What Do You Actually Need This October? 🍂🎃

September has closed its chapter, and here we are, standing at the threshold of a new month. There’s something about the shift from September to October that feels significant. Maybe it’s the way the air changes, or how the leaves begin their transformation, or simply the awareness that we’re moving deeper into the final quarter of the year.

But before you rush into planning, goal-setting, and doing, I want to invite you to pause with me.

I want you to ask yourself one simple but powerful question: What do I actually need this month?

Not what you think you should need. Not what your productivity planner tells you. Not what everyone else seems to be doing on social media. What do YOU actually need?

The Permission to Need

We live in a culture that celebrates doing over being, achieving over receiving, and pushing forward over pausing to reflect. We’re so conditioned to ask “What should I accomplish?” that we forget to ask “What do I need?”

But here’s the truth: you can’t pour from an empty cup. You can’t show up as your best self if you’re ignoring your most fundamental needs. And those needs aren’t always convenient, simple, or easy to admit.

Sometimes what we need doesn’t look like progress. Sometimes it looks like rest. Sometimes it looks like saying no. Sometimes it looks like finally saying yes to that thing we’ve been afraid of.

What Letting Go Might Look Like

Maybe you need to let go of something this month. Something that’s been weighing you down, taking up mental space, or keeping you stuck in patterns that no longer serve you.

This could be a limiting belief you’ve carried for years. That voice that tells you you’re not ready, not good enough, or not worthy of the things you desire.

It could be a habit that once helped you cope but now holds you back. The perfectionism that paralyzes you. The people-pleasing that leaves you depleted. The scrolling that steals your peace.

Or perhaps it’s a relationship that’s run its course. Not all connections are meant to last forever, and sometimes the most loving thing you can do for yourself is to release what no longer aligns with who you’re becoming.

Letting go isn’t failure. It’s making space for what’s meant for you.

What Holding On Might Look Like

On the other hand, maybe what you need this month is to hold on tighter to something you’ve been loosening your grip on.

Maybe you need to hold onto that dream you’ve been doubting. The one that keeps whispering to you in quiet moments, but that you keep dismissing as unrealistic or impossible. October might be the month to stop questioning it and start honoring it.

Perhaps you need to hold onto your boundaries more firmly. To stop apologizing for having needs, for requiring rest, or for saying no to things that drain you. Your boundaries aren’t walls keeping people out. They’re the foundation that allows you to show up authentically.

Or maybe you need to hold onto hope. In a world that can feel heavy and overwhelming, holding onto hope isn’t naive. It’s revolutionary. It’s a choice to believe that better is possible, that growth is happening, and that you’re exactly where you need to be.

What Permission Might Look Like

And then there’s permission. The thing so many of us need but rarely give ourselves.

Permission to rest without guilt. To have a slow morning. To cancel plans when you’re overwhelmed. To do nothing and call it self-care without feeling like you need to justify it.

Permission to want more. More joy, more abundance, more love, more success. You don’t have to shrink your desires to make others comfortable. You’re allowed to want a big, beautiful, expansive life.

Permission to be content with less. To step off the hamster wheel of always needing more, achieving more, being more. To look at your life right now and say “this is enough, I am enough” without feeling like you’re settling.

Permission to change your mind. To pivot. To try something new. To admit that what you thought you wanted isn’t actually serving you anymore.

My Intention for October

This month, I’m giving myself permission to need without judgment. To honor what’s true for me right now, even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else, even if it doesn’t look like progress in the traditional sense.

I’m allowing myself to check in honestly with where I am, what I’m feeling, and what would truly serve my growth and wellbeing right now. Not next month. Not when things calm down. Right now.

Your Turn

So I’m asking you again, with genuine curiosity and care: What do you need this month?

Sit with that question. Don’t rush to answer it. Let it sink in. Notice what comes up. Notice if you try to push past it or dismiss it as selfish or unrealistic.

You can’t honor a need you won’t acknowledge.

Maybe journal about it. Maybe talk about it with someone you trust. Maybe just whisper it to yourself in a quiet moment.

But name it. Claim it. And then take one small step toward honoring it.

Here’s to an October of radical self-honesty. Here’s to giving yourself what you actually need, not just what you think you should need. Here’s to a month that truly serves you.

You deserve that. 🍂

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I’d love to hear from you. What are you giving yourself permission to need this October? Share in the comments below.