Fire is cleansing, yes, and does have some symbolism of rebirth (phoenix comes to mind).

But in terms of symbolism for trying something new and improved, a young plant that will grow makes way more sense than watching something burning. That kind of imagery invokes a sense of acceptance to me.

Lived in Pinellas for 7 years, glad to see this.

Many studies have been done on this. The simplest example is showing a comedy to two groups of people: one group has to hold a pencil between their teeth while they watch and the other doesn't. The group that is forcing a smile-like gesture on themselves because of the pencil will laugh more than the control group.

So yes, the "you should smile more" trope is cringe, but that is obviously not the message in this context. The point is that behavior influences our attitude, not just the other way around. We have more control over our behavior than we do our attitude, so utilize it to your benefit.