The Unbothered September Vibe — How We’re Living This Month
There’s a particular kind of quiet that shows up in September. Not the loud, declarative rest of a vacation, it’s actually something smaller and more private. It’s the first time in months you close a book instead of a tab and actually feel the difference. It’s remembering you have a mind that wants room to wander, without a notification chasing it down.
August was loud. It asked a lot of us and we gave it. September is asking for something else: attention, paid back to ourselves, on purpose.
This month, The Unbothered are turning the page (literally and otherwise 😌). Here’s everything we’re building this September, from what’s on our nightstands to what’s on repeat to how we’re spending the hours we used to hand over to a screen without thinking twice.
How September Feels
September feels like the hush of a house at 7pm, candle lit, phone in another room. It’s deciding this is the month you finally finish what you started and start what you kept meaning to. It’s flour on your hands, a record on, nowhere to be.
It’s also a quiet kind of honesty because you realize summer kept you loud and busy AF, and this month is asking you to get quiet and slow down on purpose. Not because quiet is required, but because it’s been a long time since you chose it instead of falling into it by accident.
What September Sounds Like
The Unbothered September playlist is very much giving smooth and grown up, the kind of sound that mimics a record crackling before the first song starts. Think unhurried, autumn-leaning without tipping into pumpkin spice cliché: the sound of a slow Sunday turning into a slow Tuesday. It’s built for a book in your lap and nowhere to be.
Find the full playlist and press play the next time you want the room to feel a little slower.
What We’re Consuming This Month
Reading: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Present, unhurried, no plot to keep up with, which is exactly the kind of book September asks for. It’s a book you don’t finish so much as sit inside (it was also one of the books Oprah and Keke Palmer talked about on her podcast).
Watching: Insecure, rewatched from the very beginning to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Yes, you read that right, it’s been 10 years since that show started. There was an actual event happening in Atlanta for it and I had tickets and e’rythang. But they recently cancelled it due to everyone’s busy schedules. I’m PISSED! The 10 year anniversary is still the right excuse to go back through the whole series just to remember why it mattered the first time.
Doing: An afternoon at a used bookstore or record shop, but don’t go with a shopping list or itinerary beyond browsing. Let the store tell you what to buy when you get there. The rule is simple: let yourself leave with one thing you weren’t looking for.
What’s In Our World This Month
These are the things making July feel like something worth slowing down for. All linked via ShopMy →
Fresh nuts or trail mix. But get the store brand, specifically looking for the section of the store where they package things. In Publix this nut section is always near produce. I keep the roasted and salted shelled sunflower seeds that Publix packages (it’s friggin delicious and I be feeling hella healthy). It’s what I reach for when I need a quick lil snack while I’m working or as a lil pick me up before bed when I ain’t got no business eating food that late.
NYT Everyday Unpuzzling crossword book. I love New Yorkers and I always wanted to be one of the ones who do the Sunday Times crossword puzzle. So when I saw this daily puzzle book at the Barnes & Noble that was closing on Cobb Pkwy (here in Atlanta), I immediately got it. I feel hella sophisticated for doing it instead of scrolling 😌 Shop it →
Astrology adult coloring book. Sounds silly until you’re 20 minutes in and your shoulders have dropped and by the time you finish, you realize you did a mindful activity for hours. Here’s what I colored recently. I’ve since purchased acrylic markers because the colored pencils had my hands feeling like I have carpal tunnel! I was coloring for hours, but I ain’t got time for my hands to be hurting like that 😅 Shop it →
Book nook puzzle. I purchased mine at a local bookstore in Fayetteville whilst on a staycation. I love puzzles, but is a step up from the traditional puzzle. I can’t see myself hanging puzzles on my wall and I’mma be pissed if I complete a puzzle and then disassemble it when I’m done. I love that this starts off as an activity and ends up being a part of my decor. Shop it →
Sleepy Girl Mocktail. My ADHD brain goes a mile a minute at bedtime, so when I heard of the sleepy girl mocktail around the time my doctor told me I needed to start taking magnesium glycinate, I figured “why the hell not.” It’s just tart cherry juice and magnesium glycinate (make sure it’s glycinate and not any of the other kinds!). Just blend together and add a little fizz (I do kombucha) in a wine glass for a little razzle dazzle before bed. It will be the most peaceful sleep you’ve ever gotten and it’s all natural. Shop it →
Magazine subscription + magazine holder. I’m genuinely concerned about how much print and owned media we’ve lost of the last decade or so. So now I’m intentionally supporting print media, I just subscribed to Essence magazine (we no longer have all those cool Black hair magazines or Black people centered magazines like Hype and them). I also subscribe to Cosmo (A teenage love I kept up with until my late 20s). I also finally have somewhere to keep them instead of on the table taking up space, which somehow made me actually read them instead of just buying them. Shop it →
The Unbothered September Syllabus
Things to Do This September
- Leave your phone in another room for one whole meal this week
- Thrift a stack of DVDs or books just because they still have spines and jewel cases
- Start the puzzle, book, or project that’s been sitting half-finished
- Get a library card if you don’t have one — check out something you’d never buy
- Watch a movie that made you cry happy tears once, and let it again
- Fill a little bowl with something you love snacking on and carry it around the house like it’s yours — because it is
- Buy yourself a magazine at the checkout line, on purpose, and actually read it
- Write one page by hand about nothing in particular
Hobbies for Every Kind of Unbothered Woman
Letter writing — for The Ritualist. Handwritten letters, sealed and set aside to open later. The ceremony of writing something you’re not sending yet.
Ice cream shop hopping — for The Wanderer. A new stand every week. Low stakes, high payoff, an actual reason to explore a new corner of your city.
Reading nook building — for The Nester. One corner, a chair, good light. Build the spot before you worry about filling it with the right book.
Textile touch — for The Sensualist. Throws and fabrics chosen entirely for how they feel, not just how they look.
Adult coloring — for The Unplugged. A coloring book and a table, no goal required. Twenty minutes of something with your hands and nothing on a screen.
Print media revival — for all of us. Magazines, library cards, something with actual pages. The most affordable analog habit there is.
How to Anti-Rot Your Morning
- Charge your phone in a different room overnight — let an alarm clock or the sunlight wake you instead
- Read one page of an actual book before you open any app
- Leave the TV and music off until you’ve been up for 20 minutes
- Pick out what you’re wearing the night before, so your morning doesn’t start with a decision
How to Anti-Rot Your Evening
- Put on a physical movie instead of scrolling for one to watch
- Turn off the TV 30 minutes before you actually plan to sleep
- Write down one thing from today you don’t want to forget, on paper
- Let the house get quiet before you get quiet by turning off what’s humming in the background
How to Anti-Rot Your Weekend
- Spend a whole Saturday morning with a puzzle, a coloring book, or a crossword and nowhere to be
- Go to a matinee alone, in the morning or middle of the day, just because you can
- Leave your phone behind entirely for one outing this weekend
- Spend an afternoon doing nothing that requires a screen
This Month’s Unbothered Type: The Unplugged
This month we’re spotlighting The Unplugged — the last of the 5 Unbothered Types, and worth the wait. She chooses the book over the phone, on purpose, every single time. She owns DVDs in a streaming world because she wants to actually own what she loves. She turns her phone face-down at her own dinner table, and she finds the good stuff in being bored instead of scrolling past it. Her attention is the most valuable thing she has, and she spends it like she knows it.
This September, that looks like finally finishing the puzzle that’s been sitting half-done since spring. It looks like trading one hour of scrolling a day for one hour of an actual book, filling a bowl with something good to snack on and carrying it room to room with her phone nowhere in sight, and ending the month having read more pages than she’s swiped.
Her anthem: “I don’t need to see it to know I didn’t miss it.”
Find your type, take the Unbothered Type Quiz →
The September Collection
September’s Collection is built around The Unplugged and the theme “Turning the Page” — a full month of rituals, recipes, and solo dates designed to help members protect their attention and slow all the way down. Members get the full experience delivered to their door. If you want to reserve October’s collection join today
We’re Unbothered. Welcome to September.
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