How to Care for Yourself in the In-Between Season
There’s something uniquely unsettling about this time of year. Summer hasn’t fully released its grip, but autumn is already whispering at the edges. The days are still hot, but the nights begin to cool. The fruit is ripe on the trees, but the leaves are just starting to lose their vibrancy. It’s the in-between — a season that isn’t quite one thing or the other.
And if you’re anything like me, you can feel this energy in your body too. Restlessness, a little fatigue, the sense that your skin and soul don’t fit quite right. Or even just overly dry skin and fried hair. This is transition season, and it asks us to slow down enough to notice how we’re shifting, both inside and out.
The truth is, we’re not meant to leap from one season to the next like a snap of the fingers. Nature doesn’t. She takes her time, and so should we.
Why Transitional Seasons Matter
We’re so conditioned to think in neat boxes — summer, fall, winter, spring. But the most powerful magic often happens in the thresholds. Think of dawn and dusk, new moons and waning moons, the pause between breaths. The transitions are where the energy moves and where shifts occur.
Learning to honor this in-between space is what seasonal hygiene is all about: caring for ourselves in small, rhythmic ways that keep us aligned with the natural flow.
Gentle Shifts for the In-Between
Here are some ways to work with — not against — the season of transition:
Adjust your plate slowly. Instead of jumping straight into soups and root vegetables, start weaving in transitional foods. Stone fruits, late tomatoes, early squashes, or pomegranates. Foods that straddle summer’s brightness and autumn’s richness.
Honor your evenings. Nights are stretching just a little longer now. Let your rituals stretch too. Try things like a candle at dinner, an earlier bedtime, or herbal teas that ground instead you instead of stimulate you (meaning no caffeine).
Refresh your environment. Open windows at night to let the cool air in. Add one autumnal piece to your home — a throw blanket, an earthy candle, or even a bowl of apples on the table. Small signals tell the body, it’s time to begin descending into autumn.
Move with intention. If summer has had you running, slow the pace. Swap intense workouts for gentler practices like yoga, stretching, or long evening walks.
Give yourself permission to pause. This is the season of recalibration. Don’t force productivity. Let yourself linger in the space between.
Closing the Gap Between You and the Season
The in-between season isn’t meant to be rushed through. It’s a threshold we’re invited to walk with awareness. Just as the earth shifts her clothes from bright to moody, we too are invited to adjust. When we resist, we feel scattered, anxious, and out of sync. But when we align, even in the smallest ways, we find that the transition itself can be a place of grounding.
So this September, I invite you to ask yourself: What is one small shift I can make that allows me to move with the season, rather than against it?
