Human nature and seasonal shifts.

Sunrise skies are different each day. Yesterday was vibrant, today bleak, it reminds me of the human experience. No two days are the same. One day can feel grey, less exciting but the sun still rises. The clouds masking the vivid orange sweet tango sunshine but it’s still there. The lightness, the vibrancy in you is always there.

Can I see beyond the clouds, separating them to expose the sun.

Drawing a circle in the clouds, pushing the centre ‘pop’ like slicing the core out of an apple, to reveal the masterpiece beyond the veil.

Can I do the same when my feelings feel heavy like the clouds?

Visualise beyond the present experience and circumstances?

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Walking in the Rain…

Walking in the Rain, Thursdays rain

Why do we avoid the rain? Yet shriek in delight at the sight of snow?

Why do we avoid the rain, when the patting of raindrops colliding with my hood, evokes a sense of warming protection, reminding me of the cosines felt on being inside the lounge den I used to make as a child!

Walking in the rain…I notice the birds, animals, nature…they are the only beings out here!

The guls, move slower…there is no threat, perhaps their wings are heavy and drenched. Does it make it harder to fly, carrying the water?

Where do guls sleep and what do they eat? …except my obvious answer – chips! How low we think of them?!

The man brings the seeds. The seagulls flock.

Is our food tastier? Or just easier as they don’t have to find it?

As humans we have the same options and patterns.

Fresh homegrown, untouched produce, far richer in flavour but it takes time and effort. Or supermarket packaged produce and fast food which is more expensive and less flavoursome…. we always pick the easier option. We look for ease despite the consequences. (Tradeoff/payoff)

To have shelter when the skies are wild, is the most prescious thing.

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Does the weather affect our mood?

How can nature and the weather affect our mood? Can nature and the weather signal us to release emotion?

When it thunders;

• Should we let out the rage,
• See it as a reminder to let out the rage, or any disturbance that has been troubling us? Release it before it shakes us and erupts.

When lightning strikes;

• Should we absorb the energy?
• Should we open up, and switch on our light to those all around us?

When the sun shines;

• Should we remind ourselves that our energy is endless and powerful as long as we keep recharging
• Should we use the energy for new growth – of ourselves, of nature, of those around us.

When it rains;

• Should we help each other more?
• Should we rejoice at life…the giving, watering and bringing life or a new way of being into form?
• Should we settle ourselves, rehydrate our spiritual self?

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Seasons of Life

I loved listening to this podcast episode, although the idea of ‘Wintering’ is probably not on your minds if you reside in the northern hemisphere, the ideas discussed sparked curiosity about what our state of being is or used to be based on the seasons.

On Being Podcast with Katherine May:

Seasonal emotional shifts are a ‘thing’, most of us are probably familiar with Seasonal Affective Disorder – SAD for short. It’s a type of depression that is experienced during certain months or seasons of the year – it can affect someone ANY time of the year but for the majority of people ‘SAD’ symptoms are felt in Winter.

How about other times of the year? When ‘happenings’ or fixtures trigger certain feelings, apprehensions or associations within us?

• When the calendar notifies us that Winter is over and Spring has begun?
• When the daylight hours increase and you first notice that it is still light when finishing work for the day?
• Or when summer is approaching, a season which is supposed to be exuberantly fun…but depending on where you live, your job, your finances perhaps summer silently triggers apprehensiveness?
• Perhaps you are working hard and focussed on launching a new business or project and summer shenanigans, invitations, social media pictures highlight how fun and carefree everything ‘should’ be, which triggers FOMO and the project you are super excited about now you begin to resent it? You feel like you should be having more fun, doing something else?
• When September is round the corner, you don’t have children and you are well into adulting, but the same time each year (whether you are aware of it at the time or not) a nervous energy shifts your care free summer vibe! Does our childhood back to school emotion/trauma stay with us?

The ‘Emotional Calendar’ idea may seem a bit out there and as our preferences to hot or cold, day or night vary human to human. The changes in our emotional state might not be super obvious, but all the same we know something just feels different. Factor in the unique lived experiences and events the emotional calendar could vary considerably.

Our working lives, our central heating systems, the technology and lights we are able to use 24/7 do not give any clues to the natural fluctuations of our physical and mental bodies would have experienced 200 years ago. Fresh fruit and vegetables all have seasons, which perhaps gave our bodies signals of the seasonal shifts. Now we can buy anything any time of the year.

Animals have seasons for hibernation, reproduction, feasting etc. Humans in an economic society are expected to be switched, engaged and ready to go 365 days of the year. So if our emotional system is out of sync with this expectation – there is ‘something wrong with us’. We then create resistance within our body and mind….’I shouldn’t be feeling this way’.

Perhaps we should be feeling it? Perhaps there is absolutely nothing wrong with you other than emotional fluctuations brought about by the seasons, the amount of light and sensitivity of your nervous system. If that be true and if nature is our truth then how can we bring back this awareness to our modern lives.

Suggestions:

• Wake up with natural daylight as often as you can.
• Go camping, sleeping outside is immersing yourself in the sensory delights of nature.
• Eat with the seasons – select summer/winter fruits and vegetables when its summer or winter.
• What is nature doing during each season of the year? Would it benefit you to align to nature’s way?
• Get up to watch sunrise as often as you can. Simply noticing the varying times of sunrise and location of sunrise through the year will give you a sense of time and change.
• Reduce stimulating light from technology in the evenings. Read a book instead of watching a TV or screen.

Research from an article on Livescience.com

Daylight matters: Scientists have known that mammals have an internal clock, that governs our sleep wake cycle among other daily functions. Light provides us with nonvisual cues that influence things like pupil dialation, alertness, melatonin levels and heart rate modultaion.

Light receptors in the retina, pass along the nonvisual information used to reset our circadian rhythms.

FUN FACT: The average human circadian rhythm is 24hrs and 11mins, people with a longer natural cycle tend to be night owls and shorter cycles the morning larks!

I am a morning Lark!!

Having researched seasonal affects on mood, behaviour and cognitive function my first conclusion is that there is little research out there because there are many factors that come into play within the human brain, such as environment, geographical location, diet, sleep etc, as well as the inability to measure and scientifically prove cognitive difference or mood changes.

So my personal conclusion and contribution to how seasonal changes affect us/you…..tune in to yourself through mediation or walking/sitting alone amongst nature, listen to what you need and then take action on what feels good to you, what feels nourishing and joyful.

The other day I did just this……I pivoted my thoughts whilst out walking and tuning into nature.

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