Autumn is finally here: I make no secret of my love for this time of year. In my opinion, it offers so many good opportunities to focus on the simple pleasures in life and to take a step back from our increasingly rowdy consumer and media culture. Far too often, it seems to me that this beautiful season is associated with less pleasant things such as colds, fatigue and negative moods. Time to do something about it. So here are a few ideas for enjoying this beautiful season.
Autumn idea 1: Get some fresh air
Autumn, with its wonderful light, pleasant air and slowly changing leaves, is in my opinion the perfect opportunity to spend more time in the fresh air, preferably still in nature (whereby I am one of those people who also like to be outside in wind and rain). Unfortunately, we modern people spend most of our lives in artificial and closed rooms. Without natural light and fresh air, we live in complete alienation from nature. We stare at screens all day and surround ourselves with artificial, loud consumer and media worlds, whether online or in real life. This is a state of affairs that damages our psyche and our bodies in the long run.
We humans, like all creatures on our planet, are actually designed for a life in the wild. For example, we need strong natural light to control our sleep-wake cycles and our moods. The sight of green, natural surroundings and the open sky has a calming and stress-relieving effect. Low-pollutant natural air strengthens our respiratory system and even the vapours from trees in forest areas seem to have positive health effects. And last but not least, we humans are designed for regular and persistent daily exercise. Our distant ancestors walked half a marathon or more every day to get food. Our modern laziness is absolutely toxic to our physical and mental well-being.
So make the most of the autumn and get out the door! Autumn is also a good opportunity to start running. But even regular walks will help your body and contribute to increasing your mental well-being. And even in the city, there are opportunities to enjoy nature, for example in the nearest park in your neighbourhood. Or get on your bike to go to work. I myself build half an hour of exercise into my day every morning and afternoon. And if the weather isn’t so good, remember the saying: there’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing.
Autumn idea 2: Come to rest
In my opinion, autumn is the perfect season to find peace and distance ourselves from our modern everyday life. The decreasing light and nature coming to rest should remind us, in my opinion, that our lives are also finite and limited and that we should concentrate on the really important things in our lives before it is too late. It is not without reason that late autumn is also the traditional time for remembering the deceased. For me, this is an important counterpoint in view of our current times, which seem to me to be characterised by an ever louder blaring, hollow consumerism, hysterical and meaningless social media and news chatter, and an increasingly aggressive populism.
So let’s use the time of waning light to give more space to calmness, thoughtfulness, the quiet nuances within us and perhaps also together with other people. Be it – as suggested above – on an autumn walk or with a good book on the sofa or cooking together with your partner and/or friends. Also, switch off the social media bubble and avoid the daily flood of alleged ‘news’. Hardly anything stresses us out as much and has such a damaging effect on our psyche and the social climate as social media and the aggressive flood of news. So put your smartphone away, log out and switch off the television.
Instead, focus on real life again, on the real world that surrounds you, your real friends and family. The modern (social) media world is designed to turn us into passive consumers and to instill illusions about what we supposedly buy and how we supposedly have to be in order to be happy. In my opinion, the key to our satisfaction lies solely within ourselves. We need to ask ourselves what we really want and where we find our sense of purpose in life. To find this out, however, we need peace, time and the courage to listen to ourselves sincerely. For me, autumn is the perfect opportunity to do this.
Autumn idea 3: Use the power of writing
I believe in the power of writing – especially in difficult situations in life. In my opinion, writing – whether by hand or typed – is one of the most effective methods of exploring your own thoughts and feelings, understanding them for yourself and evaluating them. For me, writing fits perfectly into the reflective time of autumn. Writing something down forces us to organise the thoughts that are often swirling around in our heads and to link them to our values and ideas. For this reason, for example, keeping a diary is a great help for many people when they are confronted with difficult life situations or with the question of their own desires and goals.
Therefore, I would like to tie the idea of trying writing directly to the previous idea. Use the quiet to write and use writing to find peace. In my experience, it is important not to put yourself under pressure. It is not about creating great works or putting particularly polished, heavyweight thoughts on paper. Realise that you are writing for yourself and that writing is a conversation with yourself. And as in any good conversation, you should be interested, friendly and sympathetic to your conversation partner. So let your thoughts run free and don’t censor yourself, but listen to what is important to you.
I hope you like my ideas for the autumn and maybe you will try one or two of them. In any case, I hope you enjoy it and have a great autumn!
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