Create your own seasons

Find harmony and purpose in the rhythms of self-made seasons.

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Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. - Thoreau

What if we created our own seasons throughout the year? 

Looking back over the last few years, I've realized there's a natural pattern my year takes. This insight came to me when I started to look back on my entries in the journal I keep in Obsidian. I'd flip through the months and weeks, sometimes going back to the exact day one year ago. I was amazed at the parallels between now and then.

Like a river that changes course and shape-shifts depending on the terrain and vegetation it passes through, my life follows the same principles. There are periods of blossoming and ecstatic growth - when everything is in flux, moving, evolving - like a tumultuous waterfall. And then there are the slower, more introspective periods - when I'm called to reflect and let the sediments accumulated along the way settle - akin to a peaceful delta.

This ebb and flow wasn't planned, it emerged from the natural fluctuations of the year: the length of days, the temperature outside, the current events and holidays. I've noticed during spring and summer I have more energy to run and weight train, while in the colder months I prefer to take walks and do Yoga. Amid the warmer months I'm drawn to start new projects, to dive into books that inspire action, to try new things. Whereas the other part of the year calls me into introspection mode - a time to crystalize the actions I took in the previous six months, to read more contemplative books and to double down on what's familiar.

This made me think of the natural bond between the external seasons and our internal predispositions, how they harmoniously dance together, whether we realize it or not.

Find your Hanami

Every year, from late March to May, the people in Japan bear witness to one of the most iconic displays of natural beauty: the blossoming of cherry trees, also known as sakura. The practice of enjoying this awe-inspiring event is called hanami.

Crowds gather in parks and gardens underneath the pink-adorned trees. To marvel. To soak in all their delicate charm. From small family picnics to large festivals, people honor this occasion and use it as meditation on the ephemeral nature of things, and how precious every moment is. It's a quintessential combination of natural wonder accompanied by human celebration.

Borrowing from Japanese culture, we can take our cues from the natural world to shape our inner one. Personal milestones, the changing of seasons or cultural events can all act as reference points we can shape our seasons around.

Why you should create your own seasons

Intentionality

Seasons work well within our finite condition. They're a reminder that you can't prioritize everything, but you can prioritize one thing. Trying to focus on everything in life is like ordering all the items from the restaurant's menu. Or worse, you don't focus on anything - like going with Today's Specials: they're probably good, but everyone else is having them too.

We regain our agency with the simple act of looking at our unwieldy Google calendar and deciding that the next three-month period is more than meetings, tasks and deliverables. It's a season. And we get to decide on its spirit.

Balance

Seasons allow us to set the tone for a certain period of time. So if you tend to have a busier time in a part of the year, you can offset it with a season focused on relaxation and looking inwards.

Open & Loose

A season doesn't have the rigidity of a project with a strict deadline. Its ethos is more open and free flowing, being able to encapsulate whatever you deem important. Like a flexible membrane, it can adapt to your idiosyncrasies. The beauty is that you don't need to uproot your whole life when you begin a new season.

How to create your next season

I’m envisioning a season as a time period, no shorter than three months, with an overarching theme. We could have a season dedicated to poetry, another to community events, or to writing down our childhood memories.

First, you must pick the underlying scope of your season. It can be created around:

• a theme (ex: courage)

• a feeling/way of being (ex: love)

• an experiment (ex: changing your usual routine)

• a little bet (ex: starting a side project)

• a challenge (ex: creating something every day)

Then, pick an end date. I'd say three months is a good amount of time: long enough to let the theme you've chosen saturate into your bones, to play, experiment and feel it out; but not so long that it becomes stale.

Instead of setting a definite outcome, focus on what the day to day looks like for that season. If you chose the theme "courage," then how can you infuse that into your life? What would change? Perhaps how you talk to colleagues, the boundaries you set, or the clothes you wear. The aim needn’t be a grandiose end-result, but an embodiment of the chosen theme across each day.

Align the external season with your internal one. If during winter, for example, you're predisposed to more reflective periods - as I am - then honor that by leaning into introspective practices. 

I truly believe constructing our own seasons can open up another dimension of life and help us conceptualize time in a different way: slower, more intentional. I plan on thinking much more about my seasons, and I hope I’ve inspired you too.

Here’s to the next season of your life!

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A big thank you to all the lovely people who gave me feedback and encouragement on this article:

Miche Priest

,

aMusing

and Justine.