In the Northeast, we are pretty much programmed to anticipate new beginnings in September. We may feel a surge of inspiration and energy that catapults us out of the last vestiges of summer.
Changes in season often reflect in our mood, at least temporarily. A key aspect of managing our moods is recognizing the transience of mood. Everything - including our mood - changes. And while external factors, like a seasonal shift, might impact us briefly, we don’t always have to make a larger negative story out of it. Sometimes our meta-story about our mood is the culprit in worsening it. For example, a client might say “Every winter I get depressed”, and the result of that belief is that she feels anticipatory anxiety and dread as the winter approaches. But a further examination of that statement reveals that most winters (not all) she feels a brief but significant drop in her mood that signals her to then anchor herself in her coping skills, and shift herself out of that low mood. So a reframe of that statement could be “I typically feel a significant mood drop in late November. I am going to try to get ahead of that by being proactive and practicing my repertoire of coping skills to either prevent, or move more quickly out of a depressed mood if it arises.”
Changes in mood are inevitable. But our power lies in our willingness to directly influence the meaning we give to those changes. If you would like support in doing just that, we’d love to help!