May 3rd - Every Day in May
Last night I tried going to bed when I was sleepy (11:55pm) and waking up naturally without an alarm (8:02am). I was refreshed, positive, and kinda felt like a million bucks. My muscle soreness was greatly reduced and the time it took me to get going into my day felt quicker than usual. Interesting….
Health is Physical:
With my soreness much improved I treated myself to a 6+ mile run this afternoon in MDO up Islay creek while listening to my audio book on sleep. The run was eventful in two rather strange, rather RED ways. The first was this beautiful flower, the only one like it on the whole run, all by itself, in full bloom, so gorgeous it stopped me in my tracks. The second was that I saw not 1, not 2, but 3 red foxes! In 6 miles… and they were all three different, and I have run this trail 100 times and never seen a fox. Also, I know my grey foxes from red foxes and these definitely looked red. I think I have seen 2 foxes, both grey, in MDO in almost 4 years of running there. And today… 3, and red. What is that about?
I was definitely feeling very red foxy today, lots of energy and passion and Troy did comment on my sparkle today, so maybe this makes sense! Either way, it was super cool to see, and the run was great and the weather was divine, and it all felt very good for my physical body at a minimum.
Health is Mental/Emotional:
I’m still jamming on the sleep train with the Why We Sleep audio book. I learned today that there is nothing health wise that proper sleep hurts. If I’m truly on a quest to optimize health, then proper sleep is 100% foundational. Today I learned a lot about sleep at different ages, which perked up my ears about Annie. Did you know our teens natural circadian rhythms tend to be patterned so that they go to sleep several hours after their parents. There is a theory that this coincides with their developmental phase of autonomy and developing social networks outside of their parental unit. Sleep patterns are ingrained to give them several hours when their parents are asleep to stay out late with their peer group and make new social connections. The main key is that they get full rest after staying up later, which doesn’t tend to happen in our school based society. There is such a great opportunity right now for Annie to stay up late, sleep in every day, and wake up without an alarm…. all things her brain is wired to be doing right now.
I also learned today that alcohol and caffeine mess with most peoples sleep big time. They are never beneficial to sleep, ever. You may get to sleep better with alcohol, but your REM is effected in a disastrous way. And caffeine for children and teens is sleep death, and smart brain death (my interpretation). It kills their REM and adolescence is where brain development and sleep are very closely connected with frontal lobe (inhibition, decision making) being the last to develop. Caffeine is a recipe for disaster in teens developing strong decision making brains.
Based on this book I am inspired this month to deeply understand my own sleep rhythms. I’m going to stop caffeine and alcohol for the month and I am going to go to sleep when I’m tired and wake without an alarm, and then I’m going to keep a journal to track it along the way. I’m lucky that I can make these changes on a dime. My work is flexible, and this will be a huge investment into my future health. Just the idea of embracing the Night Owl and understanding what’s important, namely a full nights rest, is really exciting to me.
Health is Spiritual:
I took two pretty awesome spiritual actions today (extra credit).
My friend Jen sent me a meditation called First Cup that her church as been sending out that she though I would enjoy, and she was correct. My background in organized religion is a story for another day far in the future, but during this month I am really opening myself up to my close network and what they feel guided to share with me spiritually. This was such a perfect example of this, and I’m so thankful for Jen’s share. After listening to three of the “First Cup” meditations, I jotted down the following
Bring the mind out of Ego state and into Soul recognition.
The second spiritually healthy action was after my run. I was already at MDO and so I dragged my chair and sleeping bag out to the bluff and set it up to do some meditation. I scrolled through the Insight Timer app for a free meditation and found one called Breath of the Ocean. That seemed apropos. I fired it up and it’s telling me to close my eyes and imagine the ocean. That made me laugh out loud. I did not close my eyes. It instructed me to match my breathing to the waves, in and out, and I did that, and it was awesome.
I’m ocean breathing, and gazing over the expansiveness of blue in front of me when…. whale spout! I got so giddy and even let out a little scream. From that point on the meditation bumbled along in my ears for 24 minutes, during which I breathed with the waves and laughed at the whale party in front of my eyes. There was one whale quite close to shore who was breeching, like full body jumping out of the water and splashing down, and blowing air like crazy. So… today I meditated with the whales. At one point during the meditation the guy said “a creature swims by” and I was like….WHALE…duh! It was a totally magical experience.
Insights
Today was a great day. Foxes and whales, and gardening and running and oceans and sunsets. I felt really solid on so many levels, from relationships, to personal health. It was a good mix of alone time, and social time. Tomorrow I go to work and that’s going to take a little more deliberate action on my part but I’m ready for it and I have a plan.
Until Tomorrow, In good health…