The mid-November feeling: that strange energetic shift

Hey You,

(Yes, You … the one squinting at the calendar wondering why you feel like you’re losing a race you never even entered …)

There’s this mid-November feeling I can’t quite name, but it throws everything slightly off-axis. The days aren’t wildly different. Your responsibilities didn’t magically triple overnight. You’re still doing the same dishes, wearing the same leggings, living the same life.

And yet … there’s this hum under your skin. This subtle sense that everything is … more.

And not in a poetic, abundant way.

We’re told it’s the “busy time of year,” but honestly? Some years I’ve had more social events in July. If it’s not the logistics. It must be the psychology. It’s like a the collective acceleration – like we hit an overtaking lane and, without thinking, we all press the pedal. Even the people who have nowhere to be.

Maybe it’s unconscious. Maybe it’s seasonal. Maybe our brains are wired to sense the year closing in, the way animals sense storms.

Or maybe we’ve all been trained to treat November like the pre-finale montage of our lives – rush, sparkle, hustle, attend, perform – and heaven forbid we arrive in December without a highlight reel.

There’s something about that mid-November feeling that makes us speed up without thinking.

I don’t have the answer. I’m just here to bitch and moan (thanks for indulging me). Mid-November feels like an emotional daylight savings shift. Everything’s slightly misaligned, and I can’t quite tell if the world sped up … or if I did.

So I’m writing this to remind you – and myself – that even in this weird, restless almost-ending, it’s okay to move slow. It’s okay not to match the pace of people flooring it in the overtaking lane. (In the case of actual driving, that is preferred – there is nothing more annoying.)

It’s okay to opt out of the invisible race entirely.

Love,
Em x