Roscrea's Emma Coonan's monthly column - 'Finding your Wellbeing Wings this Autumn'

As September nears its close, I suspect I am not the only one wondering how this colder snap has snuck up on us so quietly. This week is the first week I found myself getting up in darkness, and seeing the cold early morning mist on the bedroom window.

Having gotten used to leaving the house without more than an ‘in case of emergency’ cardigan throughout the sunny summer, the hustle and bustle of looking for coats and hats before leaving the house felt both strange and familiar at the same time. Autumn, it seems, has arrived.

These seasonal sights and sounds reminded me of a song called ‘Urge for Going’ by Joni Mitchell. The opening lines “I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town It hovered in a frozen sky then it gobbled summer down” came to mind as we adapted to our chillier morning routine this week.

The Seasonal Sneak

We often talk about the seasonal shift, however it can sometimes feel more like a seasonal sneak. One of Joni Mitchell’s many great songs, this one for me really captures that seasonal sneak. One minute we are wearing shorts and sunglasses, and the next we are pulling the autumn jumpers out of hibernation.

When it comes to our wellbeing routines, the seasonal sneak can really impact us. For example, it takes longer to leave the house for that early morning or evening run or walk when we have to negotiate an array of possible jumper, rain jacket and hat combos. This, combined with darker mornings and evenings, can have the effect of putting us off doing what may have previously been a lovely start or end to the day.

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If the seasonal sneak has taken some of the good out of your wellbeing routine, it can be a good time to take a pause to notice what you enjoy about the new season. You might stop to enjoy the turn of the leaves, or the smell of early season fires in the evening air. Taking notice of things that we enjoy about autumn can help us to lean into rather than away from these changes.

Finding your Wings for Wellbeing

As Joni’s song continues, my take on these lyrics is a description of the seasonal shift, and all the ways in which the urge for moving forwards is either stalled or stopped. Despite wanting to lean into the new season, we can often find ourselves stuck somewhere between the old and the new.

The part of this song that I always liked best is when Joni sings about the “geese in chevron flight” because “they’ve got the urge for going And they’ve got the wings to go.” The geese cannot be stalled or stopped, as they let their wings carry them to where they need to go. After lots of stalls and stops, this for me is when this song takes flight, and the new season can finally begin.

If you are finding it hard to get going in the face of darker mornings and evenings, and chiller starts this week, doing something to help you find your wings can be an important part of your seasonal wellbeing practice. Whether that means arranging a new route for your autumn walk or treating yourself to a hot tea or coffee with some seasonal spice after your run, these little shifts can carry us into a new season.

Embracing Change

As lovely and unexpected as this year’s sunny Irish summer has been, it is now time for a new chapter. For lots of reasons, some of us can find the autumn season trickier to navigate than spring and summer. Like every new season, there will likely be parts of it we love, and parts we loath.

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The idea of taking pause, and finding our wings through variety, treats, and self-care, is as much about helping us to stay with the season, as well as welcoming it in. If we can stay with it, we can adapt and continue our all-important wellbeing routines.

Finding simple ways that mean something for you to help you to embrace this change can make this new season as enjoyable as the last. As the great Joni Mitchell quite rightly reflects, “I'd like to call back summertime And have her stay for just another month or so...But she's got the urge for going So I guess she'll have to go.”

A final thought

Seasonal shifts can sneak up on us, sometimes interrupting our wellbeing routines. Taking pause to welcome in the season can help us to find our wings, and glide into a new chapter with a softer landing.

Emma Coonan is an Accredited Psychotherapist with IAHIP and ICP, Lectures in Psychotherapy, and is a qualified Adult Education Trainer. After leaving Coláiste Phobal Roscrea, Emma studied English and Media in Maynooth University, before combining her Psychotherapy training with experience in the corporate world. Emma focuses on applying Psychotherapy practices for everyday living, through developing resilience, stress response, and mindfulness practice.