Ayurveda and seasonal change are deeply connected. Rather than expecting our bodies, routines and energy to remain the same throughout the year, Ayurveda invites us to notice what is changing in nature and how we may need to change with it.
We often think of wellbeing as finding the right routine and then keeping everything in balance. Yet life rarely stays still. Our bodies change, our responsibilities shift, relationships evolve, and what supported us beautifully at one stage may no longer be what we need now.
Nature offers a different model. A tree does not try to return to last season. It responds to the conditions that are present now.
Ayurveda invites us to do something similar. Seasonal living is not simply about changing what we eat as the weather changes. At a deeper level, it teaches us to notice, adapt, release and begin again.
Ayurveda asks us to pay attention
Ayurveda is sometimes reduced to instructions: eat this in winter, avoid that in summer, follow this morning routine.
But underneath these recommendations is a much richer principle: develop a relationship with nature. Ayurveda asks us to observe qualities, warmth and coolness, dryness and moisture, lightness and heaviness, movement and stillness, and then notice how our environment is interacting with our body and mind.
This awareness forms part of ritucharya, the Ayurvedic approach to seasonal living. Rather than blindly following a calendar, we ask:
What is happening around me? What is happening within me? And what response would create greater balance now? That is a very different approach from simply following rules.
There is wisdom in the space between seasons
Here in Perth, September brings us into spring. But nature does not suddenly transform because the calendar changes. Winter gradually becomes spring. Cool mornings coexist with warmer afternoons. Light changes. Plants begin responding. There is an in-between period.
Traditional Ayurveda recognises this junction between seasons as ritu sandhi, a transitional period in which we gradually adjust from the practices of one season towards the next.
There is a powerful lesson here for life beyond the seasons.
Transitions do not always require abrupt reinvention.
But this is often what we expect of ourselves. A new job begins - adapt immediately. A relationship ends - move on. A new year arrives - reinvent yourself. One stage of life finishes - quickly work out what comes next.
Nature rarely behaves this way. One phase gradually gives way to another. Maybe we need these transitional spaces too.
What if the in-between is not a problem?
The most uncomfortable periods of life are often those in which we cannot clearly define where we are. You are no longer who you were, but you do not yet know who you are becoming. A role has ended, but the next one has not fully emerged. Something that once worked no longer does, yet you do not know what will replace it.
We can interpret this uncertainty as evidence that something has gone wrong. Nature suggests otherwise.
Transition is not an error in the process. Transition is part of the process.
Maybe the practice is not always to find the answer more quickly. Can we remain present when we do not yet know what comes next? Can we listen before deciding?
Can we leave enough space for something new to emerge?
Every season involves letting go
Nature also reminds us that renewal and release belong together. Flowers disappear. Fruit ripens and falls. Daylight expands and contracts. Nothing remains in exactly the same form forever.
For us, letting go can be more complicated.
We hold on to possessions, roles, expectations, habits and old versions of ourselves. Sometimes we even continue routines that once supported us simply because they are familiar.
A seasonal transition gives us an opportunity to ask:
What am I carrying simply because I have become accustomed to carrying it?
It might be a commitment, an expectation, a habit or even a story about how our life should look by now. Letting go does not always require a dramatic decision. Sometimes it begins with simply noticing what no longer belongs.
Spring asks: what wants to come back to life?
For those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, September's movement towards spring brings increasing light, growth and activity. It can be tempting to translate this immediately into another wellbeing instruction: time to detox, declutter, exercise more or start something new.
But Ayurveda encourages us to consider our actual environment, digestion and individual needs rather than following generic seasonal prescriptions.
So maybe spring offers us a more interesting question:
What wants to come back to life?
Maybe your body wants more movement. Maybe you want to reconnect with people. Maybe there is something creative you put aside. Or maybe you realise that you have been functioning efficiently but not feeling deeply engaged with your life.
Renewal does not always mean doing more. Sometimes it means becoming more present to what is already here.
We have inner seasons too
There are seasons within a human life. Times of building and achievement. Times of caring for others. Times of learning, loss, creativity and retreat. Times when we have enormous capacity and times when our energy naturally needs to turn inward.
Difficulty arises when we expect every season of ourselves to look like summer: productive, visible, energetic and expansive. Would we stand in a winter garden and demand that every plant flower? Nature teaches us something gentler:
Not every season is for flowering.
Some seasons are for rooting. Some are for releasing. Some are for resting. And some are for beginning again. The wisdom may be in recognising which season we are actually living.
A simple seasonal reflection
As the season changes, take ten quiet minutes with three questions:
What am I ready to release? What needs to be nourished? What is ready to emerge?
You do not need a five-year plan or an immediate answer. In Ayurveda, awareness itself matters. Practices like meditation, quiet reflection, appropriate Yoga and time in nature can create space between our automatic reactions and our next action.
Maybe that is one of the deeper gifts of seasonal living.
It reminds us that we are part of nature, not separate from it. And nature is always changing.
Wellbeing may therefore be less about finally arranging life exactly as we want it and more about becoming skilful at participating in change — knowing when to hold, when to release, when to rest, when to act and when simply to wait.
As the world around you changes, turn some of that attention inward and ask:
What season of life am I in right now?
You do not have to rush towards the next version of yourself. Sometimes the deeper practice is simply to be present at the threshold, honouring what has been, listening to what is, and making space for what is becoming.
What season of life are you in right now? You may be beginning, building, releasing, resting or finding your way through an in-between space. I invite you to take a few quiet minutes with the three questions above and if one speaks particularly strongly to you, I’d love to hear your reflection.
Highlights
00:00 Seasonal Change as Practice
01:30 Ayurveda and Relationship
02:47 Ritu Sandhi Thresholds
04:47 The In Between Space
06:09 Learning to Release
07:52 Springtime Renewal Cues
11:10 Inner Seasons of Life
12:44 Sattva and Attention
13:45 Three Question Practice
14:53 Closing Reflections
