Peak seasonal change, only three months left in 2025, and everything is shifting.
Do you feel it too? The last three months of the year, especially October, reward attention to the everyday. There’s clarity to the month, and in my opinion, it’s the easiest time to influence how you live your days. What you cook, what you wear, how you spend your mornings, moments that squeeze out excitement and comfort from everyday life. Still warm enough for a cafe visit but can order a hot seasonal drink, yet cool enough to crave golden lights, cosy corners, home baking, or working somewhere that feels like a home away from home.
Halloween decorations, autumnal colours, pumpkin-spiced treats, there’s warmth, there’s energy. October encourages you to play with your environment, experiment with habits, and indulge in the textures of the season. The best feeling is when you start to feel in tune with the month.
Here’s the October guide, ideas to make the month feel richer. Each week is its own chapter. October is about embracing the season, holding onto its light, and squeezing out as much warmth, comfort, and excitement as possible.
A month full of autumn dopamine.
Week 1: Settling into October
Reset Your Mornings and Nights
October is a natural point to rethink the frameworks that guide your days, swapping in seasonal tweaks for morning and night routines. In the mornings, you could swap out iced coffee or smoothies for something warmer: a spiced latte, hot chocolate, or simply your favourite tea. As the mornings grow darker, turn on lamps instead of the harsh overhead light, light a few candles, find ways to romanticise the early hour. In the evenings, lean into comfort: longer pajamas, throw blankets, and fluffy robes. Simple seasonal shifts like these reset your days for the new month, making the start and finish of each day feel a little more in tune with October.
Season-Themed Grocery Run / Farmers Market
Step into the month with an autumnal shopping mindset. Head to your local market or grocery store and look for ingredients that are and feel seasonal: pumpkin, chestnuts, apples, fresh herbs. Pay attention to the colours and varieties as you shop and pick up a few items that could inspire cosy meals at home: colourful veges, spiced fruit loaf, cardamon. Line up your fresh produce on the counter and let it inspire how you’ll use it over the coming days. A grocery run or trip to the farmers market is an easy way to bring the season into your kitchen, influencing the meals you cook, the drinks you make, and helping you feel more inspired with how you nourish yourself.
Movie Night
Turn an ordinary evening into something special by creating your own cinema. Gather blankets, pillows, anything that makes your space feel cosy. Dim the lights and add a few small lamps or fairy lights to give the room ambience. Make a “concession stand” with popcorn and toppings, cinnamon sugar, chocolate chips, chilli salt. Pick a film that fits the mood: maybe a season classic or a favourite comfort film. Nights like this make staying in feel like a treat; with the evenings longer, it’s the perfect time to shift into more home-based activities.
Week 2: Autumn Dopamine
Bake, Bake, Bake
This month, let baking take centre stage. Fill your kitchen with the smells of your favourite treats, carrot cake, pumpkin loaf, sweet potato muffins, spiced cookies, sugar cookies. Don’t hold back: layer flavours, experiment with toppings, revisit a classic recipe with a new twist. Baking becomes a way to fill the home with warmth and seasonal energy, a little boost for any afternoon.
Heated Workout
Take your usual movement routine and add warmth, intensity, or just a new format to wake up your body. Whether it’s a hot yoga flow, a HIIT circuit, or hot pilates class, make it something that challenges you and leaves you feeling energised. Layer up in comfortable activewear, feel the difference between the crisp air outside and the heat inside. Shake up the slower mornings and enjoy the post-workout glow as a reward for showing up for yourself.
Fika
Make time for a proper fika this week, a deliberate pause that feels different from your usual coffee break. At home or at a cafe, sit down with drink and a small baked treat: a cinnamon bun, cardamom roll, or a slice of your weekend bake. Carve out a moment in the day that feels meaningful. Let the act of stopping, tasting, and enjoying become its own little celebration of the season. By the time you leave, even an hour-long break can lift your mood, give your afternoon a gentle spark, and remind you that slowing down can feel as indulgent as anything else. Bring someone along for conversation, or simply enjoy a solo pause to breathe and recharge.
Soup Sunday
Make Sunday your unofficial soup day. Soup Sunday fits perfectly into October because it matches the month’s energy: a balance of warmth and freshness, comfort and clarity. Make use of your fresh produce and celebrate the changing season in your kitchen. Try recipes you’ve never made before, or give a twist to a classic favourite: roasted pumpkin with ginger and turmeric, chilli dal, miso with greens, or pea and mint.
Week 3: Play & Treats
Flower Arranging Class
Take a class, or even just set aside some time at home to work with flowers in rich, autumnal tones. Think wine reds, rich burgundies, deep purples, dusty greens, include dried stems, berries, elements to give your arrangements depth. This is an activity that’s both creative and inspiring. Use it to decorate a table, a shelf, a mantel, letting your space reflect the textures and tones of autumn!
Go Eat a Hot Bowl of Noodle Soup
As the evenings cool down, a hot bowl of noodles and broth becomes entirely appropriate. Ramen, Pho, braised beef noodle soup…. Simple, satisfying, and exactly what you might need after a long day. The warmth in your hands, the steam rising from the bowl, the comforting familiarity of the flavours hits differently this time of year. Sometimes there’s no need for anything elaborate; a good noodle soup is just perfect for colder nights. Quick, easy, decisive.
Game Night
Organise a game night, invite friends, family, or just your flatmates and set up an evening of board games, card games, or trivia. Game nights are an easy way to turn a regular evening into something full of energy. Indoor activities can feel just as exciting as anything outside!
Week 4:
Reservation for Dessert
Instead of a full dinner, plan a late-night dessert outing. Go out later in the evening. Skip the usual ice cream or frozen yogurt, think tiramisu, warm pie, or a slice of chocolate cake. Make a reservation or just walk in, enjoy going out for something sweet. Whether it’s with friends or solo, it’s a special way to extend the night, enjoy a treat, and feel the excitement of the last week of October.
Halloween Dinner Party
Close out October with a Halloween dinner that’s fun without being over the top. Invite a small group of friends and ask everyone to dress up, masks, hats, or a full costume if they want. Set up with a few candles, a few decorations. The focus is on having fun together: share themed snacks, drinks, take photos, have a costume contest. It’s about capturing the excitement of Halloween while still keeping things relaxed, so you wake up the next day without any hangover or exhaustion. Halloween is the perfect way to close October and mark the start of festivities.
October is your moment to embrace the shift. With only three months left in 2025, it’s a chance to notice what feels good and what you want more of before the year ends. Take what worked in the months behind you, leave what didn’t, and let yourself lean into the energy this month offers.
Maybe that means experimenting with your mornings and nights, trying new recipes, sharing moments with friends, or finding ways to make everyday life feel brighter.
I love love October! Let the last couple weeks of the year be about enjoying warmth, connection, bursts of excitement and feeling cosy.
Autumn energy at its best!
Chat soon!
Nancy Xx
There has never been something I subscribe more to than a soup Sunday 🥣
I love autumn so much. Loved reading this, thanks.