September is almost upon us and I genuinely can not contain my excitement! I am most definitely an autumn lover and I find this time of year is the best for drawing a line in the sand and allowing yourself to have a fresh start – I’ve actually already written about this topic before, but decided it was most definitely worth revisiting. This year, if you follow astrology, there’s also been a bunch of astrological occurrences that also make this particular September a good one for a new start.

Fresh starts often get a bad rap and I can see why when they are so often associated with diet culture and the idea that you somehow aren’t good enough and need to be a ‘new you’.

Well obviously that’s a load of bollocks – fresh starts don’t always have to be about starting a new eating plan, which let’s face it, most of us would fail at before the second week!

Fresh starts can be really positive when you are aware of the downsides which include:

• Giving them more power than they warrant – remember that you can choose any day to start anything you like, it’s your choice
• Making them about an unsustainable change (i.e. adopting a diet that is unrealistic and overly restrictive)
• Thinking that once you’ve had the fresh start that the changes are permanent and perfect – they never are!

If you stay clear of those things, fresh starts can have a certain positive power and I especially love the September one because of that lovely back to school feeling and it being relatively free of the diet bullshit that dominates the January start of the year. 

So, how can you positively embrace the September fresh start without it being followed by major fail?

Remember it’s all part of a cycle 

Change isn’t linear, it’s cyclical. Think of how many times you’ve felt like you were back at square one, like things weren’t working out, to then feeling like you are finally making some progress to repeating it all over again. This fresh start isn’t the beginning of something really, it’s like a check in point on your way around a never ending track. Consider this September as such a check in point, what needs to change or shift to help you make upwards (but not perfect) progress towards the things you want?  

Let the energy lead

The energy of autumn is about completion, culmination and letting go. It’s allowing rather than effort-ing your way to things. Consider the goals or intentions you might have set in the past. What is ready to be completed and what is ready to be let go of? Where do you need to take a step back and allow things to progress rather than push?

What do you need to let go of to get what you want?

Now is a perfect time to address a huge part of goal and intention setting that is almost always missed – what do you need to let go of to get what it is you want? If you want more joy in your life, what do you need to let go of to allow that in?

Start with the mind and end with the action

Whatever you’d like to change in your life – you need to look at how you can think about it differently. Mindset work is essential because it lays the foundation for any change. How do you need to change how you think for this thing you want to show up? For example, if you want to lose weight, you might need to address that negative self talk. Once you’ve thought about the change to your thinking, consider the tiny little actions that need to be implemented to get you what you want – in this example it could be practicing positive affirmations. I list the actions out and then weave them into my habit tracker. 

Focus on the feeling

Something I learned from The Desire Map is that when we say we want to achieve or change something, we really actually want to feel a certain way. Connecting with how you most want to feel and then choosing goals or intentions that align with that (or better still, give you those core desired feelings while you’re working towards them) will make the things you choose to shift much more likely to be fulfilling. 

Get back to basics

This never fails – getting back to the basics of things as a form of a fresh start is really effective.

I always ask myself a couple of key questions at any ‘check in point’ during the year – What am I grateful for? What’s been working well? What’s not working and what needs to change? I always get useful answers to those questions that lead me towards intentions and most importantly, actions that help me make upwards progress towards what I want.

It’s also worth adding that for me, I see September as one big transition rather than the 1st serving of a single fresh start point. September bridges summer and autumn with the autumn equinox in the middle. If the idea of a single fresh start day doesn’t appeal, maybe work with September as a transitional month. Here’s a few things I love to do in September as a form of self care:

Self Care for September

• Declutter and deep clean
• Fix anything that’s broken (in every sense of that statement!)
• Switch out my summer wardrobe for my autumn wardrobe – SO EXCITING
• Cosy up the house, often that’s switching up some of the fabric furnishings like cushions and adding throws
• Review my skin care products – I often switch to a heavier moisturiser as the weather gets colder and the heating starts going on

Are you a fan of fresh starts? How are you going to embrace the September fresh start and what are your intentions?