What is Seasonal Living? How to Align Your Life with Nature’s Rhythms
“The biggest influence for your self care should be what’s happening in your heart and outside your window.”
Remembering What We’ve Forgotten
Almost every culture in every region across the globe has a history of seasonal living. They revolved their life around the ever changing seasons of nature. They worshipped its elements, heeded its healing wisdom, and honored its rhythms. Ayurveda in India, Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Wheel of the Year in Celtic traditions, Japan’s observation of 72 micro-seasons, just to name a few.
Having an intentional relationship with these seasons, honoring the flow of nature’s cycles, and using each one as a teacher and a healer is not a new idea. In fact, it’s one of the oldest ideas around. Yet somehow, this way of life has been dismissed and forgotten - replaced by modern innovation and human-centered advancements.
But tell me how you feel when you can finally open the windows after a long winter. Or how the crisp Autumn breeze feels after a sweaty and over stimulating summer. Or a sip of hot cocoa after the first snow fall.
These are moments of remembering. This is your body tuning into the natural balance of seasonal living. That every moment has its time and its purpose. And it’s happening whether we ignore it or not. All other living things are still living in accordance with it, and our disconnect is leading to dis-ease. And if you’re reading this, take this as your sign that it’s time to tune back in.
What is Seasonal Living?
I define seasonal living as the practice of aligning your lifestyle, mindset, and self-care with nature’s cycles. Its living in rhythm with the cycles of nature—spring, summer, fall, winter—as well as your internal seasons. This could include circadian rhythms, menstrual cycles, life seasons (e.g., new motherhood, career shifts), etc. And if you pay attention, these internal seasons often mirror nature’s seasons.
This way of living creates space for us to truly embrace the present moment and take advantage of what is happening right now, and it also makes us able to deal with the highs and lows of change and transition. Instead of doing the same thing year-round, seasonal living invites flexibility, restoration, and adaptability.
It also serves as a fluid framework for you to check in with yourself, your life, your goals, and gauge how it’s going. You can see if these things are still in alignment or if there needs to be a shift.
Why Seasonal Living Matters in Modern Life
I don’t think I have to go on too much about how out of rhythm our common day-to-day has become. It’s not just artificial lighting, being inside all day, and screens everywhere. It’s also the pressure to be “on” all of the time, they you should always be in a time of growth and achieving, that rest is only earned.
We all admit it’s a problem, and it makes sense when you think about it. But can you also feel it - somewhere in your inner knowing that it’s not ok? And is this misalignment starting to show itself in the body (burnout, anxiety, sleep disruption, hormone imbalances)?
How Seasonal Living Supports Your Wellbeing
Living in alignment with the seasons is one of the best ways to come home to yourself. There is an undercurrent of comfort, a knowing, and a trust when this becomes your way of life. There’s less thinking, and overthinking, less self doubt, and more feeling and following and flowing from one season to the next. It’s a way to live more intuitively with your best interest at the forefront.
If you think of your wellbeing being comprised of your mental, emotional, and physical health, here are a few ways seasonal living addresses all of who you are:
🧠 Mental Health
Seasonal routines reduce decision fatigue and create natural moments of pause
Shifts in light and temperature affect mood—honoring these shifts is regulating
💗 Emotional Wellbeing
Invites reflection, release, and renewal. Each season brings its own lessons and purpose.
Helps process transitions with more grace and grounding.
🩺 Physical Health
Syncing movement, food, and rest with the seasons improves energy and immune support.
Encourages slowing down when needed and re-energizing in rhythm.
Hemma Wellbeing’s Approach to Seasonal Living
While the ancient practices and traditional teachings around seasonal living are the roots of what you will find here at Hemma, Hemma’s approach is more of a blend of nature-based living with modern realities (parenting, caretaking, work, health issues). It’s more of an exposure and an invitation to these ancient ways that can allow you to go deeper, if you so choose.
The Hemma Way serves as a path to guide you to your own truths, to your own set of practices, even to other practitioners that could help you. It uses the seasons as a gateway to your inner wisdom and offers a support system to keep you going.
Hemma offers:
✨ The Home Practice newsletter and podcast
🍂 Seasonal guides and rituals
🌼 Reflective prompts, embodiment practices, and rhythm-building tools
How to Start Living Seasonally
If you haven’t already found your way to one of my seasonal guides, I invite you to check them out. It’s a great starting point for whatever season of the year we are currently in. You can find them HERE.
But you can also just start to pay more attention to what’s going on - outside and inside. Here are just a few things to get you going.
Notice how your energy changes throughout the day and season
Eat more seasonal foods
Observe what your body/mind crave as seasons shift
Create a seasonal ritual (e.g., Sunday reset, full moon walk, daily journaling)
Reflect on your current "inner season" and ask yourself what this season of your life needs
And stay connected with Hemma Wellbeing for more resources and guidance along the way.
💌 Subscribe to the newsletter below and follow @hemmawellbeing on Instagram.
💫 Check out The Home Practice podcast wherever you listen and head to the substack for more personal essays and insights
You don’t have to change everything overnight—just begin noticing and responding to the rhythms around you. And then see where it leads you.