A few weeks ago, I mentioned to a friend how much I loved this time of year. 'But summer's over!' she wailed. 'Next thing I know it'll be Christmas.' Yet it was only the start of September. It struck me she'd fast-forwarded through nearly four months – and with it a whole season.

There's a simple theory that depression is associated with looking back regretfully to the past, whereas anxiety stems from being future-focused. If this is true, then my friend's remark was indicative of both modes of thinking, and I'm sure she's not alone. One only has to consider the high streets to see how, as a culture, we often don't focus on the time we're in – we've autumn clothes in the shops in July, winter fashions in September and by mid-December – when one might actually want to buy a warm woolly – they're all on sale in preparation for spring. Talk about wishing our lives away! This is the very antithesis of living in the moment, and hardly conducive to mental wellbeing.

I suppose, to be glass-half-empty for a moment, it's true that the nights are drawing in and temperatures have dropped. However October is also a time when nature is particularly stunning, as the poet John Keats put it so eloquently:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run...

And that's not forgetting the crackle of the logs on the fire, the whoops and shrieks of Halloween and bonfire night...

So today, why not take a moment to what makes October special for you? Then share your observation(s) on our blog, so we can enjoy Moodscopers' very own contemporary Ode to Autumn. Because, to coin a cliché, there's no time like the present.