By Olivia Provost-Walker, MA
Seasonal changes can serve as an invitation for us to slow down and reflect, especially as we enter autumn and winter with their colder temperatures. Nature enters into its cycle of rest, leaves change and fall, animals prepare to hibernate, and we say goodbye to the excitement of summer and enter into a phase of recuperation. This transition, like any other, can be challenging. It can bring up painful emotions such as regret associated with loss and grief, or anxiety related to the uncertainty of the future. In addition to our moods, these changes can also impact our energy and behaviours. As we navigate this transitional process, DBT skills can help us by allowing natural change:
- Reconnecting with Values
Values, the ideas/ideals that are of utmost importance to us, can act as our anchors when we experience change. Making time to identify our values if we haven’t, and to intentionally reconnect with them, means that we can access them more readily when faced with unexpected challenges. Looking inwards at our values also means we can engage in values-based actions for the future. This can be done by looking at a list of values and selecting your top 10 or top 5 or generating your own list of guiding principles.
- Radically Accepting the End of Summer
With the arrival of fall, we can find ourselves stuck when we do not accept the reality of the past and present. Emotions like regret and sadness which are perfectly understandable and valid must also be radically accepted in order to look towards the future. Changes are that much more difficult to process when our stance towards to past is one of non-acceptance. Though difficult, radical acceptance is a skill that should be practised over and over, as we mark the end of one season and the beginning of another.
- Avoiding Avoidance
Many associate the fall season with harvest, and we can also apply this symbol to our health and behaviours. Taking the time to build helpful routines, to regularly engage in pleasant activities, and to create plans towards long-term goals, is akin to harvesting crops in preparation for the winter. There may be many understandable urges to avoid doing so, AND acting opposite to those urges is so important for approaching seasonal changes differently! Using skills such as ABC PLEASE to decrease our vulnerabilities now also means reaping the benefits of our hard work in the depth of winter.
- Allowing and Improving
Allowing for change, meaning adapting to rather than fighting change, is no easy task. However, we can take active steps to feel better during this process. We can create meaning, focus on the positives, and redirect our attention to the present moment to get some relief. Dialectical thinking also prepares us to hold and validate the challenges and the possibility of change.
Committing to embracing change in this way also teaches us that we can cope effectively with what life and its seasons throw our way!