Fall is a busy time. Are you spending this season making plans and commitments? I wonder if we all can't take a bit of this energy and put it towards mapping out a restful winter. Nowadays, carving out down time takes intention and forward thinking.
A couple of years ago I started making candles. In the darkest time of year, it brings me great joy to set a table filled with flickering flames. Last year I was on a produce kick, and my candles took the shape of corn, tomatoes and figs. I use the candles I make in gift boxes with things I've preserved during the summer months. And when they burn weird or lopsided, you can melt the wax down and reuse it.
This too is Health
When I think of holistic health, this is included. How we decorate our homes. How we feel in our living space. How we interact with light, how the things we do and see and smell in our dwellings make us feel. Enjoyment and pleasure are telltales signs of nervous system regulation. You might have grown up believing a 5 mile run or a salad was healthy. Yes, they are, and if we get too rigid even healthy things become problematic. Every moment of the day is a chance to make our reality and feed our well being. Candles make a home feel more welcoming, and the scent of beewax burning fills the air with nice aromas.
Why is a nutritionist spending so much time talking about candles?
It's a drum I will continue to beat, because we all need to hear it. You can be eating exceptionally well for your body, doing all the right exercise and getting to bed early, but if your body is running in a state of fight or flight, your good efforts will go partially unnoticed.
We can't heal if we aren't spending the bulk of our day in a state of rest and digest. The body can handle stress as it comes, as long as we return to a baseline of relaxation.
It's a tall order in this day and age, especially for parents. But we can't argue with our physiology. It's from another era.
In these times of fast cars, full calendars, smartphones, and many balls in the air, we have to recognize that the ways we are living don't match the ways our bodies want to live.
This works ok the first half of life, but in the second half, our bodies preference become imperatives. In order to feel well, we must take steps to provide the conditions, practices and mindsets that allow us to dwell more in the realms of rest.
In my work, it's only when clients have done everything they can related to food and exercise that they start to consider their nervous system as an entity that needs tending. Like many of us, I didn't start to pay attention until things started going sideways. For me it started with sleep.
It usually takes some lab results showing taxed cortisol to drive these facts home.
This is difficult work. It hits on survival instincts, and often requires some simple but difficult shifts. What I am asking is, can you start with the things that are easiest & most compelling? Arts and crafts— leisure for example. It's slow work dialing back the nervous system. Orienting towards enjoyment is the best way to begin.
