How to transition into a healthy autumn?

The moment when summer slowly turns to autumn and holiday season turns into the “last effort” of the year, usually comes with an increase in work volume as well as social events. It’s time to monitor your wellbeing and routines in order to transition into a healthy autumn.

For me personally, this year, the transition from the calmer summer into the busier autumn time, is really feel-able. I’ve confirmed the first workshops with clients and received the invitation to different events in the month of September. My agenda is filling up. I’m excited and really look forward to everything that’s about to come. And at the same time I realize: It’s time to adjust to the new schedule. But how to adjust easily? Reflecting on myself and different conversations with friends, I’ve come to the conclusion that sometimes we try to adjust or change too quickly. We go from 100% activity to 0% in our holidays. And now we try to do it the other way around. As if we were machines where you can just flip the button. So I’ve reflected on the things I’m putting into practice to transition consciously and healthily into autumn, to have enough energy for myself and others:

  1. Get 8 hours of sleep every night
    The first thing that often changes from the holiday to the “normal schedule” is the amount of hours we sleep. Suddenly we have to get up early again and might go from 8 hours or more to 6-7 hours on average. I’ve listened to several, really interesting podcasts around sleep this summer (I especially liked this one from DOAC with Dr Cheri Mah, a sleep scientist: Spotify link) and the conclusion is that we should all try to get 8 hours of sleep every night. For me personally this means going to bed early or, in case I have a late night event, trying to adapt my schedule to be able to sleep a bit longer the next day. Sleep is the base for our wellbeing. Here are some tricks to prepare your body and mind: How to sleep better.

  2. Include realistic, achievable wellbeing goals into your agenda
    Whether your holidays were full of wellbeing initiatives with regular exercise, enough sleep, nourishing food, relaxation, time with loved ones etc. or whether you didn’t look that much after your health and fitness: Autumn is a new chapter of the year and it’s important to include wellbeing slots and goals. When it comes to physical, emotional, mental, social wellbeing, the more time you can dedicate to yourself, the better. At the same time: Set goals you can reach. Examples: 15 minutes of exercise or movement daily. At least 1 healthy/balanced meal a day. 2 litres of water daily. 8 hours of sleep. 5 minutes break every 2 hours. 2 minutes of mindfulness in the morning (eg. in the shower). At least 1 quality time moment/catch-up with family/friends every day/week. Whatever it is, whatever makes you feel good. Start slowly and keep increasing the time and daily/weekly repetitions.
    If you want to create a new health routine from 0, this is your article: How to create a healthy habit

  3. Increase your intensity step by step
    The explanation of transition is “the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another” (Oxford dictionary) and I put the emphasis on the second word: It’s a process, not a sprint. Both for your job and your private activities, I recommend you to ask yourself: What am I really able to accomplish in the first 2-3 weeks after my holidays? And what needs to wait (because it stresses me to put it into the agenda and know I’m not able to do it anyways)? It’s better to set a few clear goals and achieve them or even feel there is time for another one, rather than burning all the energy from the beginning and feel exhausted after 3 weeks into the new season. In my personal case, I have set myself weekly and monthly goals for September that require about 70% of my energy level. When I reach them I stop because I know I could do more but I know my body will be grateful if I give him more time. I will increase my intensity step by step. This approach is part of living a conscious life with less stress and exhaustion. It’s in our hand to help our body adjust.

  4. Give yourself some “holiday moments
    Especially in the first week, I find it really helpful to plan little “holiday moments” in my agenda. If you can you can do this on the weekend/your day off: Take the time for what you love to do in your holidays. Maybe you even want to plan a little excursion but you can do this in your home as well. Just make sure you take time off of everything, without doing things in the household, without organizing or planning: a little, conscious “get-away” from the routine you are creating. It doesn’t have to be a half or full day, it can also be a few hours, even 30 minutes are amazing. I’m sure you are already thinking of something. Don’t let the “autumn work routine” draw you fully in yet. Give yourself time and space to slowly transition.


    To sum up: I know everyone of you reading this, has a different routine and responsibilities and some things I mentioned might seem challenging. It’s all possibleadjusted to your personal situation and needs, of course. Nobody will give you a prize if you burn all your recharged energy within the first weeks and feel exhausted again at the end of September or beginning of October. Taking care of your own wellbeing gives you the necessary energy to be there for others as well as for your responsibilities and dreams. This helps you to have a healthy autumn which leads to a healthy winter which leads to a healthy closing of the year and a healthy start of the next…

Founder Little healthy habits ~ Mental balance & Wellbeing ~ Workshops for you and your team ~ Yogi ~ Globetrotter ~ Sales Leader & Advisor ~ Passionate about bringing mental balance to fast-paced organizations.

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