What the Changing Season Can Teach Us About Regulating Our Nervous System
Written by Madi Wend, Therapist, Author & Podcast Host
Madi Wend is a therapist, published author, and the founder and host of Play Therapy Network®. She is known for her children’s and adult social-emotional mental health books and her advocacy for holistic health and wellness.
There is a moment every year when I can smell fall before I can really see it. The air feels different. The mornings are cooler. A crispness that wasn't there a few weeks ago. Then, almost overnight, the landscape begins changing. Green gives way to burnt orange, golden yellow, deep red, rust, brown, and soft almond-colored leaves. Then come the pumpkins.
Big pumpkins. Tiny pumpkins. Perfectly round orange pumpkins and funny, crooked ones. White pumpkins, pale green pumpkins, striped pumpkins and those wonderfully imperfect ones that look as though they grew exactly as nature intended.
For many of us, these little signals stir something emotionally. Fall doesn't simply arrive around us. We experience it through our senses, and sometimes through our nervous system.
Our bodies notice the season changing
We tend to think of seasons as something happening outside the window. But our brains and bodies are constantly responding to our environments.
Light changes. Temperature changes. The colors surrounding us change. Our routines change. Even the smells and sounds of our days become different.
Research suggests that seasonal changes in light are associated with changes in brain function and mood, while experiences in natural environments can influence psychological well-being. Studies of seasonal forest environments have even found mood differences linked to exposure to changing natural surroundings.
That doesn't mean looking at an orange leaf is a treatment for anxiety. It means something simpler and perhaps more meaningful: our surroundings matter.
Fall gives us an extraordinary opportunity to notice them. Orange. Yellow. Red. Almond. Take a walk in October and actually look.
Instead of walking while thinking about the email you need to answer, tomorrow's appointment, or the conversation you had yesterday, notice one tree.
Look at the variations of color. One leaf might contain yellow, orange, red, and brown at the same time. Another may be pale beige or almond around the edges.
Research has found that people's color preferences can shift with the seasons. In the fall, people may show increased preference for colors associated with autumn, including darker reds, oranges, browns and yellows.
Our environment captures our attention. We can use that. When anxiety pulls us into the future, sensory awareness can help bring attention back to what is happening right now.
I see the orange leaves. I feel the cool air. I hear leaves underneath my feet. I smell fall. For a nervous system that has spent all day responding to demands, notifications, responsibilities, and worries, those few moments of intentional noticing can interrupt the chaos.
Pumpkins don't have to be perfect
There is something else I love about pumpkins. None of them are exactly alike. Some are tall. Some are squat. Some have bumps everywhere. Some lean sideways. Some are bright orange, while others are cream, white, green or almost pink. Somehow, we don't stand in a pumpkin patch demanding that every pumpkin look the same. We appreciate the differences.
Imagine extending a little of that grace toward ourselves. Human beings aren't supposed to move through every season of life looking exactly the same either. Some seasons are productive and energetic. Some seasons call for rest. Some periods bring tremendous growth, others require considerable effort just to get through the day.
Mental health isn't about remaining emotionally unchanged. Regulation is not the absence of emotion. It is our growing ability to experience emotion without continually being overtaken by it.
Let the cooler air wake up your senses
That first cool morning after a hot summer can feel almost startling. Open the door. Step outside. Before reaching for your phone, give yourself 30 seconds.
Feel the air's temperature against your skin. Notice your breathing without trying to change it. Look at the sky. Find three colors around you.
This isn't about forcing yourself to "calm down." Sometimes trying desperately to calm ourselves becomes another demand.
Instead, become curious: what is my body experiencing right now? Your nervous system is continuously gathering information about the world around you. Sensory experiences: sight, sound, smell, temperature, and touch can become anchors to the present.
Nature exposure has been associated with mental-health benefits, although researchers continue to study precisely how those psychological and physiological effects interact. Fall gives us an abundance of sensory anchors.
The emotional side of changing seasons
Of course, fall doesn't feel wonderful to everyone. For one person, autumn means cozy sweaters, apple cider, and pumpkin patches. For someone else, it may bring loneliness.
Shorter days can affect mood, and seasonal patterns in depression are very real. Fall can also hold memories. A particular smell may remind us of childhood. A chilly morning may remind us of someone we loved. As holidays approach, they can bring excitement and grief at the same time.
We don't have to assign one emotion to a season. You can love the changing leaves and struggle with shorter days. You can feel grateful and sad. You can be excited about what is coming and still miss what has passed. Two emotions can exist in the same space.
Maybe the leaves are showing us something
Every autumn, trees do something remarkable. They change. Then they let go. We don't look at a tree dropping its leaves and decide that something has gone terribly wrong. We understand that change is part of its natural rhythm.
Perhaps there is something there for us. What are you carrying that your nervous system no longer needs to hold so tightly? A worry? An expectation? The need to have everything figured out? The belief that you should always be okay?
Maybe regulation isn't always about adding another coping skill. Sometimes it is about creating enough quiet to recognize what we can finally put down.
Create your own fall regulation ritual
This season, find one small ritual that belongs only to you. Take a ten-minute walk and photograph the most beautiful leaf you find. Put a tiny pumpkin on your desk. Drink your morning coffee outside. Sit near an open window and feel the cooler air. Visit a pumpkin patch and deliberately notice the colors, shapes, sounds, and smells around you.
Nothing elaborate. No pressure to turn self-care into another item on the to-do list. Just notice. Because while our minds are exceptionally good at traveling backward into what happened and forward into what might happen, our senses exist in the present.
Sometimes the present sounds like leaves crunching beneath our shoes. Sometimes it feels like cool air against our cheeks. Sometimes it looks like a crooked little pumpkin sitting on the porch. Sometimes it smells like fall.
So this year, when you first smell fall, don't rush past it. Stop for a moment. Look around. Breathe. Notice the orange, yellow, red, and almond-colored leaves. Notice the pumpkins in every imaginable shape and color. Notice the cooler air. The season is changing. Perhaps it can remind us that we are allowed to change, too.
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Read more from Madi Wend
Madi Wend, Therapist, Author & Podcast Host
Madi Wend is a therapist, published author, and the founder and host of Play Therapy Network®. She is recognized for her children’s and adult social-emotional mental health books and her advocacy for holistic health and wellness. Drawing from both clinical practice and real-world experience, her writing emphasizes emotional connection, literacy, and mental well-being across all stages of life.
