to hold complexity & darkness alongside inner-clarity & light.
Q: Nature shifts visually and systematically so dramatically each season. right now crops are harvested and fields are left bare. In the career pivots you’ve taken, how have you found a way to embrace transformation?
Christina: "We don't know yet where we are called to go. We leave anyway because some inner voice tells us that if we do not, there will be hell to pay. Then we wander for a while in the strange place called 'don't know.' Don't know where I am going. Don't know what is coming next. Don't know who I am anymore. This is courage, not confusion; it is wisdom, not folly. It creates space for something new to be born." — Joan Borysenko
To me, embracing transformation is the art of not knowing.
I have made at least four major transitions in my career, and many micro transitions besides. In all cases, the route from point A to point B was unmarked, non-obvious and sometimes a bit harrowing. Looking back, my process always included some recognition of the way my prior roles had built up a specific way of viewing myself, and once aware of this frame, consciously breaking it down in order to see my skills, resources and capabilities anew.
This reminds me of the way leaves that fall from a tree are at first memories of the tree — they are oak, maple, elm leaves. Then, through decomposition, they return to their essential state of matter and become fodder and nourishment for new growth. Knowing that transformation requires this process of becoming conscious of subconscious frames, deciding to let these go even though it’s scary and hard, and importantly, not racing to replace what has been lost but having patience for the gradual unfolding of something new to occur.
Q: What’s one high and one low cost holistic wellness must have for you?
Christina: Low cost right now is this Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate — it contains a ton of antioxidants, melatonin and tryptophan. I have been drinking a glass before bed and notice it really helps my body wind down for rest.
High cost would be occasional sessions with my acupuncturist and time once or twice a year on a solo adventure. Last year that was attending TED in Vancouver and while it wasn’t explicitly wellness related, spending the week drinking from a firehose of inspiration and connection boosted my energy and fueled my soul.
