By Gill Jardine, Counsellor/Psychotherapist

It’s autumn again, that season that brings with it colour, warmth, hotpots, Halloween, Bonfire Night, challenges to heating systems, coats, scarves and probably gloves, not to mention raincoats and umbrellas blowing inside out! Is this what autumn suggests to you? A generally positive period of time with plenty to look forward to? 

Autumn can also mean a negative feeling bringing along darker nights, colder days and nights, a threat of winter, less opportunity to go out, less sunshine, perhaps less contact with others – who wants to venture out in the dark and the cold? These are both descriptions of what we experience in autumn but are clearly very different. One description sounds rather nice, something we might welcome whilst the other sounds somewhat daunting. Are they both true descriptions of autumn? If they are, why or how are they different? 

I suggest that it is a matter of perception. Each of us has our own individual perception of an experience. In other words autumn, or the experience of autumn, can be different for each of us. Of course, we can take that further in that each individual’s experience can change from day to day.

Why am I considering all this? I’m always thinking about how we can take care of ourselves, both physically and mentally. There don’t seem to be enormous risks physically from autumn, unlike sunburn in the summer and broken bones in the winter from slipping on the ice. However, autumn has a bad image when it comes to mental health. The darker mornings and evenings are upon us making getting up in the mornings less tempting and we are now watching the sun disappear in the afternoon so apparently shortening our days.

What does all this mean for our mental health? It means we have less time available to us to spend outside in the sunlight and/or the natural light of the day. This in turn means more time either out in the dark or in unnatural light. This can mean less time socialising, people are more inclined to stay at home in the warm when the weather is poor. We probably feel colder without the natural warmth that summer brings with it. We may feel less relaxed. In the summer months we tend to feel warmer and therefore more comfortable, we also may mix more with others.

We don’t have to dash into our homes so we probably have more time for a catch up, to share our life events and experiences with others. In the summer we may be looking forward to forthcoming holidays which often mean lots more natural light, sunshine and warmth, however, autumn brings a promise of weather worsening and winter being on the horizon.

As we can see, there are a lot of negatives at this time of year in terms of how we are feeling and these are negatives largely outside of our control. Even the flowers have gone over and the leaves are falling off the trees!

Are we just going to be victims of autumn and its challenging ways or, can we face up to it and look for ways to master it allowing us to arrive in December ready and prepared for winter and all that it might bring? I think we need to make some plans, don’t you?

I have always thought that the first step towards managing our mental health is being aware. If we acknowledge that awareness, then we can use it to plan how we want it all to be. Many animals avoid all these seasonal difficulties by hibernation. What a great plan that is! However, we are not designed to sleep through it all so perhaps that’s not the best plan…

Here are a few better ideas to work into your autumn plans that might help keep us cosy and feeling well: 

• warm, cosy clothing
• waterproof clothing
• wellies (mine are bright yellow!)
• arrangements to look forward to
• good films to watch
• good books to read
• plans for halloween
• plans for bonfire night
• interesting recipes for seasonal food like pumpkin pie
• dietary supplements you may feel you need
• check your duvet, is it thick enough to be cosy
  There you go, now you’re on your way to being ready not just to tolerate autumn, but to embrace it.

You could start by jumping into that pile of crunchy leaves waiting for you in the park!

I hope my thoughts on autumn help. Good luck and take care to keep mentally and physically well this season.