Seasonal living is the art of living in alignment with nature's rhythms. It's about pairing your life with the ebbs and flows of the natural environment around you, rather than with the often hurried, always busy pace of society and the built world around us.

It sounds lovely in theory, but when you look at your own life as a working mom balancing kids, work, home, and your own health and sanity, it's a concept that's easy to laugh off as something other people can do. But in reality, seasonal living can benefit anyone, even the busy mom that's stuck in forward motion.

Defining Seasonal Living

Seasonal living means shifting your days, months, and years into harmony with nature's gentle rhythms. Nature moves through phases throughout the year and changes her focus depending on the time of year.

Summer is a time of immense growth, activity, and busyness, while autumn is about abundance and creativity. Winter is a time of rest and recovery, and spring is focused on renewal and rebirth. The moon waxes and wanes cyclically throughout the year, and wildlife adjust their movement patterns and behaviors based on nature's cues.

For most of us, the default is to live in the same gear year-round, pursuing ambitious goals so readily we forget when we've hit one because we're already on to the next. Depending on our jobs, we may get little rest at work, instead shifting from project to project, busy work to busy work. And for moms, we're always on the clock with our little ones.

Society is not designed for seasonal living. But you can make the intentional decision to shift into that pattern for yourself.

Choosing a seasonal lifestyle connects us more deeply to the natural patterns of the world around us. As we are inherently nature, this alignment supports a deeper sense of connection to ourselves, our communities, and our purpose.

Practically, seasonal living looks like leaning into the patterns we see occurring in nature. Simple shifts like eating food that is currently in season, waking naturally with the sun, and making conscious consumer decisions readily realign our lives with nature.

Broadly, nature moves through different energies throughout the year, and we can tap into those energies as well. Summer may be a time for ambition and pursuing goals, while winter could shift into a season of dreaming, spring a season of planting, and autumn a season of harvest.

Seasonal living has the power to expand and deepen your connection with nature and even your quality of life, but how can you really opt into this lifestyle as a busy, working mom?

Creating Seasonal Motherhood

As soon as we look at seasonal living through the motherhood lens, our perspective may start to shift. Instead of making decisions about how we'll spend our time based on nature's current energies, we may start to think about how we can bring the season to life for our kids.

Maybe it's decorating the house for specific holidays and seasons, engaging in nature-based crafts, and visiting every you-pick farm within a 50-mile radius when the crop is ready. These activities are wonderful for embracing seasonal living! But, if they start to feel like a to do list to make sure your family is really leaning into the seasonal lifestyle, they're not serving the purpose. If you're pinning seasonal crafts, recipes, and kids' activity ideas but struggling to implement them with your family, you have my permission to stop.

Instead of throwing the season at your kids in an effort to make them understand seasonal living, focus on modeling the behavior. Go outside as often as you can as a family, and observe the patterns, rhythms, and activities you see happening in nature. Kids love to observe!

The best move from here is to start making shifts in your day that help your family align with the observations they're making out in nature. In summer, you may find dozens of insects buzzing about their days or wildflowers blooming in turn, while in winter, the earth may feel quieter. Does your everyday life reflect that energy?

And naturally, check out the seasonal library books, do the seasonal crafts, and visit those local you-pick farms! Just don't let the work of making seasonal magic for the family overtake the magic that's available for you when you pursue a seasonal lifestyle.

A Simple Activity to Shift into Seasonal Motherhood

The way we interpret and interact with what is happening in nature is personal. Start by spending time outside in observation with nature (and of course, bring your kids along!). Reflect either mentally or in a journal about whether the goings-on in your life mirror the energy you see in nature.

Identify one shift you can make within the next week that would push you into greater alignment with nature's current vibration. Repeat this activity weekly, and notice how your decisions about the shift you are making change throughout the season and the year, especially in the context of kids' activities and other aspects of your life that change throughout the year.

Yoga, Nature, and Seasonal Living for Busy Moms

• The online yoga studio for busy, working moms seeking a slower way of life offers monthly pre-recorded yoga and meditation you can use to sink into a slower pace, plus a slow down framework where you can restructure your most overwhelming challenges into peaceful, rhythmic routines that support you and your family.

• Two-minute Reset Meditations for Routine Calm Days includes ten completely free two-minute meditations for you to capture a moment of calm right now, without spending an hour at the yoga studio or taking paid leave.

• The Mama Naturalist on my website and Substack is a space where I share both conceptual and practical guidance on slowing down, connecting to nature, and living seasonally.

• Mindful Moms Digest offers exclusive yoga and meditation classes, nature stories from a wildlife biologist (me!), and free, supportive resources including links back to every blog post for busy, working moms journeying toward a slower, more seasonal way of life.

• Cultivate Calm Mornings is a structured series of three yoga workshops that supports you in transforming your morning routine from chaotic to calm.