September is such interesting month for many reasons. For many of us it marks the return of kids to school. Many will be starting new schools, university, college, looking for jobs or just starting school or nursery.( Even without kids, August is often the time for holidays and everything seems to grind to halt!). Evening classes and courses often kick off in September, so if you want to learn something new or start a class, this is the time to do it.
September really is a month of new beginnings, much more so, I find, that January, which is why I use September to take stock and set plans for the year.
It can be so easy to allow September to rush ahead and push you towards the “ C” word (that’s Christmas in case you wondered). “What are you doing at half term – you have to plan you know! You start getting asked about the works Christmas party…whose turn is it to do Christmas this year… and I have even heard people talking about booking next year’s holiday (I still have sand in my car and intend to leave there as a good reminder of this years holiday!!!)
Ahhh! World slow down. I am feeling giddy.
In the natural world, September is about taking stock and harvesting. What would happen if you took time NOW, to take stock , look at what you enjoyed this last year, harvest the successes and planned what you want from this year? This needn’t be a big job. Just take yourself off for a ½ hour coffee somewhere, café, park with a flask and perhaps take a note book. Ask yourself a couple of gentle questions and allow your mind and pen to ponder:
– Looking at this past year, what am I really pleased with, what worked well.
What am I surprised about? What did I expect to happen? What has been slower to work out than I expected? What has flourished and been easy?
– Knowing that this is a time of new beginnings, what would I like to do differently in the coming year? What have I been putting off? What do I keep saying I will start, but never get round to?
– Is there one tiny weeny thing I could do this week, to move towards something I really want? (by tiny weeny, I mean really small, so small you are hardly noticing yourself doing it…eg a 5 minute Google of local jewellery making workshops, just seeing which swimming costume you might decide to buy, writing 3 sentences of a blog, finding where you left your trainers, digging out your school certificates or old CV….. Just choose one tiny thing. Only one. (pssst..If you do one tiny thing, you can choose another one)
Just for now be gentle with yourself – finding your way back to a work and school routine can all lead to a degree of frazzlement (that’s a new but rather nice word).
Just for now, practice taking stock in this month of Harvest, before the year rolls ahead and we all wonder where the Autumn went , why on earth we are buying Christmas cards again and lamenting on how quickly the years seem to be passing by. Jen
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September felt like a great new beginning for me too. And I agree with Jen that September feels like much more of a lovely fresh start than January. January tends to come with some relief: a new year with summer on its way and a halt to the excesses of the festive season. Those bursting zips!
Also in September there’s a hope that some summer sun has provided a healthy glow and a positive outlook. I guess for me it’s also about the new start of the academic year and, picking up on Jen’s point about jewellery workshops, there’s an eagerness to better myself and learn. This needn’t be a ‘proper’ course but making an effort to explore myself, and trying something new. I rejoined my local swimming club and felt like a nervous child as I entered the pool, but crikey I felt pleased with myself afterwards!!