Stepping out of the cave
goodbye, hibernation
Nice to see you all again! The weather is warming up and there are more hours of daylight in each day. This is great! We can kiss our winter hibernation goodbye and bask in the sunlight.
This time of year we all get motivated to do more outside. We work in the garden, go for a walk, ride our bicycles, or just sit out in the sun. Whatever your pleasure, go for it. Just get outside. I’m right there with you. I spend lots of daylight hours inside working and, like many of you, I wind up heading home right before sunset. It’s a bummer sometimes. Especially, during the winter months when the days are shorter. But now I’m feeling rejuvenated, and with some creative scheduling, I can get home before dark.
Some warm weather things to think about. . .
More sunlight means more vitamin D from the sun. That means you get more of the naturally occurring supplemental vitamin D, so you can take less of the oral stuff. More sunlight cures Seasonal Affected Disorder (S.A.D.). Warmer weather makes it easier for you be regularly active, and this may motivate you to exercise. The farmers have planted, and soon we’ll get locally grown organic fruits and vegetables. All of these things can help you feel better, both physically and emotionally.
Right here in green country. . .
Here’s another suggestion — Go see LIVE music! The free concerts at Guthrie Green will begin to ramp up and you need to check it out. Live music is good for you because the sound isn’t filtered (coming out of a speaker in your iPhone), which means you are experiencing it real time — live. This experience activates the vagus nerve in your brain and produces "feel good" chemicals. The brain records the "feel good" experience as a memory that you can recall and talk about at any time. Isn’t that cool? The benefit of this is that when you recall the experience, your brain believes it's happening again and it creates more "feel good" chemicals (not in the same quantity as the original experience, but still enough that it's good for your health). As a matter of fact, if you make a habit of experiencing fun things during this warming trend and store them in your memory, you will have some fun memories to help you get through the winter blues when the cold weather returns!
I’m done writing and I'm heading outside. Maybe I’ll take my guitar.
peace and love,
Chuck