Three Powerful Ways Seasonal Living Can Transform Your Life

A few years back, when I was in the deepest toil in my wellness journey, just trying to feel like a normal person on any level from day to day, here is something big I started to notice:  The closer we live to the cycles of Nature, the easier life is, the more abundant life is, and the healthier we are.  

I noticed when I enjoyed the foods in season or available to me from my garden or from the wild at the time when they were best, I also felt my best.   

I noticed when I tried to force something unseasonal into my lifestyle, I was frustrated. I felt like I was working against nature rather than with it. It didn't feel right and was usually more expensive with far less payoff in experience.

Living in harmony with Nature can bring so much joy and sense of abundance.

Because seasonal living has brought me such a better sense of place, of self, and of appropriateness, I wanted to share with you my Top Three Ways Seasonal Living Can Change your Life!!!

Tips for aligning your lifestyle with the seasons

#1: Seasonal living will save you money. 

Have you ever attempted to buy an exotic fruit in the winter? Or a pumpkin in March? Yeah. That doesn’t work so well, does it? The cost is astronomical, and the quality is usually LOW. This will be exaggerated even more based on where you live and the severity of the winter. 

For instance, here in North Dakota, it may not even be possible to source non-seasonal fruit in winter. And if we can get some precious raspberries or tropical fruit, the cost will be $1-$3 more per pound than that same produce would be in its natural season. 

Learn to meal plan around what is available seasonally. How can you tell if you don’t garden? Well, it will usually be the produce on sale in the sales flyer. It will also be the food most available and abundant at your local farmer’s market (please support them!). 

Some general rules of thumb for the Northern Hemisphere: In spring, greens and berries are in season. In summer you will see the stone fruits like peaches and plums become more available. A wide variety of vegetables are available in summer, so this is a time to explore new recipes and styles of cooking. In fall, root vegetables and squashes become more abundant as do the cold weather greens like Swiss chard. And in winter, you may need to rely more upon frozen vegetables. However, winter is when citrus will shine in the north, and we need the extra vitamin C, too!

#2. Seasonal Living Will Put you in Touch with your Intuition and the Needs of your Body

This benefit is a bit harder to understand, so let me explain. Have you ever noticed that you are just more in the mood to do certain things at certain times of year? Or that you have certain cravings?

Let’s take for example the phenomenon of pumpkin spice coffee drinks that become the rage every fall. Did you know that there is an intuitive reason your body is asking for more spice this time of year? As the weather gets colder, it becomes more difficult for us to maintain our body temperature. Spices raise our body heat very naturally. They also help to increase our immunity and gut function as we have more strains on those as the weather gets colder as well. So…Starbucks is on to more than you know! 

There are many other examples of seasonal activities to enhance well-being. Wanderlust in the Summer versus wanting to hibernate in Winter. 

Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine both teach us to observe changes in the elements as the seasons change, and then to apply that knowledge to our bodies, as we are, too, part of Nature. We aren’t meant to be the same person every day. We have different needs in different seasons. 

Ever wonder why you feel weird during seasonal changes?

#3: Seasonal living has helped me plan my work flow for the year in ways that have resulted in drastic increases in productivity even while I have enjoyed my life a lot more. 

Many people have big wondering about how to incorporate seasonal living into your daily routine, and for a me, this has come down to how I organize my work. A big part of this shift is related to what I talked about in #2. Once I realized I didn’t have to be the same person every day, it changed a lot in how I plan my life. For instance, I do feel more outgoing and exploratory in summer. During this time of the year, I will plan more business meetings, tackle getting into action on projects that have been long planned, and find myself most physically active.

Conversely, winter is meant to be a time to dream and to plan, according to ancient wisdom traditions. We are supposed to allow our bodies to rest from all of the manual labor of the planting and harvesting seasons. This is a time to restore and rest. During this time of the year, I plan far less meetings and social engagements and instead spend my time in researching, planning, and dreaming. This is just one example of the benefits of seasonal living for mental health.

In other words, I allow myself to go fully into flow when I am primed for true productivity, and I also allow myself deep rest when I most need it—on a seasonal basis. I had fears over this at first because I thought it would mean I got less done. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The winter planning sessions mean that when I am ready to enact those plans, I simply have to put the steps into action. It has meant far more clarity and far less mistakes. It means it takes less time to potentiate projects. 

There is much, much more to this, and all of this is core to the principles that we teach in the Eastern Medicine Academy. If you are curious to use ancient wisdom to empower yourself with your own innate purpose, I invite you in to class for this season or the full year if you want to see how the whole cycle of life looks like in harmony with Nature and your own soul.

If you are looking to go deeper with these concepts within community, join us in the Rewild + Untame Community.