Seasonal constitutions: why your herbs should change with the weather

As the year turns, so does the human body. These changes are not simply external - they live within us. With shorter days, less light reaches the nervous system. Circulation slows. Sleep and waking rhythms shift. The immune system quietly reallocates its strength.

We herbalists name this the seasonal constitution: the way body, soul and spirit continually adapt to the environment. In summer, our constitution is expansive and outward. In autumn and winter, the organism calls for inwardness, warmth and resilience.

Modern research echoes this ancestral wisdom. Studies show that:

• Circadian rhythms shift with shorter daylight hours, influencing sleep, mood and hormone cycles.
• Immune activity reallocates in colder months, focusing energy on maintaining core warmth and resilience.
• Less outdoor exposure reduces natural vitamin D synthesis, impacting both mood and immune defense.

This inner dialogue with the world is not pathology - it is health in motion. To recognise it is to care wisely.

Why herbs are in conversationw with the seasons

Plants themselves embody rhythm. They root in darkness, reach toward light and adapt with astonishing intelligence to weather and cycle. When we use herbs in rhythm with the seasons, we do not impose: we accompany.

• Summer: Herbs that cool, clarify, and support the body’s natural ability to regulate against heat and pollen.
• Autumn and Winter: Herbs that sustain warmth, support the respiratory and digestive gateways and encourage resilience against seasonal challenges.

This mirrors what science tells us:

• Seasonal changes in melatonin and serotonin levels influence energy and mood.
• Respiratory vulnerability increases in autumn and winter, as colder air and more time indoors create a fertile environment for microbes.
• Metabolism slows slightly in colder months, shifting circulation inward.

Just as we do not wear the same clothes year-round, our herbs, too, must change.

Best herbal allies for autumn resilience

In curating extracts for this season, I have turned to allies that support the body’s natural ability to adjust to darker days and cooler air:

• Tulsi & Ashwagandha Elixir
  Adaptogenic support for shifting rhythms: helping the body re-align to altered sleep, work, and daylight cycles.
• Reishi & Tremella Triple Extracts
  Mushrooms that meet the gut and lungs: two places where we are in constant exchange with the outer world. They nurture calm, balance, and resilience during the colder months.
• Lime Flower & Cleavers Tincture: Gentle support for circulation and clearing, encouraging inward balance as metabolism slows and energy turns to restoration.

Listening to your own constitution

Health is not a static state. It is a movement, a rhythm, a conversation. Herbal medicine is the art of seeing each person as an individual within nature’s larger whole.

To live well in autumn and winter is not to resist the season, but to accompany it wisely, with warmth, rhythm and plant companions chosen with care.

Herbs are not “fixes.” They are allies in this seasonal conversation, helping the body do what it already knows: adapt, restore, and renew.

Explore the seasonal collection: