Pumpkins, Burning Leaves, and Apple Picking, oh my!

I fully recognize that my next statement may be quite polarizing and controversial.

Source: http://www.naturepicoftheday.com/archive/2008-11-05

I LOVE FALL; especially because it means the end of summer!!!!

Okay, go ahead, call me names, I can take it and I won't back down. For me, it's quite the toss-up of what I like better, fall or spring. The thing is I'm pretty sure I like winter a smidge more than summer too. (feel like I should have whispered that last sentence)

Anyway, beginning yesterday there was that particular nip in the air that heralds the coming of fall. Don't get me wrong, I love sand between my toes and diving into an ocean wave, but I hate mosquitoes, sweating, moving from air-conditioned box to air-conditioned box, feeling lazy because the heat has sucked the energy out of me, and not being able to run outdoors. (Some people still run outside in the dead of summer, God bless the crazy fools!)

Today I went to Starbuck's and got my first pumpkin spice latte of the season. I sipped all that yummy goodness while taking a stroll in my neighborhood park under blue skies and crisp sunshine. I had long sleeves on, jeans, and sandals. True and utter bliss. I took in the sounds of the kids playing, checked out what might be ripe in the community vegetable garden, felt the slight breeze on my skin; everything felt more colorful, more rich, even my coffee tasted better! Now that I'm thinking of it though, maybe this is also due to the fact that I've just started a "Mindfulness and Psychotherapy" course. In my experience as a therapist, I've learned to doubt that events are just coincidence. Most often, when something feels different within, especially if it seems out-of-the-blue, something else coincides with it, and that other thing ends up being the source of the change, whether positive or negative. The following is a scenario that happens more often than not during a session:



Me: So when was the last time you remember not being down?
Client: I'm not sure, I think maybe last spring.
Me: Okay, can you tell me what things were like back then?
Client: Well, things were kind of normal actually. It just seemed to come over me gradually.
Me: Were there events, things that happened around then?
Client: No, I was just working like normal, hanging out with friends.
Me: Nothing might have happened? Or are there any anniversaries of things that may have happened in the past?
Client: Well, my best friend had a baby.

And, this is where we might have explored further and discovered that the client is going through something of a 30-year old crisis which was triggered by feeling like her friend was outpacing her in this game called life. Alternatively, she could have indicated that someone significant in her life had died in the early spring years and years before but for some reason, she was being affected by the death now. (By the way, this is totally and completely fictional, however, not out of the realm of possibility.)

Anyway, that was probably a way too long-winded way of saying that the disparate events of our lives and our feelings and personal experiences are often far more inter-connected than we might expect. Just yesterday, I had done a twenty-minute breath meditation in which I was attempting to stay as much in the present as possible. Every time my thoughts would run willy-nilly in one direction or another, I'd recognize it and gently but firmly command my focus back onto my breath. Noting the rise of my abdomen on the inhale and the lowering on the exhale. Feeling the coolness of the air at the tip of my nose on the inhale and the slightly warmer, slightly moister air on the exhale. Over and over again, corralling and marshaling my scattered thoughts in order to really experience the moment. It was at times frustrating but ultimately refreshing. Perhaps it was that meditation practice that opened my perception up to such a rich and colorful afternoon stroll?

As the mindfulness and psychotherapy course continues and goes into greater depth, I'll report back to you guys with what might be helpful.

                                                             One last time, I love fall! ;)

Not quite as pretty as the above pic, and this was in the middle of a tough, sweaty hike, yikes