Positivity: Autumn

The beauty of nature is particularly poignant in autumn.

Living in the Northeastern US, I get to see a dramatic changing of the season. The leaves turn the most amazing shades of gold and red and orange, and the foliage is impressive during this time of the year.

Unfortunately, for many, this marks the beginning of a less pleasant season. Fall leads to winter, and winter for a lot of us does not lend itself to feeling happy. The cold, the grey and white and other drab colors of the approaching season, plus often less sunlight, can be unpleasant for some of us.

Rather than dwell on what is coming, I choose instead this year to focus on what we have now. Amazing colors, generally reasonable and pleasant weather, that smell in the air that speaks of warm hearths and opportunities to cuddle with loved ones.

This is a time of renewal. Yes, I can see it sometimes as death and decay, but rather than look at this as a negative, let’s focus instead on the positive. Summer’s sometimes oppressive heat and humidity are largely done, the colors of the trees as they turn can be breathtaking, and the world gets to reset and restart.

Life is like this for every living creature. We go through times of change, we go through sometimes drastic alterations in our lives. It is not that anyone in particular is a victim of anything at all, it is that we strive so hard for good things in our lives that often when bad things or less-than-positive things happen, they get magnified. We get so close to them, we get stuck on them even.

Human life goes through change as well. We resist change because there is a comfort in the familiar. What we have and know brings us peace and contentment. Trouble is, life will change. It’s inevitable. So rather than resist and rail against it, we should work more to accept it, and to see the good that can come of it.

It is easy to disbelieve that we are in control of our own feelings. Things happen, and those things effect how we feel. But we have the power to choose if we are going to let feelings pass through us, or linger. The changing of the seasons of nature work the same way. They approach, they begin, they are in process, they end. New season approaches, begins, processes, ends. Yes, they overlap.

Because they overlap, we should focus less on what is coming and more on what is here. This is why living in the here and now can be so rewarding. When we stop and take stock of what we are experiencing now, rather than focusing on what is to come or what has passed, we might find a brighter, more colorful and more positive world to live in.

Fall is not necessarily an ending. It’s a new beginning. This can be an amazing tool for positivity.

Finding positivity is not hard, it just requires action. Knowing that you can focus on things being renewed instead of ending, you can alter how things like changing seasons make you feel. When we look at the beauty that autumn has to offer, we can take the feelings that creates and use them to empower ourselves. When we feel empowered, we often spread that feeling to others around us, and as such can build more positive feelings. We can use the positive feelings this generates to dissolve negative feelings. When we take away negative feelings, we open up space to let in positive feelings, and that is something we can be grateful for. Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. Positive attitude begets positive energy, and that is always a good thing.

This is the ninetieth entry of my Positivity series.  It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone.  Feel free to share, re-blog and spread the positivity.