Autumn. It’s 5:30 pm and lanterns lightening up the twilight. Trees are visible through the glow from the lamps below. It is raining. It starts pouring. 5:35 pm. Raindrops are visible on some windows. Silhouettes of strangers on their bikes vanishing around corners. People are heading home to escape the cold and the rain. Autumn.
This time of the year is my favorite. Cozying up in the apartment. Enjoying a cup of tea, with a good series or good music blasting out the speaker, or both. A lot of time for yourself. A lot of time to think; think about whatever is going on at this particular moment in life. Some people call it mindfulness, some people call it weird, I call it essential for happiness.
I often encounter conversations with people who are scared of that. Scared of being alone. Providing deep thoughts in this solitude, an opportunity to circle around. I get it. It can be scary. Scary to face problems and issues. However, these moments are purely assigned to reflect on yourself and everything that is happening around you. Solitude should not feel empty, nor scary, it should help you to get a better understanding of exactly yourself and the things making up your world.
It might sound and feel weird for you now. You might even feel uncomfortable to read further because you think this is just spiritual bull*. This is probably the simplest form to get to another level of happiness in life. This kind of happiness you find in yourself.
If you are open-minded enough to assimilate these words and apply them to yourself, look at the following advice…
Allow yourself time alone.
What do I mean with that? Try to avoid background noises on a 24/7 – basis; playing music every second possible, listen to a podcast, watch a series or anything else that creates something louder than your actual thoughts. In doing so, you will allow your thoughts to be free.
Give your thoughts the opportunity to cycle around.
Let the thoughts develop. It might be helpful to write them down. For this, journaling can be a nice method for you, to question your thoughts without feeling ‘weird’ or ‘wanna-be spiritual’. – “What do you feel right now? / Why do you feel the way you feel?” (Inspiration on how to get started with journaling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STRXoISJuDg)
Face your thoughts.
As we face issues in life, negative thoughts will eventually come off, and it might be fucked up at this point in life. Life will always be this, a challenge, and an emotional rollercoaster, with all its ups and downs. If you won’t face these thoughts now, they will come back at some other point anyway. – “Why did you take a particular action? / Why do you have these positive or negative feelings? / Is there something or someone in your past that might have an influence on these present thoughts?”
Take control.
Do not be scared. You know these are just your thoughts, you are in control of them, and whenever there is a moment of feeling uncomfortable or overwhelmed you can always divert yourself from them.
Stop making excuses.
As always in life try to start easy. Take at least these five minutes every day that you would normally spend with things that would withhold your thoughts. Take these five minutes to breathe, to introspect and take back the control of your mind and your thoughts.
Autumn. The time of the year that creates the atmosphere and vibes to get closer to yourself. Now it is up to you to use these vibes and generate more self- awareness, Autumn.
Author: Antonia Benecke
Editor: Kat Nivera