5 Ways Fall is Good for the Soul
The days are getting shorter and it is a bit cooler in the mornings. You may feel like Fall is in the air already. Regardless of if this time of year is your favorite or not, Fall has a lot of helpful life lessons to teach us, which couldn’t come at a better time, when many of us are feeling the stress of online schooling and uncertain futures. Turning to nature and contemplating its cycles provides us with many helpful and relevant applications to our own lives. So saddle up! This blog is going to be light-hearted and focus on the different ways that Fall is good for the soul.
How Fall Helps Remind Us of What’s Important:
- Teaching us Our True Colors are Beautiful
- Letting us Learn to Let Go
- Finding a Time to Harvest
- Reminding us Everything Changes
- Learning Lying Dormant (Resting) is a Necessary Part of Life
Your True Colors Are Beautiful
The changing of the autumn leaves not only calls us to appreciate the beauty of everything around us, but also the beauty in ourselves. Trees don’t worry about if the colors of their leaves are as vibrant or of similar hue or gradient to the ones next to them. They simply allow their colors to express and change as they will. Similarly, when people are in their “flow” and feel completely present, they feel safe enough to be their authentic selves and let their true colors show. This is beautiful. Individuality and difference are nothing to be ashamed of, and the fall leaves invite us to embrace diversity.
Learning to Let Go
Probably one of the most pronounced aspects of Fall is how trees let go of their leaves to prepare for some needed rest (dormancy) during the winter. Trees are not clinging to their leaves as if they are afraid of losing them. Nor are they are not mourning for the ones that have fallen. There is a natural rhythm and intuition associated with letting go and shedding what is no longer suiting you. Fall shows us that it’s ok to let things go, rest, and prepare for better things to come. You may recognize a deep feeling in your gut that something doesn’t feel quite right to you, a general unease. This may be in indication that it is time to let something go. It could be anything: a job, a friend, a significant relationship, or no longer putting energy into things that don’t fulfill you.
Letting go can be a powerful way of honoring yourself. A simple meditation to try based on this; Visualize letting go of something just as trees let go of their leaves—letting it just float on the breeze and no longer carrying the weight or responsibility for that particular thing that doesn’t resonate anymore. Then allowing yourself to feel the relief of its absence in your life.
Side note: when leaves fall, they are recycled back into the Earth and are used for/become different things! In this way, if you let go of something, like clothes you never wear or household items that are just sitting around, they can be donated, given away or recycled and your letting go process can really benefit someone else.
Finding a Time to Harvest
Branching away from trees for a moment (see what I did there?). Anyway … The season of Fall is a time to harvest what was planted or sewn in the Spring and cultivated through the Summer. Though it may feel like ‘what the heck could I have sewn this past Spring with all the chaos that has ensued?’ Fall harvest is a good metaphor for recognizing that oftentimes what we get out of life is directly related to what we put in. If we sew kindness, peace, abundance, and self-care, we are more likely to get those things reflected back to us. The idea of a harvest also reminds us that it is totally ok to celebrate our accomplishments! All too often people feel as if it is being narcissistic to give themselves a pat on the back or to desire recognition for what they have done. Sharing is part of human nature, and true friends will find joy in celebrating your accomplishments with you.
Everything Changes
Life is full of cycles. Endings and beginnings. The natural cycles of the Earth’s closeness to the sun helps to determine the seasons, so nothing is constant. This helps to remind us that we should enjoy our moments of happiness, no matter how small, but also to honor our moments of pain because those too will eventually lessen in intensity and ultimately pass for us to find some joy again. Fall helps us learn to embrace the fluidity of life and appreciate ALL of its moments.
What’s Dormant and Bare Isn’t Always Dead!
The stage of dormancy begins in fall with the losing of leaves, but dormant doesn’t mean dead. Things are slowing down, and growth may be postponed, but that’s far from death. This teaches us that sometimes rest is needed for rebirth and growth, maybe even growth in a different direction. It’s important to remember to take time and rest for yourself. Our culture in the United States often rewards us for exhausting ourselves… we “should” always be busy—but that isn’t good for our health; physically, mentally, or emotionally.
Take it from the trees, shedding our leaves and resting is a-okay!
Ongoing Support
Though this blog was meant to be uplifting, we are in no way trying to diminish how hard and chaotic this year has been individually & collectively for everyone. Seeking out extra support is courageous and an act of self-care. If you are finding yourself struggling in life as the seasons are changing, consider making an appointment with a therapist today to help make a mental health care plan for the colder months ahead—seasonal blues are a real thing and we have had an exceptionally sunny summer. Maintain that sunny momentum on into the holiday season. If you feel like seasonal changes toward the colder and darker months tend to bring you down, here are some tips on how to handle that.
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Blog Credit: Natalie Drozda, LPC, PhD
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