There's a moment every year when the trees begin to let go.

Not with drama, not with resistance. Just a quiet yielding—leaves loosening their grip, fluttering earthward with no fight. In this falling, there’s no failure. Only a deep intelligence. A trust in the cycle.

As autumn arrives, we’re invited into the same surrender.

But for many of us—especially those with trauma, hyper-independence, or nervous systems wired for alert—yielding can feel like a threat.

To yield is to soften. To stop efforting. To feel the ground beneath you and let it hold you. And that, while natural, is not always easy.

What does 'yielding' mean in the body?

"The first movement pattern of support is yielding...it gives us the ability to be present with ourselves and others"

–Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

Yielding is not collapse. It's not resignation. It's the moment your body feels its own weight and says, "I don't have to hold everything".

It might look like:

• A deep exhale after holding your breath
• Letting your pelvis settle into the earth
• Unclenching your jaw or belly
• Allowing your spine to be supported, instead of braced
• Feeling gravity and deciding you can trust it

Yielding happens when the nervous system touches enough safety to loosen its grip on control.  It's the first exhale after survival mode.  The moment of meeting the ground, the breath, the now.

Why is it so important?

Without yielding, the body stays in a state of constant doing—alert, tight, striving. Over time, this leads to depletion, burnout and disconnection from our inner wisdom.

Yielding is a gateway to regulation. It’s how we find rest. And not just sleep, but deep rest—cellular, emotional, ancestral.

When we yield, we reconnect to rhythm. To the body’s cycles. To the Earth’s slow turning. We come back into relationship with the feminine intelligence of receptivity.

It’s also in yielding that we open ourselves to be touched by beauty. By grief. By creativity. Yielding allows sensation and symbolism to rise—when we are not gripping, we can feel again.

So why is it so difficult?

Because yielding requires trust. And for many of us, trust was not safe.

If your early environment taught your body that softening led to danger, yielding will be interpreted as vulnerability. Even betrayal. The body might say:  If I stop holding it all together, something bad will happen.

So, we brace. We hold. We carry. We over-function. Even when we’re exhausted.

This is why yielding is not a performance. It’s a practice. A gentle re-learning. An unspooling of tension held for too long.

Autumn: the Season of Yielding

Autumn shows us how to yield with grace. Not all at once, but gradually.  Leaf by leaf. Layer by layer.

The days grow darker, cooler. We are drawn inward. The Earth asks us to slow down, to return to what matters. And the trees remind us:

Letting go is not loss. It is preparation. A sacred pause before the renewal of spring.

So too in the body: yielding is what creates space for new life, new insight, new energy.

A Somatic Practice for Yielding

Find a quiet space. Lie down on the ground. Feel where your body touches the earth. Without trying to change anything, simply notice what parts of you are still holding up.

Breathe. And ask: What would it feel like to let this part yield?

Not forcefully. Just a small invitation. Then wait. Let your body respond in its own time.

In Yielding, We Remember...

We do not have to carry everything. We do not have to stay braced. We are allowed to be held.  As you move through this season, may you find tiny moments of yeilding—in your breath, your spine, your rituals, your walk through the trees.

Because sometimes, the most radical thing we can do is let go into the wisdom of gravity and trust that the ground will hold.

And if you’d like to come together in person, in community, I am offering a one-day retreat called “Yield”.  This is your invitation to join me and a small group of womxn in my rainforest studio where we will explore somatic nature-based expressive therapy practices, symbolism, ecosomatic sand therapy, nature walks and nurture practices to support you to ‘yield’ so you can listen to the deep wisdom within.

Yield: A 1-Day Embodiment Retreat

Each season I run a 1-Day Embodiment Retreat. This autumn retreat workshop is for you if:

• You're craving softness but don't know how to access it
• You’re living in a body that’s been on high alert for too long
• You want to reconnect with your feminine instincts, inner rhythm and symbolic body
• You're ready to re-source from the earth and re-member your inner ground

If you'd like to join me, check out the details here or go to my Events page.

To your empowerment and sovereignty,