How to Reset for September Without Adding to Your To-Do List

September is the bridge between the warm sunny days of the summer and the gloomy but busy last days of the year. The season behind us is filled with travels, BBQs and the warm beats of beach parties. The season ahead of us is filled with rainy afternoons, last deadlines, spooky expectations, gratitude wishes and jingle bells.

So, September is the wind-down before the big wind-up, and that needs to be honoured.

I’ve already created a fall reset for busy women, but what if you had the time to enjoy every second of the season? What if you wanted the long journaling sessions, the pumpkin spice lattes and candles?

For you, the homebody who loves soaking in the calmness of fall, I have a gentle September reset that would help you get that much-needed break from the summer and get inspired to finish the year strong.

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Gentle September Reset – Mindset

Your mindset for this reset might be like this: “Everyone is making plans, but I am not. I am taking a deep breath and figuring out what I need to do or experience, so I can feel recharged and ready for the next few months.”

And this, right there, is your simple guide through the month. You can choose one of those or follow through with them all.

Say a proper goodbye to the summer

Here’s a wonderful way to wave summer goodbye. Print the best photos from the past three months and spend an afternoon creating a scrapbook with your memories.

You literally need the simplest scrapbook. Next, choose colorful, summer-inspired paper ephemera to decorate it with. Add your photos, maybe jot down a few memories here and there, and there you have it, your closing-up of the summer.

Invite calmness into your life through Hygge

Hygge is the Danish way to live cozily and enjoy the small moments in life. And while most of us imagine a solo evening next to the fireplace while hugging a mug of mulled wine and reading a novel, hygge isn’t just that.

Hygge is a moment, a frozen-in-time experience you will probably come back to in your memories.

Hygge could be a short moment in a small cabin where you went with your friends, and now everyone’s gathered in the living room, and the chat has gotten quiet for a moment.

Hygge could be a long ride with the bus back home from work, you sitting on a seat by the window, and watching the raindrops dance outside, while listening to a mother behind you explaining something to her child.

Hygge could also be the feeling of coming home on a Friday evening, switching the lights on in your kitchen, grabbing a glass of wine and cozying up with your dog at your feet.

Hygge could be everything that brings a moment of peace, calmness, coziness, a moment of “Oh, I wish this could last forever.”

Your task isn’t to create those moments, but to notice them. They happen spontaneously, when you least expect them. Yes, decorating your home for the fall season is fun, but that alone isn’t creating a hygge experience. You let hygge happen regardless of the decorations around you.

Notice the cozy.

Choose your experiences

September offers the best of everything – seasonal fruits that are juicy and taste like the late summer sun, carpets of colorful leaves in the parks, sunny mornings (perfect for walks), gloomy afternoons (perfect for tea or mulled wine).

You can choose what you wish to experience this season, like a bucket list, but without the rush of “I must do it”.

So, choose what part of the season you want to soak in. Make a short list, no more than five items, and see if you can gently invite those experiences into your life. Plan a picnic in the park on a warmer weekend, create art with the dry leaves, get yourself a fall-inspired sweater or coat, read a book under a tree… your options are endless.

In fact, if you want more ideas, see my list of 50 fall bucket list ideas right here.

Create a small ritual for the month

Remember September as the month you chose to celebrate through tiny rituals – weekly or daily. Need ideas? Here are a few I just came up with – choose one, not all of them:

• Write in your gratitude journal every day;
• Cook a hearty meal every Sunday, for yourself or your family;
• Go on a mini-trip in your area every Saturday – pick a random direction every time and see where the road takes you;
• Spend an afternoon with a dear friend every week;
• Try a different selection of teas every Thursday – Thursdays are usually so neglected, but why not celebrate them in some tiny way?
• Take a photo of the same tree every day of the month and then print all photos to create a time lapse of the season.

Look after yourself… on the inside

Everything above will likely help you feed your soul with good experiences. But you might still crave some self-care, so do it all – the pampering, the cozy candles by the windows, the hunt for the best seasonal book, the early bedtime routine so you can sleep well and wake up happy the next day.

Look after yourself, prioritise your needs, be mindful about those needs and find tiny ways to satisfy them.

Speaking of the best seasonal books, here are a few suggestions from me:

• Cackle by Rachel Harrison; – witchy vibes, witty lines;
• Pumpkin Head by Faith Erin Hicks – a cute graphic novel about two friends and their last shift on a pumpkin patch;
• The Honeycrisp Orchard Inn by Valerie Bowman – a cozy romance, something no reader can ignore;
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – something darker, but partly love story

Also, if you want specific fall self-care ideas, I give you 17 of them right here.

Final Thoughts

Before I let you enjoy your September, I want to remind you that a good reset isn’t a list you should follow, but a call of the heart. You know best what September should look like for it to give you the best life reset. Maybe all the coziness needs a bit of planning for the end of the year – add that. Maybe your focus should be better sleep and lots of hearty meals – enjoy those. Maybe you only need a long list of books to hide you from the noise outside – get those.

So, you know best how to prioritise your inner peace, what mindfulness means to you and how to make the most meaningful moments happen this year. Do everything, but if you feel like you need a break from it all – maybe you’ve taken it too far.

This reset should be the break itself.