Get in Synch!

Photo by Noel Zia Lee

We are so happy to welcome back Aundrea Tucker, who is a Holistic Health Counselor. Spring is a great time to get back in touch with nature and its rhythms. Learn about how alignment with natural rhythms can bring more balance into your life. The suggestions shared by Aundrea are very consistent with the wisdom of Ayurveda (5,000 year old healing system from India) that we periodically share on our blog. Enjoy the spring!

Nature thrives on cycles based on its own internal rhythms, such as the annual cycle of the seasons and the harvests. When we observe nature, we find that the same cycles we see in the seasons appear in microcosm in the course of a single day. The more closely we can align our own circadian rhythms with the natural flow of the daily cycle, the more we will feel as if we are floating downstream instead of swimming upstream.

Spring: 6:00am – 10:00am - Muscles get stronger
Summer: 10:00am – 2:00pm - Digestion stronger
Winter: 2:00pm – 6:00pm - Nervous system activates
Spring: 6:00pm – 10:00pm - Metabolism lowers for sleep
Summer: 10:00pm – 2:00am - Liver is activated for cleansing
Winter: 2:00am – 6:00am - Cortisol levels increase

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

How would you feel if you went to bed at midnight and woke up at 10:00am? Perhaps groggy, stiff or dull. What about if you went to bed at 8:00pm and woke up at 6:00am? Probably chipper! In both instances you would have slept the same amount – 10 hours – and the only difference is when you went to bed and when you woke up. The same principle applies not only for sleeping, but eating as well. When we follow nature’s rhythms, we invariably end up merrily rowing downstream. Muscles are also strongest in the morning, and it is the best time for vigorous exercise.

The Noon Meal

The hottest part of the day, when the sun is climbing to its zenith, is the summer time of the day and when the digestive fires are at their hottest. This is the ideal time to consume a meal large enough to provide fuel for the rest of the day. Try resting on your left side for 5-10 minutes after your meal to facilitate digestion.

Afternoon Brain Waves

In the four-hour period that follows lunch, the body is primed for heavy mental activity. The brain uses about 80 percent of the body’s glycogen, or energy supplies, during this time. If you ate too little at lunch, or at while driving, rushed or distracted, you may feel sleepy, listless or crave emergency fuel.

Sunset

After the sun sets, digestion and cortisol levels go down, making it difficult to digest a large dinner. A smaller, supplemental (“supper”) meal is ideal around 6:00pm. If you are unable to exercise in the morning, the second best time to workout is after your supplemental meal at 6:00pm. Toward 10:00pm, the body begins to rest and relax as it gears down for sleep.

Night Crawlers

If you observe yourself for a few nights between 7:00 and 9:00pm, you will probably notice a pleasant drowsiness come over you. If you force yourself to stay up, you may get a burst of energy after 10:00pm that will keep you up into the wee hours. The purpose of increased metabolic activity during this time is to clean blood and repair damaged tissue. If you are awake, changing the world and having midnight snacks, you miss out on this crucial internal cleansing time. Internal cleansing can also be affected if your body is still trying to digest a large evening meal; resources slated for cleansing have to be diverted to digestion.

Spiritual

The very early morning between 2:00 and 6:00am is believed to be most conducive to prayer and meditation in many spiritual traditions, both Eastern and Western. A lightness and quickness characterizes this time; when you arise around 6:00am, you are likely to take on those characteristics, which will balance out the natural heaviness of morning.

Let us know if you experience any of the benefits of being in synch with the nature!

Balancing Time in Our Minds

Photo by mrMark

Dana, who holds responsibilities and benefits of being a mother, a wife, an empoyee and many more roles, is back with us to share some wisdom around our perceptions of time and its role in our perceptions of balance. Enjoy!

Since I started writing for this blog more regularly, I have become even more attuned to life balance issues. I find myself contemplating more deeply certain ideas that are intrinsically related to the concept of balance, such as the nature of time and the mind. Much of what we experience with regard to balance (or imbalance) hinges on the concept of time – what we do with it, having “enough” time, and so on. Just as in an outward, behavioral sense we can be out of balance in how we use the time allotted to us (spending too much time doing things we shouldn’t do or don’t want to do and too little time doing things we should do or do want to do), we can misuse time in our minds as well.

It is a unique quality of the human mind that we can effortlessly think about the past, present, and future. Some of us spend a lot of time thinking about the past – reliving moments we enjoyed, rehashing negative experiences in the attempt to make sense of them or in futile hope that we can mentally undo them. Others of us spend a lot of time thinking about the future – making plans, anticipating upcoming events with eagerness or dread. Yet others really live in the moment, relishing the experience of the here and now or avoiding thinking about the past or future.

As with most things, being balanced between the past, present, and future is key to success and happiness in life. Thinking about the past can not only be pleasant (in the case of fond memories), it is an important method for uncovering patterns in our behavior over time. We can use the greater self-awareness this affords to change our behavior in the present and future. It is also possible, however, to be too nostalgic of the past at the expense of truly experiencing the present or preparing for the future. And while it is healthy to conduct “post mortems” on things that went wrong, going over them again and again in our minds without achieving peace or closure on them can be psychologically harmful.

Likewise, while our ability to envision and plan for the future is a necessary and important for us to survive and thrive, if we spend more mental time in the future than the present, we risk losing the teachings of the past and the blessings of the present. Chronic over-achievers and Type-A personalities, people who try to “do it all,” are rewarded with spending a great deal of time planning for the future and setting goals, but this can come at a price.

Lastly, it is possible to spend too much time focused on the here and now if it leads us to fail to capture “lessons learned” from our past experiences or adequately prepare for the future. We can become like the grasshopper of The Ant and the Grasshopper fable – idly enjoying the pleasantness of the moment without preparing for the challenges the future will bring.

The vast majority of us, however, probably spend too little time truly in the current moment. When we are only half attending to what we are doing in the moment because we are busily thinking about what we will do next or what we did the day before, we are operating on autopilot – in other words, not really there. When we school ourselves to really drop in and “be here now,” our experience of life is so much more vibrant and rich. Having our minds focused on one place in time at once helps us respond to life’s moments with awareness and grace. It is also a gift we give to ourselves and the people we spend our time with to be fully present.

One valuable tool for keeping yourself in the present is to focus on your physical experience. As the saying goes, “There is no time but the present.” Our experiences of the past and future are purely mental – we aren’t literally IN the past or future like we are in the present. Taking the time throughout the day to really feel what it feels like to be in your body, in your environment, in that moment can keep us grounded and engaged. Literally stop and smell the roses on your walk from your office to your car; focus on enjoying the taste and textures of your meal instead of wolfing down your food while multi-tasking; get down on the floor with a child or pet and look in their eyes and touch their hair; mentally scan your body from top to bottom – what does it feel like to you be you right now?

Where do you tend to spend the most of your “mental time”? Why? What are the consequences? What can you personally do to achieve balance on this dimension?

Stress-Free Moving

We are getting ready to move into a house. Sounds very exciting, right? It is! But with the excitement comes the stress of packing, unpacking, finding movers, paying for movers, and the list goes on and on. I guess the title should have been “How to make moving a less stressful experience?” so we can enjoy and welcome this change into our lives. Of course, research shows that we need a little bit of stress (u-stress) to get us going and motivated, too much however, will actually hinder our performance. Here are a few things that I am implementing into my life to help with this exciting transition and keep myself from getting too ‘excited’:

• To do lists are so helpful these days. We put one on the fridge, so both my husband and I can see what we need to do in the next few weeks. Start it as soon as your offer got accepted on a house.


• Pack one box at a time. The idea of packing all at once was too overwhelming for me, especially since I travel a lot. I took a risk (possibility that we don’t close) and started quite soon after our offer was accepted. I would only pack one box a night. It would give me a sense that I have accomplished something that night, yet I could still focus on my regular activities.


• Use packing as an opportunity to do some spring cleaning. This feels very energizing and exciting for me. I started a donation pile, recycled a lot of old magazines, coupons, papers, expired drugs. It feels freeing not to be moving all that with us.


• If you want to sell some items, don’t forget to use internet (Ebay, Craig’s list) in addition to or instead of the traditional yard sale. I was able to sell all my curtains that I cannot use in the house on ebay. I think I did get rid of them a little too early, because one of the rooms has been having a beautiful echo (due to emptiness) for a few weeks now.


• Use moving opportunity to bring something new into your life. It can be anything from a new organization of your space to switching to more eco-friendly living. One of my obsessions has been trying to get rid of as much plastic as possible in my kitchen (especially). So, I have been looking for ways to get rid of plastic tupperware and substituting at least some pieces to glass ones.


• Keep yourself energized by activities that bring you pleasure about the new place of living. For example, we walked to our new house a few times a week and tried to experience what it would be like to live there. We thought about ideas for improving the backyard. Finally, we went to a bookstore one night and browsed a few books for decoration ideas.


• Take it slow. Once you do get a lot of energizing ideas, you may feel an urge to change everything at once, which is a recipe for disaster and may be quite costly. Instead, enjoy the beauty of doing things slowly and seeing your place evolving over time. My goal is to take some time to choose things for our home. It will save us money and I will be able to get to know the personality of my house or even contribute to it.


• Elicit the help of others. It is amazing how much more fun and faster packing, unpacking, painting goes if you have your friends/family around you. Some pizza and drink will all you need to have a moving party.

Did I miss anything? If so, please share, because I can definitely benefit from some suggestions.