Why I'm Exploring Seasonal Wellbeing

I've spent much of my career working in health and wellbeing, including within the NHS.

Like many people working in this field, I've seen incredible advances in healthcare, psychology and behaviour change science. We know more than ever about nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress and disease prevention.

And yet, many of us still feel exhausted, disconnected and overwhelmed.

This has led me to a question I've been sitting with recently:

How do we live as healthy humans in a modern world that often feels disconnected from the rhythms we evolved within?

I'm not interested in romanticising the past. Life was undoubtedly harder for previous generations in many ways, and modern medicine has transformed countless lives.

But I do wonder whether we've lost some important ingredients of wellbeing along the way.

Humans evolved in close relationship with nature. We lived in communities where people knew their neighbours. Life followed seasonal rhythms. There were natural periods of activity and rest. People spent more time outdoors and had a stronger connection to place.

Many of these experiences weren't wellbeing practices. They were simply life.

Today, we increasingly have to make deliberate efforts to recreate what once happened naturally.

• We schedule time in nature.

• We join walking groups to find community.

• We use mindfulness apps to create moments of pause.

• We are trying to reintroduce things that many humans once experienced as part of everyday life.

This is one reason I'm becoming increasingly interested in seasonal wellbeing.

Not as a trend. Not as an alternative to healthcare. And not as a rejection of science.

Instead, I see it as an invitation to pay attention.

What happens when we notice the changing seasons rather than moving through the year as though every month should look the same?

What happens when we create more opportunities for connection with nature, community and ourselves?

What can we learn from traditional knowledge and practices, while also remaining curious about what the evidence tells us?

I don't think we need to choose between science and wisdom.

Some traditional practices are strongly supported by research. Others are less well understood. Some may simply help us create meaning, reflection and connection in our lives.

For me, the most interesting place is not at either extreme.

It's in the space where evidence, experience, nature and community meet.

Over the coming months, I'll be exploring these ideas more deeply through my work, my forest therapy training and my own experiments with seasonal living.

I'm interested in what happens when we stop asking how to optimise ourselves and start asking a different question:

• What helps humans flourish?

  
  

I'd love to hear your thoughts.