Approaching Autumn Weather 

Autumn is upon us, whether we have been longing for the cooler weather or we just like seeing the changing leaves. This opens up a whole new avenue of coziness and style - hot chocolate and tea in the evenings, pumpkin patches and apple picking on the weekends and driving past falling leaves on your way home from work. It's the little changes, the weather dropping ever so slightly each day and the days becoming minutes shorter until it becomes winter. While there are so many parts of autumn that we love, there are also many that we dread, leading us to find little pick me ups throughout the season to keep us going into those colder months. 

Finding a Third Place

One of the most important ways to not get too "stuck" or start dwelling on ideas is to have a third place you can go to put your mind at ease. Somewhere that isn't home, work, or class where you feel completely at ease. This could be your favorite restaurant a few blocks from your house or it could be a coffee shop in the next town over. Maybe it's a record store, thrift store or a public library; wherever it is, this should be a place to get away from everything in your typical routine, somewhere you can meet up with friends or go alone. 

You also aren't limited to only one third place, most of us have, or hope to have, many. Having a diverse list of spaces you could go to means you can pick somewhere depending on how you feel that day. Taking a break for an hour between doing homework or going somewhere after a long day at work shouldn't feel exhausting, this should be an incentive to get your work done to the fullest so you can truly enjoy yourself. 

Having Days Set Aside to Get Work Done

Of course life gets busy and you can't control everything that comes in and out, but once every couple weeks you should make sure you have a day set aside to get everything you need to get done completed. Maybe it means skipping a class every once in a while to have the time available, as long as it doesn't get too extreme. 

Get your room cleaned or go grocery shopping like you've been telling yourself you need to. Maybe it's cleaning the kitchen and taking the trash out. Even working on some school work you've been procrastinating on or putting together that budget you've been putting off. Whatever it is, these are all the necessities that have been getting put off for more urgent or time consuming tasks. 

Self care days shouldn't be full of all the things you've been putting off though, there should be some elements of fun and excitement. Maybe you visit that third place you were thinking about earlier, or maybe you try somewhere new. Maybe it's looking at the Target dollar section and getting Starbucks that makes the day relaxing and out of the usual. 

Finding a New Recipe or Favorite Food 

With the changing season, we're beginning to spend more time inside. This is the perfect opportunity to look into some new recipes or cuisines you've seen online or at a resteraunt and put them to the test yourself. This could be as simple as making a trip to Trader Joe's and picking up a new frozen item or as complex as inviting your friends over for a home cooked dinner one night. If you aren't the biggest foodie, you can always try your hand at a new beverage you saw online or at a friends house. 

With the winter holidays approaching, you can always use this as an excuse to test out new recipes for Christmas gatherings or Friendsgiving. Until those holidays actually roll around, these ideas can be just for you to enjoy though.