Connect with Autumn | The season of visual and inner change
The following blog post is a replicated part of my newsletter I send out monthly to subscribers. I hope you can get a feel for what I create for my subscribers. Moving forwards the content will be held in my resources section that you’ll be able to access if you are subscribed.
"Nature gives to every time and season unique beauty; from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it’s just a succession of changes so soft and comfortable that we hardly notice the progress."
— Charles Dickens
When we look out of the window we can see the transition in nature happening as one season moves into the next. As we move deeper into Autumn I wanted to share with you a bit about transitions and their role in change.
My inspiration came from our little one, Chloe. Her big smile, curiosity, and determination make my heart melt with pride. Watching a little person develop has been such a gift and we feel so privileged to have the opportunity to watch her grow. Chloe turns one this month and over the past year there have been so many transitions and stages of her development. From holding toys, to rolling, to feeding herself and most recently crawling. Watching Chloe learn these new skills and gradually work out how to do something in the way she wants to, has been eye opening and a real reminder for me of how change happens.
Why is connecting to change important?
For those of us who are seeking to cultivate a creative and wholesome life there is the process of making a shift from where we are now, to where we want to be, and during that process a transition will occur. It can be a physical change, from learning a new skill or way of doing something, through to a mental shift of how we feel about something. Starting to get comfy with transitions and change is a great place to begin your own journey towards cultivating the creativity you are seeking. Here are a few ideas for you to ponder and take into account as you begin to think about a change that you may be wanting to make.
Change happens everyday, in small steps
Chloe has been making small adjustments and learnings every day. I can compare where we were at one point in the past year until now and can see how much she has grown and changed, it's astonishing. Becoming more aware that change can come in small transitions can help us feel more empowered when we are wanting to bring something new into our life.
We can also look to nature to see change happening too. When we start to notice we see small changes in our natural landscape at this time of year, the berries grow in hedgerows, the leaves gradually change and drop from the branches, the amount of light we have each day changes ever so slightly and plants gradually retreat. There is a transition happening culminating in a gentle and slow shift overtime. The outcome of the small transitions is an overall change that happens every season.
As a creativity seeker you may have new things you want to experience and do. Overnight things may not change, like most things in nature they take their time. I invite you to be kind to yourself and enjoy the process of the small stages we experience, and learn to see the beauty in the slow changes.
Change comes with our own timeline
Change comes with our own timeframe and how we do it can be different for everyone. Chloe’s transitions in her development have happened with different timings than the other babies her age that we know. We can look to nature as well and especially in autumn we can see that plants make changes in their own timeframe too, it can be down to the type of plant, as well as being linked to their local climate, environment and weather.
When setting out to cultivate and live a creative and wholesome life we need to appreciate that the change we want to make will come with our own timeline, one that we can set and decide how we want to make happen.
We seem to be in such a fast paced world, and have so many places online where we see other people doing things that it can feel a little overwhelming at times, and comparison can really kick in. I like to think about it like a tree in autumn, for many trees the leaves rarely all change colour at the same time, and the process of the leaves changing colour does so over time and not overnight. Be kind to yourself and create your own timeframe of change.
Celebrate the transitions of change
What I love about watching Chloe when she is playing is that she celebrates by clapping her hands and making happy chatty sounds whilst she is doing something new. Even when no one is right by her side and watching she celebrates as she is pleased with what she has done. We all need a reminder to celebrate things we’ve mastered, completed or are on a route towards doing, however small they are, and even if someone isn’t watching.
Celebration is such an important part of the growing process and one that we sometimes forget to focus on when something is completed. We tend to move onto the next thing and not reflect on what we’ve done and what we’ve achieved.
Autumn and harvest bring a reminder to celebrate growth. By having a ‘celebration’ or an appreciation of what we have done can allow us a level of focus on what we have done and can help us move forwards.
When we harvest food such as apples, pears, crops, and vegetables grown we tend to preserve them, store them carefully, turn them into something else to help them see us through the winter season and beyond. We can do the same with the transitions we have made and use these moments of harvest as a reminder of what we have achieved and how we went about doing it. Celebration is a way to claim ownership and remind ourselves of how far we have shifted and transitioned.
I invite you now to think about a change that you may be seeking or in a process of making happen with your creativity. How do the ideas above impact on how you are feeling about this change? Is there anything that you could do, feel or say to yourself that may help your progress?