Beginner’s Guide to Seasonal Living

Photograph by Westlund Photography

This summer, I challenged you all (and myself!) to step out of your busy, serious lives, and have some fun! Embark on some new adventures. Shirk some responsibilities. Fully collapse into the fun summer moments. Summer is a time of lightness, play, and expansion. A time for friends, family, and travel.

As we start to step into fall, that energy seems to be naturally winding down a bit. Transitioning into a more internal focus. Reaping all the fun we sowed in summer into action and inspiration. This transition got my wheels turning about seasonal living and mindfulness. How can we harness the energy of the season to enhance our lives?

Seasonal Living

It’s funny because even though there is no real division of seasons here in Southern California, there’s definitely still that distinct summer feeling. Even though the weather is perpetually warm, during those summer months you can still feel that electric, buzzy energy of the season. As I’m coming off many summer fun-filled weekends, it got me thinking about seasonal living and the lessons Mother Earth offers us.

Even though seasonal living may feel less relevant in a place without discernible seasons, I’d argue it’s potentially even more important. Maybe it’s because I grew up on the east coast with four seasons, but it just feels natural to live cyclically. Even if you live in a place of perpetual summer, it’s still important to honor energy transitions.

Photograph by Westlund Photography

Why Is Seasonal Living Important?

It’s important to take heed to the seasons and fully embrace their energy. Why? Because each season has a distinct energy. When we embrace and align with those energies, our lives tend to flow more easily.

Mother Nature offers us a free guide for balanced living. All we have to do is listen and embrace the energy of the season.

Our energy needs expansion and contraction, renewal, rebirth, and internalization. It’s not healthy live in a state of constant doing and growth, just like it’s not healthy to live in a state of constant rest and seclusion. The seasons offer clear reminders to rebalance and recalibrate.

Simply put, seasonal living grounds us in the present.

Seasonal living means being here, now. Not looking 5 years into the future or the past, but truly embracing and taking in the present moment.

• Go outside.
• Breathe in the air.
• Feel the temperature on your skin.
• See the way the sun’s light filters through the clouds.
• Listen to the insects, birds, or the silence.
• Just take it all in and see how it feels in your body.
• Does it feel buzzy and electric, or quiet and contemplative?
• Let this guide you throughout your day.

Energies of Each Season

This is actually pretty intuitive. Simply think about the traits and typical actions of each season, and that is a manifestation of the corresponding energy. Our bodies tend to naturally try to match the energy of each season.

Summer Energy

Summer energy is expansive. It’s a time for maximum growth, socialization, and magnetism. The energy is lively, playful, and electric. Summer energy is creative, carefree, and fearless. It’s a time to try new things, embark on adventures, and let things come to fruition. It’s a time of lightness, high energy, and movement. Keep your energy flowing, moving, and growing. Don’t let your energy become stagnant. Collaboration and communication is at an all time high.

Autumn Energy

Photograph by Westlund Photography

Autumn energy is slowly becoming more internal, more thoughtful. This is time to start slowing down and taking stock. Start to integrate all of the beautiful things you cultivated in spring and summer. Bring all of that electric summer energy inside yourself. The energy is more focused on your home and your immediate family. Rather than reaching outward, autumn energy challenges you to incorporate all the lessons learned in summer and see how they work for you and your family.

Winter Energy

Winter is a time for reflection. This is the most introverted energy of the year. Winter is the time to take stock of your life: what’s working and what’s not. Evaluate all the areas of your life- where can you bring more balance? How will you focus your energy come spring? Allow white space. Winter is a calm, tranquil energy. See where you can allow more serenity into your space. Pause and reflect on what you want to build and create in year to come. What seeds will you plant?

Spring Energy

Spring is a time to start retreating from your shell and begin implementing all the goals you envisioned in the winter. Start planting the seeds for those beautiful visions you imagined in reflection! Spring energy means slowly becoming more extroverted, more energetic. Your energy will start to flow and your pace will quicken. Let the strong energy of renewal and rebirth guide whatever transformation you see for yourself. Spring is time to start taking action to become a newer, better version or yourself. Shed anything that no longer serves you, and start blossoming into who you’re truly meant to be.

Resources for Harnessing Seasonal Energy

Living seasonally is something I’ve only recently started playing with in my life. However, its roots go back to ancient times when our ancestors lived their lives connected to the earth. Here are some women who are harnessing this wisdom and translating it for modern life. I’ve learned a lot from these women, and I hope you do too! Let me know if any of these resources are particularly helpful for you:

Motherhood Medicine

About Marlene

Marlene is a licensed naturopathic doctor,?mother, medicine maker, and sustainable lifestyle leader (and amazing friend). She has a really unique voice that blends a scientific approach with ancient modalities and wisdom. I love how she brings a very logical, knowledge-based perspective to spirituality and other “woo” topics.

Seasonal Living Resource

Check out her beautiful Land + Spirit Project, a members-only platform for women interested in an intentional, wise, and natural way of living. This is where Marlene?dives deep into botanical medicine, seasonal nutrition, high vibrational living, tending the Earth, seasonal ceremonies, and more.

Quarter Moon Living

About Melissa

Melissa is a writer, naturalist, an old soul, a modern homemaker, horticulturist, green witch, and the voice behind Quarter Moon Living. I came across her Instagram a while ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since. This woman lives and breathes seasonal living in every facet of her life. She is fiercely committed to honoring skills of the old ways- the land-based and wild ways of the women before us.

Seasonal Living Resource

Melissa’s business, Quarter Moon?Living is a beautiful resource for women looking for a slower, simpler, and natural way of living. It’s a guide to become attuned to the seasons and reclaim our connection to nature, self and ancestral ways. In addition to her blog, she offers?personalized coaching services and rewilding programs to help women get started on this path.

Kate Northrup

About Kate

Kate is an entrepreneur, author, and mother supporting ambitious women to light up the world without burning themselves out in the process. I came across her in the podcast world, and I’ve been inspired by her work ever since. Her mission is to teach women how to have more by doing less. Kate has a very direct, candid, yet empathetic approach that really resonates with me.

Seasonal Living Resource

Kate’s Origin membership is based around honoring and synching with the natural phases of the seasons, the moon, and our bodies. She teaches women how to harness the power of these different energies to add rocket fuel to their creations and lives.

?There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter? – Rachel Carson