21 Magical Ways To Switch Up Your Vibe This Fall

Shift Your Energy, Improve Your Outlook, and Lighten Your Mood.

The data is clear: fall is the best season.

The golden light. The colored leaves. The cool breeze.

But how about the flavor of magic we get around this time, and I don’t mean pumpkin spice.

I mean the way change is of the essence. It’s a time for letting go, clearing the decks, and adopting a brand new way of seeing and being.

The vibe is invigorating and palpable.

Here are twenty-one magical ways to channel this vibe this fall: to bust out of a rut, start a new habit (or several), manifest new conditions, change your trajectory, banish a stubborn challenge or longstanding issue, or simply see things through fresh eyes.

No matter what time of year it is, these are the kinds of everyday magical and healing strategies I just love. Even tiny little actions can bring about big changes, and the simplest practices can often be the most profound.

Choose one or choose several.

You’ll be surprised by how much such “little things” can actually shift your vibe and lighten your mood.

1. Burn Cinnamon Incense

The wafting scent of cinnamon is warm, it’s sweet, and it raises vibrations while calling in wealth. It also unsticks stagnation by moving energy around (your own energy and the energy of your space) in the most harmonious of ways.

Here’s my favorite cinnamon incense.

If you (understandably) prefer to go smokeless for any reason, try diffusing a bit of the essential oil.

2. Do an Artist’s Date Once a Week

Whether or not you consider yourself an artist, you are one. Spirituality is creative and creativity is spiritual.

In the perennial classic, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, author Julia Cameron insists that the reader go on at least one little adventure per week. Alone. The idea is that you are taking your creative inner child for a play date.

It doesn’t have to be fancy. It can be taking yourself out to lunch, or a movie, or the dollar store. Or it could be a trip to a museum, a hike outdoors, or a ramble through a used bookstore or public library.

What a lovely way to boost your spirits at the beginning of fall and to carry you through the darker winter months.

Put “Artist’s Date” in your calendar once a week for the remainder of the year.

Then, brainstorm some ideas and make some plans.

3. Institute a Shopping Ban

This one is for you if you often find yourself buying a lot of stuff that you don’t need or ultimately even want.

In The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store., author Cait Flanders describes her own path of breaking the addiction to unnecessary shopping.

She institutes a self-imposed shopping ban, which she committed to for a year. After the year was over, she kept a lot of it going.

You get to choose your own rules.

When I did this one, the rules were no new clothes, no new shoes or accessories, and no new decor for my house.

No books. There’s plenty of those at the library. Also no take-out coffee unless I’m, you know, on a vacation or somewhere where I can’t easily make my own.

Restaurants: yes. Vacations, yes. Gifts, yes. Houseplants, sure.

And I could get toiletries and cosmetics, but only to replace ones I run out of. No, like, four hundred varieties of lip gloss just because. (Also, before this experiment, I used to hoard soap for some reason? So no more hoarding soap. I’ll get soap when I need it, not before.)

 It turns out less shopping was a missing piece for me when it comes to living clutter-free. It’s also amazing for my finances.  And, it’s helps me to see what I really value rather than what momentarily appears shiny and inviting.

If you want to try a shopping ban too, I highly recommend! Grab your own copy of the book here. (It’s only $1.99 on Kindle, but you can probably find it at your local library if you want to get a jump on the shopping ban action.)

4. Learn Tarot (or Learn Even More About Tarot)

Tarot is such a fulfilling hobby. It not only gives you interesting and valuable insights into any and every aspect of your life, it is also a modality with endless nuance and depth.

So while even beginners can benefit from playing around with the Tarot, no matter how much you already know, there is always more to learn.

This fall, learn Tarot or go even deeper into your existing practice.

New to Tarot? Here’s an excellent deck to get you started.

Already an insider? Here’s a book I love that will add dimension to your knowledge and expertise. And here’s one more.

5. Learn (or Practice) a (Non-Tarot) Divination Technique

Already know Tarot, or don’t feel particularly drawn to it?

Additional divination techniques are excellent hobbies to have.

So choose one that sounds good and get ready to study and practice it throughout the season.

If you’d like to learn the pendulum, check out this (free) post and this (reasonably priced) online workshop.

Here are some other ideas for divination practices to learn.

6. Get a Pot of Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemum, whose name means “gold flower,” helps shore up your energy and illuminate your path as you make the transition into these darker fall and winter months. Mums also help bring abundance and boost your luck. And they’re often in plentiful supply at this time of year.

So bless your home and life with a pot of gold (flowers).

7. Put Gold Elixir in Your Drinking Water

Speaking of gold, attune your drinking water (or coffee, or spiced cider, or herbal tea) to the actual vibration of gold, and internalize the sunshine. Dive into the vibration of wealth. Bolster your spirits, strengthen your wellness, and open up the portal to success.

Here’s a gold elixir you can try.

8. Read a Classic Novel

If you love books like I do, there’s nothing like a good classic in the fall. They help you cozy in, slow down, and pay attention to the everyday business of life.

There’s something so magical about peering into times long gone and finding people who are not so different than you.

Some of my favorite classics I’ve read in autumns past include Middlemarch, Jane Eyre, and Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

For something spooky, fun, and off-the-beaten-path, try the novella Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu.

9. Make a Playlist

When you want to change your vibe and get some new energy flowing in, making a playlist is always a good idea.

Choose a theme. Here are some examples: autumn, queenly self-care, Samhain, or the thinning of the veil.

Then write out your intentions surrounding this theme, along with the ways you’d like to feel.

Look for songs that capture the essence of all that you’re calling in.

10. Dance Every Morning

Here’s another fun secret to changing your energy and lifting your mood: after you drink your morning cup of coffee or tea, put on a celebratory, funky, and/or uplifting song. Then dance.

But don’t just dance: dance like you just won a million bucks or the Super Bowl or the Oscar for Best Feature Film.

(I got this idea from the author Pam Grout in one of her fabulous books – I wish I could remember which one.)

It only takes 2-4 minutes a day, it’s super fun, and you’ll notice the positive results immediately.

This is my favorite song for this practice. Use mine or find your own.

11. Read Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Sometimes you need a book to remind you of what’s really going on here: what’s important, what’s not, and how to change your focus appropriately.

Four Thousand Weeks is quite possibly that book.

12. Try a Makeup Tutorial

Who remembers when we couldn’t learn from the best makeup artists in the world by choosing from millions of tutorials on YouTube? For FREE?

Our technology-obsessed world isn’t perfect, but this is a pretty great perk, I’ll tell you what.

And everything is connected, remember. New makeup techniques = fresh vibes in other areas. It’s like feng shui.

13. Clean Out Your Closet

Clear your closet of all the stuff you no longer love. Free it up, create space, and get energy moving. You’ll feel better, and you’ll open up avenues of opportunity.

Take everything out. Then only put it back in if you love it and it fits.

Plus, then you’ll be ready to…

14. Throw a Clothes Swap

Clothes swaps are one of the great joys of life.

A clothes swap is where you invite your friends over and you tell them to bring the clothes, shoes, accessories, and handbags they want to let go of. Then you play groovy music, offer them chocolate and maybe some wine, and tell them to sort all their stuff into piles. (I like to start the piles with my own stuff before they get there, and label the different areas with little signs that say, like, “dresses,” “skirts,” “shoes,” and so on.)

Then you all shop. For free stuff. It really is so much fun, and you will often end up with a seriously revamped and upgraded wardrobe.

It’s so great for the planet to trade clothes instead of buying new ones.

(If you don’t know enough folks who would want to do a clothes swap, you can always bring your old stuff to a nice big thrift store, then shop to your heart’s content.)

15. Enforce a Digital Sabbath

Let’s face it: checking email and social media and texts all day is just so, so boring.

But with minds famously prone to distraction and experts studying how to get us hooked, letting go of the tech habit is easier said than done.

So, try picking a day to leave your phone off. Maybe give it to a loved one and ask them not to give it back to you until the following morning.

Do this on Sunday, say. Or Tuesday. Whatever works best.

Remember to your closest friends and family first, so they won’t worry.

16. Wash All Your Windows

Here’s some classic feng shui for changing up your perspective and making your vision crystal clear: wash all your windows.

17. Wash All Your Mirrors

Similarly, if you wash your mirrors, guess what? You improve your self-image and boost your self-esteem. Especially if you do it with that intention.

18. Clean and Cleanse Your Front Door

Simply cleaning your front door is powerful magic, and it’s so-so easy and satisfying to do.

The front door represents the place where blessings and abundance enter your life. So clean it (physically) with warm water – and maybe a little vinegar or some essential oils – and a clean rag.

Then open it all the way and cleanse the threshold with smoke. Sage works. So does palo santo. So do all these fall-friendly botanicals.

You can also mist the threshold with rose water or an aromatherapy mist if you prefer to go smoke-free.

19. Invite in Wealth Every Morning

I love opening my front door all the way in the morning, invoking the Divine, and then inviting in wealth and all wonderful things. Then I feel/imagine/sense all this fresh new positive energy flowing straight into my home in the form of golden light.

Try it for a week and see what happens.

(Here’s a blog post about exactly how I like to do this if you want a little more detail.)

20. Celebrate the Harvest Moon

This year (2024) the Harvest Moon is in effect September 17th. Put it in your calendar.

On the evening of the 17th, stand or sit in the moonlight.

Soak it in. Call in healing, magic, and inspiration. Cultivate gratitude.

Invoke the Goddess and speak words from your heart.

Eat or drink something delicious and offer a little to the Goddess and the Moon.

21. Stock Up on Cozy Beverage Options

As we get ready for the cooler months, stock your kitchen with all the herbal tea, cocoa, cider, and other hot beverage options you could possibly desire.

Most teas, coffees, and beverage mixes stay good forever and they’re a fairly inexpensive way to make yourself feel extra special, luxurious, and loved.

So, what do you think? Do any of these call to you? Which ones are you going to try? Please speak up in the comments below.