light

The importance of light

One month in quarantine. There is light at the end of the tunnel with the Covid19 insanity and seemingly as some experts say there are some medications in the works (see Vox post). There are many side effects with some people, and individual differences with treatment (I do not want to talk vaccine as the nature of this disease transforming into subtypes is very concerning), and confusion of symptoms see blog post by Paleohacks.

Until then it’s important to keep up with keeping healthy in these seemingly “dark” hours, remember to follow the rainbow after the storm. Keep building immunity, walk daily at least 20 minutes in your home (loved this 15 minute video), on sunlit days at a distance, in your neighborhood away from that screen! With or without your pet or kids. Slow or fast, just keep it up!

You can see, learn, and run into amazing nature! Even people you know !

I am running-walking more despite the fact I have more online work staying up later, as we all lose our patience, gaining a few pounds /kilos! As each year we picked our chamomile — that wonder herb that can be even used as an antiseptic eye compress (see Spring pickings). This time closer to home as all are cleaner due to less traffic! It’s amazing to see how nature should be. We all need to do immunity building and social (physical) distancing.

A Poppy for your thoughts…

Sunlight makes our world function as it is important for plant photosynthesis, it increases our melatonin (the brain hormone Serotonin goes up and is important for mood and sleep), increasing doses of vitamin D for better health! Those of us who suffer from seasonal affective disorder understand this well. Some who do get enough light may need special lamps in darker winter months. And as experts recommend it’s the “blue light” that matters in light therapy.

Do you also know that sunlight disinfects? It is a Greek term called heliotherapy so it’s a good idea to hang out your clothes (even your shoes sole side up), sleep blankets, comforters, and pillows for a natural “bug killer”. My good ER doctor friend in the frontlines (🙏we pray for her!) and also has her own site healthyselfhealthyworld, uses it for her gear as we know those are sometimes scarce and it can be a risk.

I find myself doing leg exercises as I’m on hold for a half hour or more for calls or online purchases — it doesn’t work people, and no I cannot wait for one week for supermarket orders ! So take the risk with your “gear” (mask and gloves, antiseptic!) …. in the evening listen to immune building music 🎵 as it seems to work for many and that light from your candle can be a great source of inner peace and a “heavenly place” to pray or meditate.

Find your inner peace


These two weeks millions around the globe celebrate(d) Easter (Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox one week apart). As Jesus once said “I am the Light of the World” at no other time have we needed our faith — regardless of one’s religion — as prayer and meditation are beneficial to the brain and the development of neural synapses and emotional stability and expression.

Absolutely loved my friend Isabelle’s photo inside her apartment in Austria for Easter! It reminds me how city living especially needs strategic placement of real or artificial light.

One blogger talked about her experience in quarantine with a view of the NYC Empire building lit up red to symbolize the heartbeat 💗 of the city and keep people going in this Covid19 pandemic (Beautybeyondbones Easter post for 2020 on NYC’s Beating Heart).

Keep writing my friends to spread that light to the world.

Advertisement

Reflecting on yesteryear

 

Ring in the new year in joy, sail to new destinations and deal with the “rough seas” of life.

This past year was quite difficult for many with losses (financial, personal), past months we captured some of the tragic news happening in the US, in Greece, Spain see Keeping Afloat Seemingly Chaos even some “bad luck” like 20+ people dead in a flash flood, a ceiling caving in on the main entertainment DJ and another case of a snow avalanche killing one snowboarding tourist  — granted the news never emphasizing that homes were allowed to be built illegally in the valley, or that the snowboarder went to a closed ski resort, where were the safety precautions? Others dying in shootings or intentional terror type acts in the name of their “identity”, or losing their homes in hurricanes throughout Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

You might say “life happens”, indeed. Some things could be preventable. As some are building beachside sandcastles in Southern Hemispheres others are awakened in early morning hours with our beds shaking — no it wasn’t Santa’s sleigh landing on our rooftop — indeed experiencing a small earthquake enough to get our hearts active again. When it comes to man versus nature, the latter will always win.

The morning of the last day of December, a favorite uncle beloved by all family, colleagues, friends for his kind and creative nature, lost a painful fight with liver cancer, just short of his 70th birthday. For me he was one of the great life philosophers and taught us about overseeing negativity and being humane. Coincidentally my recent writing about aging and the end of life and how being or building health literacy can help us all adjust to life’s ups and downs, helps to reflect on the sweet memories of yesteryear. Last year’s New Years post was plenty full with thinking of resolutions, and today’s CNN article really summed up what many of us health educators, counselors, teachers have been saying for years including mindfulness, balanced eating with plenty fruits and vegetables, and the vitality of drinking plenty of water!  Some other intentional resolutions to make it simple and real:

1) clean up your home and your environment, keeping in mind the 3 “R”s Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ♻️

2) be light of heart and kind in spirit …forgive and move on, remember doing good goes a long way!

3) daydream, dream small and big, this is what gives us hope. Yes the reason we had a tinker bell in Peter Pan or find “hope” in Pandora’s box is really the gift of “light”. This is necessary for our taking steps forward and believing in ourselves. So where is your dream catcher?304f034f-bf59-43bc-ad30-2b19a27e0f0c.jpeg

4) Accept both sides of joy and sadness — the movie “Inside Out” made this simple, plausible, that even children can understand the necessity of melancholy; it is OK to talk about the darker sides of human nature (even stubbornness, stupidity, and narcissism) but learn to work on yourself and either accept small faults in others or realize life is short no one is perfect. Do not dwell in inner darkness very long and if it gets too bleak seek support!

There is more reflecting to do, Leider and Shapiro’s book “Repacking Your Bags” will   help you do just that so consider it for one of this year’s “must reads” and we’ll get into that later in another posting….so much to say!

Enjoy each moment, and have a wonderfully brilliant new year!