Autumn and Your Root Purpose

(Preamble)

I am not ashamed to admit that I am beyond organised, maybe even obsessive. Yes, ok I am obsessive and this is my secret to fitting in too many items on my ‘To Do List’. However, some weeks back a blog was created and ear marked for April. It is an enchanting piece on life purpose and how we ebb and flow naturally with the seasons. This season, the season of Corona, this blog piece is especially poignant and no less relevant. Though written weeks ago before COVID-19 crashed into our world, I find the meaning, the feelings it invokes and lessons it bestows hold true and are no less impactful, perhaps even more so.

 I debated for a while how to re-adapt this piece so as not to trivialise what the world was facing right now. In the end I decided to leave it in its’ original form. When you read this blog you will hear two voices. The voice of its’ original intent and then the voice of a deeper and wiser author.

 Here it is in it’s original glory. I hope you enjoy this moment of clarity.

Autumn is a particularly poignant season this year - we are leaving behind the weather of a dramatic Australian summer (think: searing temperatures and dry earth followed by persistent rain and humidity) to embark upon three months of crisp, cool days and nights. Autumn signals the beginning of shorter days, longer nights. The darkness starts to fall earlier, last longer. It offers stark relief from the heat…activities are doable, sleep is possible. It’s the quiet before the silence of winter.

 In many ways, autumn is the perfect season - the season to still enjoy the great outdoors, while also bunkering down without guilt. Watching plants and trees lose their foliage as autumn sets in can, in equal parts, be both romantic and somewhat unsettling. We are so blessed with sunshine in Australia, and the suggestion of vitality that heat brings, that there can be something a little triggering about this time of year. However, it is in these seasonal changes: the foliage that once shaded us and rippled in the wind above us – now returning to earth - that can be deeply grounding for us.

So at the turn of the equinox, we don’t need to mourn the end of summer (well, not for too long anyway). Instead we can celebrate the beginning of a season that metaphorically (and literally) sends us inward. Autumn is a time for renewal, rediscovery, redefining (or simply, defining) our root purpose. It might prompt a period of self-questioning: What do I care about? What am I passionate about? What am I good at? Ultimately, for so many of us, we simply want to arrive at a place where, what we are actually asking is - how can I spend my days doing something that I enjoy and that feels important to me?

So when that semi-existential crisis moment hits and you find yourself making like Zoolander (‘WHO AM I?’), it might be time to reverse up a little and ask smaller, but equally important, questions that assist you arriving in a place that is achievable, and let’s be frank, far more enjoyable.

 First, ask yourself this - what brings value to my life?

This could be as simple as allowing yourself 30 minutes one Sunday afternoon, writing down those things that bring true (not material) value to your life. It could be something as simple as deciding you will finish that book you really started to enjoy, but never finished and is now collecting dust. Is that book teaching you something that you don’t necessarily get from work, or from your friendships? Where does the value of this lie for you - is it in the book itself, is it getting that quiet alone time, or is it simply, the gratification of finishing something that you started? This will, in itself, help you define where your value set lies. Defining our value set is like having a really strong bucket list… just with a little more emotional depth.

 Next, ask yourself - what am I grateful for?

Again, take that pen and paper and jot down what you are grateful for. To feel grateful does not mean to live under some guise that everything in our lives is fine and dandy.

Rather, it is honing in on and giving our attention and focus to the things we are truly thankful for. The first thing that may come to mind is a sense of gratefulness for a loving and supportive family, or a friend or partner who you get to experience the journey of life with. Put these on the list. Now we challenge you to go a little deeper - think harder on the simpler, more ordinary things we might well take for granted. Did someone let you out of your car park this morning despite the morning rush? Did a kind stranger pick something up from the floor for you that you dropped in the supermarket aisle? Did you catch the scent of eucalyptus blowing off trees on your morning walk? Changing your mindset to notice these things - to be grateful for these things - has a strong link to both perceived and actual happiness, and in turn, work to elevate our emotional and mental well-being.

 Now, it is time to set your intentions.

This is where you can be quite specific. What do you want to see happen for yourself in autumn itself, and for the remainder of 2020? Set actionable points and goals. As you start to take more note of your root purpose, now is the time to set new intentions. While so many of us think that the turn of a new year is when we should set intentions (heavily veiled as resolutions), we are often so entrenched in the going-ons of the previous year that defining and sticking to resolutions can often feel hard and end up being quite transient.

 When spring finally rolls around, just like the trees and plants flowering all around us, we will be ready to breathe new life. This autumn…let the pretenses, the gripes, the pre-conceptions fall away. Do away with things that don’t serve you any more, or at least look at ways to reframe these things and work them back into your life in ways that have less significant impact. Like plants, use the autumnal months to let your energy rejuvenate and work to find your root purpose.