How to Squeeze Seasonal Living in to a Busy Life

This is for the parents, carers, full-time workers and the perennially stressed

Hello,

If you’re scrolling through this newsletter while also juggling work emails, entertaining small children, dealing with life admin and making lunch, then this post is for you. I’ll keep it short and sweet.

Seasonal living is great. If we could all skip off to the woods and live a life completely in tune with nature I have no doubt we would all be very happy indeed. But… that’s not going to happen is it?

If you are currently juggling work, caring, parenting, single parenting (huge respect) or a mix of all of the above (enormous respect) then the last thing you need is something else to add to your plate.

So I’ve put together a short list of 5 ways to weave Seasonal Living into an already very full life, to hopefully help you to feel happier and calmer.

All can be done with a small child attached to one leg, while keeping one eye on work emails and juggling life admin.

I’m calling them Micro Seasonal Habits.

Here they are:

Photo by xandro Vandewalle on Unsplash

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1. Get an old-school calendar

Forget digital diaries and calendars. Get yourself a large, wall-hung paper calendar and put it right by the front door. As well as all your usual appointments (doctor, dentist, boring, boring, boring…) mark the main Seasonal Celebrations on your calendar. In pen.

Circle the Summer and Winter Solstices and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes. Put pumpkin season on it, mark the start of the strawberry picking season. Note the full moons each month. Add stickers, use coloured pens, let your inner child free and fill it with seasonal dates that make you smile (Hazelnut Day for example is the 14th September).

You don’t have to do anything on these days; sometimes just the act of writing them down somewhere you can see them everyday is enough.

2. Catch a sunrise or sunset

Whenever you get an opportunity to look out of the window or step outside at sunrise or sunset, do it. If you catch just a few a year that’s more than most people. Pure magic and it happens twice a day, every day, without fail.

3. Eat cake

Eating seasonally is such a basic concept, yet it’s surprisingly hard to follow. It’s also another thing to beat ourselves up for while trying to produce dinner every night. Is it seasonal, is it organic, is it local? Frankly, most nights it’s an achievement if it’s edible.

Try cake instead. Bake or buy yourself a seasonal cake once a month and eat your way through the changing flavours of the year. Strawberry Cake in June, Blackberry crumble in September, Apple Pie in October. Seasonal Living at its finest.

4. Go barefoot

Yes, even in Winter. Stepping outside for just a minute each day without shoes on connects you to the earth in a very literal way and anchors you in the seasons instantly. You can do it while multitasking too. Call it Earthing if you want to make it sound a bit more fancy.

5. Look at the moon

You’ve marked it on your calendar, now before you close the curtains at night, look for the moon and give it a nod. I find it a deeply reassuring presence. In fact I’m sure moonlight has a calming effect on our central nervous system.

And when you’re looking up at the sky, remember to take a nice deep breath. Then take one more.

Everything will be ok. You’re doing a great job.

Take care,
Vicky xx

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