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September 2024

September (Mean Fomhair/Middle Harvest)

Deceleration, Maturation, Abundance. Autumn walks, picking blackberries, wild energy, colour change, appreciation of what you’ve achieved, presence and grounding.

Grounding, and regulating the nervous system.

To slow down to a workable, effective speed, in our body and mind, we have to be grounded. Nature is a great way to return to the moment and ground ourselves. When we feel overwhelmed by work, or you have just come out of a crisis situation, a useful question to ask is

“what is the next thing I can do to ground, regulate and make myself feel safe?”

Get outside of the office, the station, the car, the house. Examples of grounding include; spending time in good company, who do you feel most yourself with? Feel your feet on the ground, feel each step you take when climbing stairs or walking on duty. Also spending time in nature is a biological need, spend time in green areas, and around water. Getting the sense of grounding through the feet is enhanced when done without shoes, allowing the human body to actually connect with the ground. This practice can regulate your nervous system after being in a heightened state. Modern work practices and demands along with the fast pace of modern living, usually leave the nervous system in a chronically heightened state, this can lead to a weakened immune system and potential for ill-health. Grounding after work, can aid sleep, lessen the chance of ill health, keep tempers from flaring and help us be more present at home with loved ones.

Autumn is many people’s favourite time of year. Kids head back to school. September is a time of nostalgia. What are your fond memories of September? walks in parks, apples, blackberries ripening? How can you relive the old, or introduce new grounding autumn activities/rituals?

In September; Have room for solitude, stillness and turning inward, as we mature into the darker season.

Overthinking and our “unhelpful thoughts”. 

  1. Ask; is this thought actually helpful?
  • It doesn’t matter if the thought is true, ask is it helpful to you?
  1. Bring good thoughts and feelings into your day and sleep.
  • What thoughts and mood come to you when you wake? This affects your day.
  • What thoughts do you bring into your sleep? This affects your sleep.
  1. Bring an awareness to your thoughts, thoughts will grow a healthy or unhealthy habitat in your biology.
  2. For one day choose to not complain about that problem you love to overthink.

Change the perspective to a helpful and healthy one.

Rather than going in a loop criticizing others or ourselves, perhaps find an understanding of each situation, see the good in people, and voice that to them. How you perceive others and situations, the thoughts that swirl around in our minds affect our own health, thoughts help or hinder factors like sleep quality, fatigue levels, and the quality of your relationships.

Remember, where your attention goes, your life grows.

  1. If we want more problem, then focus on the problem. Inner talk and thinking about your problem/s all the time is a symptom of depression. It is called rumination; when you find yourself excessively thinking about your negative thoughts, to constantly rerun how others are wrong/unfair, blaming, and as a consequence we cause suffering in ourselves. Even just thinking too much, of any type of thoughts, is unhelpful.

“we have to stop thinking to find out what life is about” Alan Watts

  1. If you want more of the solution, then focus on the breadcrumbs of what is the solution. E.g. start by seeing the possible good in a situation, in what you’re doing, and in others, and let others know the good that you genuinely see in them. Angrily criticizing ourselves or others never results in sustainable positive change.

Grounding tip. To stop thinking.

Establish a walking route and throughout the seasons, notice the change in the hedgerows, colours, sights, scents and sounds.

When was the last time you picked blackberries off the hedges?

September is a luminal time, a time between the last rays of sunshine of summer and the incoming cold of winter. The equinox lands on September 22nd in 2024. Ask how can we bring more balance of work, rest and play, to our lives. Sometimes we have too much work not enough rest or play, other times too much rest and not enough work or play. It can be a great time to set new goals, reflect on our values, what’s important to us in how we choose to live? we can choose to move toward the end of the year with renewed energy. September is like a new year, as the academic year begins. What new skills, studies, perspectives or new routines come to mind?

It is always beneficial to observe what happens naturally around us at any time of year.

What does nature do in September? Animal’s begin to collect their reserves in preparation for the darker months. For thousands of years, humans harvested, collected and celebrated what they sown.

  • Reflect on what we’ve sown earlier in the year. As we continue to move and grow, can we also appreciate and see what we’ve sown and how it has grown. Be grateful to your past self for having the courage to start something. To renew our energy, it is important to celebrate the maturing of projects we started earlier in the year, and recognise/harvest their results.

September marks World Suicide Prevention Day,

Aware presented an informative webinar this month on Suicide awareness. This webinar can be viewed on the Aware website – Talking About Suicide - Aware

September webinar by Dr Eoin Galavan, Senior Clinical and Counselling Psychologist, and Barbara Brennan, who shared her lived experience story. This webinar is moderated by Dr Susan Brannick, Clinical Director at Aware.