Winter Solstice

   Another season, another cycle. Winter is slowly onsetting and we change accordingly. Yet the patterns are strange. It was 60 degrees farenheit yesterday, and yet on Thursday we will be getting a snowstorm. A time of extremes back and forth. Do our behavioral patterns act the same? Are we steady, are we fluctuating, are we grounded?

   And yes this is a different time, the year 2020, with much going on in the world as we are faced with a pandemic, something I never thought we would actually see in our lifetime. It made me think about the plague, but that was a bacteria, not a virus per se. Yet all these things are living things.

   We have all struggled, found new ways of going on. It seems important to be connected to one's core. And to be safe and well.

   Winter brings its own changes and requirements that we must adjust to. Darkness comes earlier, and our energy retreats towards winter patterns. The rain and cold remind us that it is leaning more towards Winter, or when a storm approaches with high winds and a sharper chill to the air, we know freezing temperatures may soon be the norm.

   
Chinese Medicine

   According to Chinese medicine, Winter is governed by the element of Water. We become introspective in Winter, and things go more dormant for a period of rest, in order to emerge again in the Spring. The trees have shed their leaves, plants wither and die and go to see, waiting for the next cycle.
   Water is essential to life. In our body, fluids like blood flowing are important, as well as the fluids in the lymph system, which help to process and eliminate waste so you can fight infections. There is also fluids like saliva, perspiration, tears and urine. Everything is flowing, and should be flowing. Water is part of the circulation system, perhaps like the oceans for the earth.

   The body organs that dominate in the Winter cycle are the bladder and kidneys. The climate associated with Winter and Water is cold, and the compass direction for Winter is the North.
   I have read that the kidneys are nourished by cold, but extreme cold and or wetness can weaken the kidneys. I think of the few times I have been in desert areas of the world, with such a compelling dryness, and remember what a different feeling when compared to humidity. I remember being in Colorado as well, in higher altitudes, and having the skin on my hands cracking from the dry air, which I was not used to, and coming home to breathe in moist air for my lungs. In Israel it is hot during the day, and then cold at night, and also dry. The wind also takes moisture out of your body there, so you must drink a great deal of water especially if you are outdoors. It was a harsh environment it seemed, which would put stress on our bodies and systems if we are not used to it, but we can always adapt. I know recently while visiting the local mountains, the Catskill area, it was 64 degrees in November, but there was a damp and biting wind and no sun and I was indeed chilled to the bone. You can think back to your own experiences with temperatures and conditions and remember how it felt, or be more conscious of this in the future.

   The taste that is associated with Winter is salt. Interestingly most water has salt in it, as well as our blood, and also of course the oceans. If you crave salt or dislike salt you may have a Water imbalance. If you eat too much salt, it creates a craving for water and can weaken the kidneys. Salt can also cause water retention and toxins to be held, so we can become easily toxic. Salt intake is also linked to high blood pressure. There will most likely be another whole article on salt, but best not to add it to food, and if you must use salt in cooking, use something more natural like sea salt, as table salt has alot of chemicals and additives, in addition to being bleached.

   The emotion of Winter is fear, whether it be anxiety, stress or any other emotion. Trembling is actually a water imbalance and is a release of fearful energy and tension. Think of the expression "paralyzed with fear" - fear can be a very powerful emotion, and can create blockages. Fear in some ways blocks many things, because it numbs you.

   The sound of Winter is groaning. Have you ever heard trees that grown in the wind during a storm? Their branches creak and groan. For people, the sound of a groan comes from deep within.

Some Considerations

   So what can you do to fortify yourself or flow with the ways of the Winter season?

Frozen

   Well first think about Water and emotions. Water can be calm, still or gentle, or stormy, and hard to contain. How do you feel when you become too emotional? We may feel drained, and we can easily become exhausted and run down. We also need to remember that our kidneys are a filter for the blood systems and also ridding the body of toxic waste and heavy metals. So we can eat well and cleanse, although Spring is technically the time for deep cleansing.

   Negativity can also be harmful, and must be eliminated from the body, believed to be processed out through the bladder. So it is important to be positive and have a good attitude, and using positive affirmations on a daily basis.

   Other suggestions that might help in the Winter season include things like massage, where it will work on the meridians associated with the kidney, for example, along the spine. Massage also helps to relieve tension and toxins. Yoga is also excellent, providing stretching, relaxation and reducing stress.

   With diet and nutrition, you would want to eat foods that provide a little more heat, eat a little heavier, but not too heavy. Everything should be in moderation. When you over eat at Thanksgiving you often feel heavy and bloated.
   Your diet for winter should include hot soups with plenty of fresh vegetables, and spices that warm like ginger, garlic and cayenne pepper. Small amounts of whole grains are good fuel in winter, like millet, buckwheat, brown rice with red or black beans or lentils. Remember do not add salt to your food, because there is already some salt in your food, and we do need some salt. Sea salt is the most natural. If you bathe in the ocean or take a mineral bath, the stored salts and toxins will be drawn out. Food will taste like real food without adding alot of salt. I gave up adding salt to my food, sometimes substituting with garlic or onion instead.

   It is also important to keep warm in the winter - sitting by the fire, or with a blanket and a hot herbal tea or soup. Eating more cooked warm foods as opposed to cold or raw in winter. 

   Before long the days will get longer and the sunshine brighter, bringing about another whole new cycle of rebirth to look forward to.

Water - the element of Winter

Stay warm,
Maery

(remember to always follow the advice of your health care professional when it comes to health, diet and exercise)

Staying Healthy

An Approach to Winter

   In the page "More About Natural Living", I mentioned writing about how the seasons affect us. Some of it will be observations and experiences through my own research, but also articles and the concept of the seasons through Chinese medicine. The references to Chinese medicine will include things such as the element associated with the season, as well as body organs, climate, taste, emotion, foods to include or avoid. These references are helpful and informative, however in addition to that, at some point I would like to have additional articles on how things like light and color and emotions and stress also affect us. Diet and nutrition are also important topics. So here at least is a beginning.

Winter

   The days were growing noticeably shorter even in late

Gardiner's Bay and Gardiner's Island

August. But August found us in our cycle called Later Summer (in Chinese medicine and lore), and blending into Autumn. Now in December we should be in winter, with the Winter Solstice about to occur, even though mild temperatures here make us wonder if it is truly winter. And yet we had some cold blasts, where this morning, on December 6th, it was only 13 degrees in Westhampton. Thanksgiving was cold as well, with snow on the ground up near the mountains. So it has been a mixture of mild and cold weather. Winter officially begins on the Winter Solstice on December 21st.


   Despite the temperatures, yes darkness comes earlier, and our energy retreats towards winter patterns. The rain and cold remind us that it is leaning more towards Winter, or when a storm approaches with high winds and a sharper chill to the air, we know freezing temperatures may soon be the norm.
   According to Chinese medicine, Winter is governed by the element of Water. We become introspective in Winter, and things go more dormant for a period of rest, in order to emerge again in the Spring. The trees have shed their leaves, plants wither and die and go to seed, waiting for the next cycle.
   Water is essential to life. In our body, fluids like blood flowing are important, as well as the fluids in the lymph system, which help to process and eliminate waste so you can fight infections. There is also fluids like saliva, perspiration, tears and urine. Everything is flowing, and should be flowing. Water is part of the circulation system, perhaps like the oceans for the earth.

   The body organs that dominate in the Winter cycle are the bladder and kidneys. The climate associated with Winter and Water is cold, and the compass direction for Winter is the North.
   I have read that the kidneys are nourished by cold, but extreme cold and or wetness can weaken the kidneys. I think of the few times I have been in desert areas of the world, with such a compelling dryness, and remember what a different feeling when compared to humidity. I remember being in Colorado as well, in higher altitudes, and having the skin on my hands cracking from the dry air, which I was not used to, and coming home to breathe in moist air for my lungs. In Israel it is hot during the day, and then cold at night, and also dry. The wind also takes moisture out of your body there, so you must drink a great deal of water especially if you are outdoors. It was a harsh environment it seemed, which would put stress on our bodies and systems if we are not used to it, but we can always adapt. I know recently while visiting the local mountains, the Catskill area, it was 64 degrees in November, but there was a damp and biting wind and no sun and I was indeed chilled to the bone. You can think back to your own experiences with temperatures and conditions and remember how it felt, or be more conscious of this in the future.

The Element of Water Governs Winter

   The taste that is associated with Winter is salt. Interestingly most water has salt in it, as well as our blood, and also of course the oceans. If you crave salt or dislike salt you may have a Water imbalance. If you eat too much salt, it creates a craving for water and can weaken the kidneys. Salt can also cause water retention and toxins to be held, so we can become easily toxic. Salt intake is also linked to high blood pressure. There will most likely be another whole article on salt, but best not to add it to food, and if you must use salt in cooking, use something more natural like sea salt, as table salt has alot of chemicals and additives, in addition to being bleached.

   The emotion of Winter is fear, whether it be anxiety, stress or any other emotion. Trembling is actually a water imbalance and is a release of fearful energy and tension. Think of the expression "paralyzed with fear" - fear can be a very powerful emotion, and can create blockages. Fear in some ways blocks many things, because it numbs you.

   The sound of Winter is groaning. Have you ever heard trees that grown in the wind during a storm? Their branches creak and groan. For people, the sound of a groan comes from deep within.

Some Considerations

   So what can you do to fortify yourself or flow with the ways of the Winter season?

   Well first think about Water and emotions. Water can be calm, still or gentle, or stormy, and hard to contain. How do you feel when you become too emotional? We may feel drained, and we can easily become exhausted and run down. We also need to remember that our kidneys are a filter for the blood systems and also ridding the body of toxic waste and heavy metals. So we can eat well and cleanse, although Spring is technically the time for deep cleansing.

   Negativity can also be harmful, and must be eliminated from the body, believed to be processed out through the bladder. So it is important to be positive and have a good attitude, and using positive affirmations on a daily basis.

   Other suggestions that might help in the Winter season include things like massage, where it will work on the meridians associated with the kidney, for example, along the spine. Massage also helps to relieve tension and toxins. Yoga is also excellent, providing stretching, relaxation and reducing stress.

   With diet and nutrition, you would want to eat foods that provide a little more heat, eat a little heavier, but not too heavy. Everything should be in moderation. When you over eat at Thanksgiving you often feel heavy and bloated.
   Your diet for winter should include hot soups with plenty of fresh vegetables, and spices that warm like ginger, garlic and cayenne pepper. Small amounts of whole grains are good fuel in winter, like millet, buckwheat, brown rice with red or black beans or lentils. Remember do not add salt to your food, because there is already some salt in your food, and we do need some salt. Sea salt is the most natural. If you bathe in the ocean or take a mineral bath, the stored salts and toxins will be drawn out. Food will taste like real food without adding alot of salt. I gave up adding salt to my food, sometimes substituting with garlic or onion instead.

   It is also important to keep warm in the winter - sitting by the fire, or with a blanket and a hot herbal tea or soup. Eating more cooked warm foods as opposed to cold or raw in winter. 

   Before long the days will get longer and the sunshine brighter, bringing about another whole new cycle of rebirth to look forward to.

Stay warm,
Maery

(remember to always follow the advice of your health care professional when it comes to health, diet and exercise)

Natural Light

Natural Light

  The Winter Solstice has come and gone. The Sun begins its journey back to light the day more fully. Already, in the beginning of January, sunset is later than it was in December. On the Solstice, day and night were of equal value, and now the Sun returns.

Winter light at Asharoken

   Many cultures in northern climates worship the Sun, while those in tropical or southern climates worship water.

   Yet we all need sunlight, to a degree, to live. Natural rhythms, vitamin D absorption, and well being from light. Yet why are we living in houses and working in buildings that are mostly artificial light. Do we really get the light we need? I remember as kids we were always outside playing until it got dark, and now many young people are glued to computers and Ipads.

   In some circumstances, artificial light may have to be a substitute for natural sunlight. You can now purchase full spectrum lights, but does that really have a benefit. Even now as I write this, it is dark outside, so I have lamps lighting my space. I do like to use candles alot, and have a glass hurricane lamp that I can also use..

   The quality and intensity of light seems to be different in different places, and according to time of day and seasons as well. We had a warm spell in December, so that you wanted to be outdoors longer and do more, but always at three o'clock the sunlight is dimming, and the air gets a bit cooler. Now in January we are paying our dues, with temperatures down in the teens suddenly after so much warmth. By March, at least here where I live in the northeast of the U.S., you can see the light during the day is brighter, stronger, creating warmth. I always look forward to March 1st, for it means spring is not so far away.

   I was reading a book over the Christmas holidays, and it talked alot about the Impressionists and their formatio
n in Paris. The author chose to feature Auguste Renoir as the key character, but included other artists like Degas. At one point it is mentioned that Renoir was riding in a train to return to Paris, and in looking out the window, wondered if the flashes of light that Renoir may have seen on the train by its speed was the inspiration for some of the way light was handled in paintings during the Impressionist period. I was somewhat dismayed by this, for the movement was about life, and expression. I had hoped the reason for the treatment of light and brush strokes in this art movement was due to a cause such as an increased perception and awareness of one's surroundings and life. I found Paris to be very much alive with inspiration and did not for one moment think about trains speeding by. I also had a rough time viewing Impressionist paintings in a revamped train station. To me the paintings were suspended and not grounded, but perhaps that is what they wanted to portray. And yet every raves about the Musee D'Orsay.

   The quality of light is very different in France. My journey began in Nice, where I met my family at a home where we were doing a house swap, a villa overlooking the Mediterranean and the city below. There is a certain brightness and electricity to the light it seemed. It was summertime, July, so I have no reference for the other seasons there. Known for their great food and wines, did the sunlight have anything to do with this success along with the soil, or is it a combination of things. One really doesn't have to know the answers to this to be able just to enjoy the food and wine, but it is curious. I know from pictures of Bordeaux that the vines seem to grow out of a rough rocky terrain, and yet  wine from there is special.

   The sunlight also seems to make your skin a darker kind of chocolate brown, with a hint of copper for me, since I am part Scandanavian. But the locals had a chocolately brown smoothness to their skin.

   Paris was different. Further north of course, and a huge city. How did the sunlight play on the Seine and reflect on the white walls of the city's monochromatic buildings? And Paris is often referred to as the City of Light, which is another curious thing. They say it refers more to the Age of Enlightenment, and to the fact that Paris was the first city to employ gas lighting. But I do love to look at Paris at night when it is all lit up.
   And for those who went to Provence to paint in the 19th and 20th centuries, research says that the artists came for what they called a "clarity of light" in the area. It has been said that this clarity may be due in part by the mistral wind, which removes dust from the atmosphere, greatly increasing visibility. I can't say what it is, but light to me there is sharper and brighter, but also has a kind of subtle golden quality to it.

   But returning to the book I was reading, it was about artists and models coming together in paintings, so that it was like being part of a painting. This seemed to make the whole process more of a living thing, rather than just a painting being a snapshot in time. It seemed revolutionary in a way, but I am sure I am not the only person to address this topic. Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art? Perhaps both.

   I remember about ten years ago making a pilgrimage to a tiny town in Upstate New York called Catskill. It seems that the Hudson River Painters had lived nearby and painted scenes in the area. So I drove to this famous waterfall, where you could climb a cliff and then stand underneath the waterfall, a place many painters had painted. And then I found North South Lake not far from the waterfall, and rented a kayak. The water was very shallow, maybe about two feet and after paddling in the shallow water and trying not to get tangled in the sea grasses, I came to a very curious setting of some unusual twisted and gnarled trees and some rocks in the foreground. I floated in my kayak just resting, feeling like I was a part of that very landscape. It was a great connection.

   Later than night, I discovered where I was in North South Lake was also the subject of many painters in the area, including the spot with the gnarled trees. I thought I had been a living part of a famous landscape and felt a thrill from that perception. 

   However, now, after more years in nature and exploration, I thought scenes were alive and living in and of themselves, and the lives that pass through these places are indeed a part of the living landscape, and not contained necessarily within a painting, although a painting can provide a snap shot in time. In order to paint North South Lake you would probably have to go there for years at different times of the day and night and the seasons.

   But now that it is winter, I find I must return to this aspect of light, especially light from the Sun, because light from the Sun is crucial for existence, and not just our yearning for it in the darkness of winter. The Sun's gravity keeps Earth and other planets in place. There must also be light and heat for living organisms to exist. for plants to grow and pride food, they rely on the sun for photosynthesis.
   Light and sunlight do have a great effect upon us. Sunny days tend to find us more upbeat and cheerful. 10 percent of the population suffers from SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, but everyone I think encounters some degree of the winter blues.
   Humans and mammals have an internal clock, with sleep and wake cycles. Light influences pupil dilation, alertness,  melatonin levels and heart rate modulation. The light receptors in the retina of the eyes, which include rods, cones and retinal ganglion cells, help to set and reset circadian rhythms. It is noted that blue wavelength light is what maintains circadian rhythms.
   According to WebMD, SAD may stem from the body clock being out of sync and a lack of natural sunlight. Some recommendations include getting up early and walking in natural sunlight. The best time is between 5-9 a.m. and then again later from 4-6 p.m. with a minimum of 30 minutes of sun a day. Then again, one should not over do sun exposure.
   The easiest approach I know for myself is to increase light in your home. I am insistent on turning on all the lights in my tiny apartment - but then again I don't have many windows for natural light. The one window I have in the east is where I put all my houseplants. I notice in January each year the plants seem to perk up and have new growth. There are no south facing windows, where light would be the strongest, nor are there any skylights, so I add light. Some articles suggest full spectrum light, but I haven't been able to determine if this is helpful or not. I do know that fluorescent light especially those in department stores or office buildings, give me headaches. But each person is different so it is best to decide for oneself. Sun lamps are not recommended for long term exposure and there are no conclusive studies about the safe levels of exposure to UVA and UVB rays.

Sunset over Eaton's Neck, Northport, NY

   WebMD also mentions a dawn simulator. There are lights that can be purchased online that can be set to gradually lighten a room when you are scheduled to wake up - simulating a dawn cycle. I also what what effect colored lights would have - shining colors one at a time each day or installing colored glass in windows. It may or may not have any benefit, but it doesn't seem like it would hurt to try. I know friends in Denmark tell me they wear bright colors in winter to compensate for the early darkness in Scandanavian winters, while in the tropics friends tell me they buy heavy curtains to keep the sunlight out because it is so intense.
   Yes light is important, and the main point is to be aware of the effects of light and darkness and sunlight on us as humans, so that you are living according to the natural cycles and seasons, and to live your life accordingly.

References: WebMD, Wikipedia, spaceandmotion.com. prweb.com, Ryan Wright, Tony Nguyen, Niels Fiensen Nobel Prize winner, livescience.com, planetfacts.org.