Managing Anxiety in Autumn
Let’s face it, there’s always something that will upset the equilibrium and knock your carefully nurtured peace of mind, whether that’s an inadvertent comment that caught you unawares, or the puncture in your car tyre or the bulb that blew and fused the house, never mind anything that actually might be catastrophic.
Autumn has so much to offer if you ACT (remember that, Actions Cure Things) and get out of the house, grab a decent breath of fresh air and do something, whether that’s go for a walk or go for a drive, or ride your bike. Walking is great for changing scene and the air tastes so good right now. Cool and fresh for the most part. Likewise for riding a bike. The picture accompanying this post just leapt out at me when travelling to London the other day. I had to stop on the way home and take a picture. The gold standing out against a backdrop of green is just jaw dropping.
Motorways take on a spectacular frame at this time of year, its fascinating to watch the colours as they change. Beech is often the first tree to leaf up and as a result, the first to start shedding it’s leaves too. Ash and sycamore so much later, which means our world is in constant change as greens become brown and then yellow, before they fall completely leaving our trees a skeleton.
It is whilst noticing these changes that we begin to remember those things that seemed so important a short while ago, have faded to their rightful place, as we marvel at the world we live in.
Our countryside is a huge and marvellous place full of wonders that are right on our doorstep, whether we live in the countryside or in the heart of town. There is always a green spot not far away, it might be on one of these wanders that we find somewhere that we had never noticed before.
The autumn kaleidoscope of falling leaves also demonstrates an important lesson we can learn when we take to look around us and think about what it might all mean. Like trees, what can we shed that we don’t need? What kind of baggage are we carrying around with us that is not helping? Whilst that might be physical such as the clutter we keep at home, in whatever form that might take, or for those us that are anxious from time to time, it might be the unhelpful thoughts that we focus on and allow to grow until their weight bears down on us. Sometimes just recognising them is enough to lighten the load.
And then, just like the trees, we let them go…
Celebrate!
