The past week or so on my daily dog walk, I have become increasingly aware of the changing seasons.
How can I not? The trees are changing their colours, dropping their leaves. The skies are shifting from the blue skies of summer to the greyer skies of autumn. And there is a decided nip in the air.
I love seeing the seasons change & I especially enjoy watching the leaves on the trees changing their hues & the glorious shades of red & gold emerge before the leaves finally flutter to the ground…& then the joy of walking through the crisps leaves, kicking them up with each step or throwing the leaves up like confetti, like my daughter loves to do!
But it got me thinking about change. And how change is one of the few certainties of life. And yet so many of us are reluctant to embrace change.
I started to think about how mindfulness can help us to navigate the inevitability of change.
Firstly, mindfulness helps us to notice our reactions to change. Our thoughts & feelings about change. Instead of being caught up in automatic pilot & having an an unconscious emotional response to it, we can instead step away from these thoughts & emotions & observe them.
We may notice that we can choose to accept change. Acceptance isn’t a giving up or giving into but a conscious & active decision, a giving over to if you like. And here the serenity prayer springs to mind: grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can & the wisdom to know the difference.
Mindfulness also encourages us to stay present, to not get caught up in the what if’s & start crystal ball gazing but instead to stay present & grounded.
We may even choose to befriend & embrace change.
Mindfulness may also enable us to choose to change our perception around change. To be more playful & curious about the impending change, maybe even more adaptable, open-minded & flexible. And part of this stems from the added resilience a mindful practice gives us. I’m quite a lucky person, I quite like change. I quite enjoy the excitement of something new & the opportunities it presents. And I think this is why I love the changing seasons so much. I love what they represent & I love observing the changes in nature.
