With Autumn Comes Change

I went up to Westonbirt Arboretum yesterday.  I love going up there and walking around all those beautiful trees and shrubs.  It always makes me laugh, seeing some people with all their hiking gear on like they are off on an expedition to the Outer Hebrides or somewhere equally remote, when in reality you're only 20mins away from the car park!  And then there's me, in my flip-flops!  I love my flip-flops and I really do where them everywhere!
Seeing all the trees starting to change into those wonderful Autumnal colours, those bright oranges, golds and reds. It's such a beautiful time of the year with crisp cold mornings and evenings and, if we're lucky, warm afternoons, and you're never sure quite what to wear!
Change - something we are all capable of, and yet many of us don't - we always think it's someone else who needs to change - how could it possibly be me who needs to change?
Well, if you are unhappy in your life, if life isn't going the way you want it to go, who else can change it but you?  You created it - you can change it!
It's the same for those clients who come to see me and say they have been on anti-depressants for years.  As soon as they come off of them, they're straight back on them again, and it's really easy to see why.  The life you are living is, for whatever reason, making you depressed, so the Doctor gives you anti-depressants and you feel a bit better so you come off them, but you're still living the exact same life you were living that made you depressed, so you end up back on the anti-depressants and so the cycle begins again.
So how can you get out of this cycle?  There is only one way - make changes in your life!
It doesn't have to be massive changes, just something really simple to start with - change the way you do something or start taking on other people's problems or simply start looking at the positive things in your life - you may not realise it, but we all have lots to be thankful for.
What we think is what we become - so if you're wallowing in negativity, then you will become negative, but if you think positive, you will act more positive, be seen to be more positive and therefore you will be more positive - it's as easy as that.
Then, the next time you come off anti-depressants, because you've started to make all the necessary changes in your life, you will have more chance of staying off the anti-depressants and leading a better and more positive life.