As one season ends, and another begins, we can start to feel a change rippling through our City of Trees. The long days of a hot Sacramento summer slowly start to fade away and before we know it, we find ourselves ditching those summer flip flops in exchange for warmer boots, and swapping Cold Brews for Pumpkin Spiced Lattes. This change can be amazing to experience, whether it’s the simple joy of riding your bike through crunching leaves, or an outdoor yoga class fueled by crisp morning air.

This changing of the seasons has come to be revered by a lot of us, and for myself the changing from summer to autumn, is one change that I love to embrace with warm hoodies and pumpkin spiced everything. I feel like there is something symbolic about the idea of embracing change, instead of fearing it. And, a certain zen quality in the way Autumn’s shift in energy can spill over onto our lives in subtle and more meaningful ways. 

One of the most picturesque ways this can be witnessed, is by watching leaves gently fall away from trees. The process is a slow one, and from day to day you might not notice these subtleties. Overtime though, these small changes in colors from yellow, orange to red, add up to a bigger transformation. Ultimately, deepening further as we witness the trees let go of each leaf in preparation for winter and spring. 

If we are open to it, the seasonal changes of Fall can serve as a graceful message from nature. Showing us first hand how great changes take time to unfold, rarely ever happening all at once. It can also encourage us to slow down a little, so that we can look up and enjoy life a little bit deeper and notice the subtle nuances unfold before our eyes. Encouraging, all of us to have more patience with ourselves when we go through difficult times of change, and that letting go of things often leads to something better, if we can just let go of our fear and embrace the present moment. 

Letting go, isn’t always as simple and easy as it seems though. So, why can something as basic as  “Letting go”, be so difficult at times for us to do then? Letting go of a job, old friends, marriages or loved ones, it’s a universal constant that each of us all experience throughout our lives. Sometimes the changes are chosen, and other times the changes are thrusted upon us instead. While some of these changes might be welcomed, others can be feared and often give rise to anxiety or sadness. By holding on tightly to our fears and resisting the inevitable change, we make the changes more difficult. 

Change can become more manageable though, when we embrace it, when we allow ourselves to bend to the winds of change, instead of breaking and resisting their forces. Embracing change doesn’t mean you don’t still fear the change, it means that you roll with them and let those strong emotions be there with you, with hope that in time they will fade in intensity. The fears we may be experiencing are valid, but perhaps even more important, is the personal acceptance of the fears and the willingness to move forward in life despite them.  In this process, maybe we can learn to accept all the seasons in life just a little bit easier.