The Living Seasons Project
A Preventive Health Program for Living and Thriving with the Seasons
In the course of my day-to-day physician-ing practice at The Buddha's Medicine, I find myself returning to the same core insight again and again: the body knows how to heal itself, and is always doing the work of healing.
Our job — yours, mine, and everyone else's — is to get out of the way and let it happen.
That sounds simple enough. But in practice, things can be a bit more complicated.
We live in a world and a culture that has largely forgotten how to move and flow with the rhythms of nature. We have access to the same foods in January that we eat in July. Sleep schedules stay the same, even as seasonal patterns of daylight change. We learn to push through fatigue in the fall and find ourselves sick by winter. Movement and exercise so easily fall by the wayside when pressures and demands on our schedules mount.
So it's no wonder that when something goes wrong, as a society, we lean on what we've learned through modern convenience. As a culture, what we have learned is to go seeking quick fixes — a pill, a protocol, a procedure. As a culture, we have lost the thread of seeking what we might have missed along the way.
I've been a student of Ayurveda for more than 16 years (as of the time of writing), and a licensed medical doctor for more than 12 years. And one of the foundational teachings that I still find the most powerful is the concept of ritucharya (pronounced ree-too-CHAR-ya) — the practice of aligning daily life (nutrition, exercise, activities, and more) with the seasons. In Ayurveda, this isn't any lifestyle trend or wellness hack; it's an essential process for maintaining health and preventing disease. And yet, it's something that modern life has made remarkably easy to ignore.
So I decided to do something about that.
Our Contribution: The Living Seasons Project
The Living Seasons Project is a physician-guided (by me personally) seasonal preventive health and wellness program designed for everyone, including you! The Living Seasons Project harnesses key and universal tools of lifestyle medicine like evidence-based nutrition, exercise and movement, and stress reduction, and more to optimize our community's health. What sets The Living Seasons Project apart is how we apply Ayurvedic principles to all of those tools to optimize them for each season of the year.
This is not a "detox" program, though you will shed metabolic toxins. It's not a "cleanse" in the Instagram sense of the word, though you should expect to feel clearer and healthier. It's not another harsh fasting program where you starve for days on end.
The Living Seasons Project is a structured, informed, fully-guided approach to preventive health that aligns your physiology with the changing of each season. It is rooted in classical Ayurvedic principles, and informed by my training in modern integrative and lifestyle medicine. The Living Seasons Project is aligned with the kind of care I offer my patients one-on-one, adapted for a group format so that more people can access it from wherever in the world they might be.
Each season, our Project participants get:
Active guidance during the transition between seasons (what we call the sandhi — the junction between one season and the next), including daily tips, pre-recorded educational content, and seasonal reset protocols;
Educational content from me covering the "why" and "how" of seasonal living;
High-quality video content on movement, herbal medicine, fasting practices (the Ayurvedic way), reflective activities, and more;
Comprehensive resources from myself and Jess (our creative collaborator) including seasonal shopping lists, internationally-inspired recipes, lunar calendars, and self-care protocols;
Biweekly virtual office hours for ongoing questions and community connection;
Bonus practices like yoga nidra, marma (Ayurvedic acupressure) self-treatment tutorials, and seasonal mantra practices;
And more.
The focus is on what Ayurveda calls svasthya — a state of being "established in oneself" healthfully. In more modern language, we might call it resilience, or vitality, or simply feeling well in your own skin. It's about extending your healthspan — the years you spend feeling genuinely good and thriving — rather than your lifespan alone.
Why Seasonal Health Matters
There are many recent scientific discoveries that support so much of what Ayurveda has taught for thousands of years. We could talk about circadian biology and how light exposure affects everything from mood to metabolism. We could discuss the microbiome and how seasonal shifts in diet influence gut health. We could review the research on inflammation and how it tends to flare at certain times of year for certain people. There is so much we could discuss.
But since this is a blog post introducing our new program and not an exhaustive review, I'll spare you the gritty details.
Here's the short version: your body is not static. It changes with the seasons — whether you're paying attention to it or not. And when we ignore those changes, we accumulate imbalances. Small ones at first. Subclinical, as we say in medicine. But over time, those imbalances can progress into symptoms, and symptoms can become diseases. The more imbalances we accumulate with time, the more diagnoses we accumulate, too.
In Ayurvedic terms, this is the process of samprapti — the pathogenesis of disease. And the good news is that it's much, much easier to intervene and act early in that process than to reverse course once things have fully manifested.
That's what ritucharya and The Living Seasons Project is for. It's preventive medicine in the truest sense — not screening for disease that's already developed, but creating the kind of conditions in the body that make disease less likely to take root.
Six Seasons? Really?
If you've spent any time studying Ayurveda, you've probably noticed that, canonically, there are six seasons — not four. This isn't arbitrary or accidental.
The classical Ayurvedic calendar recognizes:
Shishira (late winter)
Vasanta (spring)
Grishma (early summer)
Varsha (late summer/rainy/monsoon)
Sharada (autumn)
Hemanta (early winter)
Each of these seasons has distinct, unique qualities — in terms of temperature, moisture, light, and more — that affect the doshas (the physiologic forces of vata, pitta, and kapha) in specific ways. By recognizing the patterns these fine distinctions follow over the year, we can make precise adjustments to diet, daily routine, and self-care practices that improve their benefits.
Of course, climate also varies by region. Here in the Pacific Northwest, where our clinic is located, our seasons don't look exactly like they do on the Indian subcontinent where Ayurveda originated. Part of what we explore in The Living Seasons Project is how to adapt classical principles to your local environment — and also to your constitution.
What a Season Looks Like
Each season follows a similar rhythm, though the specific content of the season shifts based on the qualities of that time of year.
During the sandhi — the 2-week transitional window between seasons — you'll receive the most active support: lifestyle tips, educational content, and seasonal reset protocols to help your body adapt. This is when the work is most potent, and when thoughtful attention matters most.
Mid-season, the pace shifts. For the rest of the season, you'll have access to biweekly pre-recorded content on topics like seasonal movement, nature's medicines (like accessible medicinal herbs), and reflective practices — along with yoga nidra recordings, marma self-treatment tutorials, and mantra practice.
Throughout the season, we hold biweekly, live virtual office hours where you can ask questions, troubleshoot challenges, and connect with the community. You'll also have access to comprehensive PDF resources: shopping lists, recipes, fasting and feasting protocols, lunar calendars, and more.
The structure is designed to give you what you need when you need it — without overwhelming you.
Is This Right for You?
The Living Seasons Project is designed for people who want to take an active role in their health — not just when something goes wrong, but as an ongoing practice.
And it's a good fit if:
You are interested in preventing illness and disease
You have health conditions that would benefit from lifestyle intervention and care (hint: that's basically all health conditions)
You're curious about Ayurveda, but want qualified physician-level guidance
You're looking for a friendly, effective self-care program that doesn't mistreat your body
You've tried detox programs and other cleanses, but want something more sustainable
You're ready to understand why certain practices work for your body, and others don't
You value community support and accountability
No prior experience with Ayurveda is required. We cover the foundational concepts in our video content at the top of each season before diving into more seasonal specifics.
That said, this program is also educational, and the focus is on self-care. It does not constitute medical treatment or replace care from your healthcare provider. If you're managing a specific health condition, I strongly encourage you to also consider working with me or another qualified healthcare provider one-on-one.
Pricing and Enrollment
The program is offered in three formats:
Single Season: $399
Semi-Annual (2 Seasons): $1,050
Annual (4 Seasons): $1,800
Established patients of The Buddha's Medicine receive 40% off. And if you register at least one month before a season begins, you'll save $50 per season.
For all of our participants, we're also offering 50% off two of our evergreen courses — The Essentials of Ayurvedic Daily Living: Dinacharya and Ayurvedic Self-Care: Viral Infections for program participants — along with $150 off a one-on-one consultation with me if you find you need more individualized support.
A Note on Community
One of the things I value most about this program is the community element.
In my one-on-one practice, I get to know each of my patients very well — their constitution, their patterns, their values, what makes them tick. But there's something different that happens in a group setting. People learn from each other. They see their own patterns reflected in others. They feel less alone in the essential work of changing habits and building new rhythms.
This is part of why I've brought Jess into The Living Seasons Project. Jess serves as the support system for the program — helping our program community with the practical implementation of Ayurvedic recommendations, from recipes to shopping lists to pacing changes when life gets busy. And, of course, I'm there throughout the process. I'm there in the educational content and office hours, answering questions about theory and practice, and helping you troubleshoot when things don't go as planned. Because they won't always go as planned. That's part of the practice, and that's why we have each other.
Join Us
If any or all of this resonates with you, I invite you to join us for the next season of The Living Seasons Project.
You can learn more and register here.
And if you're not sure whether this is the right fit, we offer free 15-minute consultations to talk through it. You can book one here.
I'll leave you with this: your body already knows how to heal. It also knows how to adapt to the seasons — it's been doing it for as long as humans have existed.
The question is whether or not we're listening.
See you soon!
Professional disclaimer: The Living Seasons Project is an educational program focused on preventive health and self-care. It does not constitute medical treatment or replace care from your healthcare provider. Please do not initiate any herbal or other medicinal interventions without the guidance of a knowledgeable provider.
Professional disclaimer: please do not initiate any herbal or other medicinal interventions without the guidance of a knowledgeable provider.
Dr. Matt Van Auken, MD, MPH
Dr. Matt is an Ayurveda-trained, triple board-certified physician.
