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“You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don’t have a life. You are life."
Eckhart Tolle
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Hello there fine folks,
We're but a few days away from the Spring Equinox, and a few days into living the lie that is Daylight Saving Time. Whether we realize it or not, we are all affected by this twice a year shift of our external clocks, and with that, our internal ones. You see, all of us humans have this thing called a circadian rhythm: the physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a (roughly) 24-hour cycle. It is a part of our body's internal clock that regulates the daily cycle of biological processes. We share this phenomenon with a lot of other living organisms of the animal, plant, and microbe variety, too. These natural processes respond primarily to light and dark. Makes sense, right? For 99.99% of human history, we evolved with a very close connection to the sun cycle. Electricity is an extremely new technological advancement, after all.
One of the most obvious and important circadian rhythms is the sleep-wake cycle. Now, I'm not knocking electricity, in fact I'm very grateful because without it, I'd have to hand write and mail out all of these Lumen Letters to each and every one of you (sounds like a huge time suck). BUT, electricity has sincerely fucked with our sleep-wake cycles. Being able to turn on melatonin disrupting LED lights and keep them on long after sunset signals to our bodies, "Hey, it's actually still mid day, don't get sleepy, you've got shit to do!"
Now, because I don't want to bore you and I'm doing my best here to make this read less of a research paper and more of an inspiring, informative piece of wellness writing, I'm avoiding getting into the knitty gritty science of light (although it's quite fascinating!) I'll link to a few of my favorite podcast episodes that dive into the science of light later on in this Letter, for those of you that want to nerd out...I get it, I'm right there with you. Just know that, on many levels, we are affected by our relationship to light.
So, why am I bringing this all up today? Well, aside from this Letter's close proximity to the beginning of Daylight Saving Time and the fitting theme of light as it's a Full Moon tonight, you may have heard in recent news that the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would end the biannual switch of clocks and keep Daylight Saving Time year round. I try to keep my distance from political topics in these Letters, but when politics and human health intersect, I morally cannot keep quiet just to avoid ruffling any feathers. Mind you, this is a bipartisan bill, but I still find that the topic at hand can be divisive without the help of Team Left and Team Right warring against one another.
Before we go any farther, let's point out that time as we know it, or as we interpret it by telling time on a 12 or 24 hour clock, is a man made construct. The sun cycle, however, is not. It disturbs me down to my deepest fiber of human being that many people in this country support the concept of permanently changing our relationship to time so that it is intentionally misaligned with the sun cycle. Currently, on DST, solar noon is around 1pm and midnight is around 1am. When operating on DST, we are living a lie.
Note that there is some fluctuation on timing of solar noon and midnight based on time of year, geographical location, and timezone. Solar noon is when the sun is at it's highest point in the sky - this is usually around 12pm, or noon, in Standard Time. Midnight is the literal middle of the night, the mid point between sunset and sunrise, which typically occurs around 12am in Standard Time. This is science, this is nature. Mind you, we are nature. Although many people are acting as though they are separate from nature these days. You see, this very short-sighted desire to have one more hour of sunlight after your work day is but a symptom of the very real, widespread illness of nature disconnection that our modern society suffers from so greatly. This quote really says it all...
When told the reason for Daylight Saving Time the old Native American said, “Only a white man would believe you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket.”
This isn't a problem with our clocks, it's a problem with how we structure our lives. The 9-5 work week structure is linear, steadfast, and leaves no room for observing the seasonal shifts of light and dark. Why not have seasonal business hours that make sense for your latitudinal location? For if we permanently change to DST, in the depths of Winter, sunrise would occur just 10 minutes shy of 9am here in Portland, OR. I've heard the argument, "Oh, I'm not a morning person so I'd rather have an extra hour of light later in the day." But do you really want to be driving in the dark to work every morning in the already gloomy, rainy PNW Winter, to then still be driving home as sun sets, likely behind a thick wall of clouds, around 5:30pm here in the Winter? I don't think people are really considering the long term implications to physical, mental, and emotional human health that year round DST would cause. As a culture, we're so fixated on keeping things light as much as possible, literally and metaphorically, that we have a serious problem with being in the dark, again, both literally and metaphorically.
Can we all just accept the fact that the further one lives from the Equator, the more of a seasonal shift one will experience, specifically when it comes to the sun cycle? (If you don't like it, maybe you should considering relocating.) And that life isn't always sunshine and rainbows? Avoiding darkness at all costs only makes it harder to navigate life when the light feels so far away, and this avoidance inhibits our capacity for personal growth.
Naturally (pun intended), I'm for Standard Time, all the time. Or if we must, keep things how they are, switching between the two. But as a defender of human health, an advocate for living in connection with nature (read: yourself and the greater cycles you exist within), and a supporter of critical thinking and taking a nuanced approach to everything, I cannot, in good faith, support permanently changing to Daylight Saving Time.
Don't just take it from me, though. Hear out Saagar Enjeti stating the case for Standard Time in this recent segment from Breaking Points.
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I was cheering aloud yesterday when I watched this video. Side note: if you're still slowly poisoning yourself with the hyper-biased mainstream media news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News, do yourself a solid favor and check out the independent, anti-establishment, down to earth news show that is Breaking Points.
I know not all of you will agree with me on this, and that's okay. However, if you do agree with me or I somehow inspired a change of mind, please join me in signing a couple of petitions (here, and here) AND write to your state representatives urging them to advocate for a permanent change to Standard Time. I am even granting permission for you to copy and paste relevant sections of this Lumen Letter, and tweak them as you'd like to state your case for Standard Time.
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Take action politically, and also take action personally. Here's a basic outline of what you can do to reset your circadian rhythm and live in harmony with the sun cycle:
Get outside for a few minutes in early morning light within the 1st hour of waking; spend more time outside if it's overcast or cloudy. Bonus points: get out in first morning light around sunrise. If you're waking up when it's still dark outside, flip on some lights to send the clear signal to your body that it's time to get going, or use a sun lamp.
Around solar noon, when the sun is the highest in the sky, get outside again for a few minutes. This is when you'll be able to produce the most IU's of Vitamin D from the sun, so a little mid day sun goes a long way. Depending on where you live, you cannot get Vitamin D from the sun year round, and supplementation may be necessary. Sun screen will inhibit Vitamin D production, but please be mindful of your sun exposure and know your melanin's personal limits. For instance, after getting regular doses of mid day sun through out the Spring, I max out at around 20 minutes of mid day sun in the Summer...and that's after building up a base "tan" for many months as someone with a Fitzpatrick Skin Type 2. I love using the app Dminder for tracking my Vitamin D production from the sun, highly recommend this health tool!
Sunset's warm, red light signals that it's time to begin winding down. And who doesn't love the magic feel of twilight? Step outside around sunset and bask in the glow of daylight's close.
After sun has set, avoid bright lights unless you want to intentionally disrupt your melatonin production and stay up late. I use salt lamps and candles to light up my night time activities - their warm orange/red tones are most similar to that of firelight (the candle literally is a small fire), which we have evolved with as our nighttime source of light. That, and the moonlight!
As promised, here are links to 3 Huberman Lab podcast episodes, coming straight from the brilliant mind of Stanford Professor and Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman:
If you've stuck it out this far in this quite lengthy Letter, I commend you, and thank you for your commitment to hearing me out. At least if you still disagree with me, you've taken some time to consider another perspective and make a more informed, thoughtful decision.
& if you're intrigued by all of this circadian rhythm talk and want to learn more about how you can design your lifestyle to implement a healthier relationship to the sun cycle within your own unique set of circumstances, book a complimentary 30 minute Discovery Call with me. We'll unearth the potential for working together in a one-on-one format. I'll ask you a bit about your movement and health history, and lay out a metaphorical blueprint for how I would design your sessions. Bring all your questions, and let's dig in!
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May you worship the sun,
& honor the cycles of the seasons.
Embrace the light of the Full Moon tonight;
know, too, that Darkness has it's place.
Luminous love,
Jessica
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