I have always been very keen to live by the seasons and live according to the sun, I know that our exquisite metabolic balance depends on it. For a while now, I have been taking a stroll outside at dawn and dusk. This is so that natural light falls on my eyes in these transition times between day and night. The ‘twixt and between times have always been magical for me. As a young girl I always felt compelled to be outside at dusk or dawn, walk on the grass, listen to the birds rising or settling for sleep, I think as adults we forget how wonderful this can be.
I want to reset my internal clock so that my body knows what time of day it is, what time of year. So many experts concentrate on what to eat nowadays – yes, of course, junk food is out, some diet regime or other in, but how many of us stop to think about the time of year and what is actually available out there on the land?
I have some idea that animals and plants produce exactly the right nourishment for our bodies at exactly the right time of year, according to the optimum health of the environment as a whole, including nutrients in the soil, strength of the sun and temperature, it is all done in a perfect balance of fats, proteins, carbs and micronutrients but we go ahead and flaunt nature’s wisdom by eating bananas shipped in from The Dominican Republic and kiwis from New Zealand in winter where the season’s requirements are so very different from our own.
We may actually crave bananas in the winter however and this may be because our eyes hardly see daylight from one day to the next, stuck as we are inside, behind glass, under electric lights, our bodies have no sense of what season we are living in, no idea of the slant the sun is taking or what phase the moon is in. If this is the case then how do we then know what we are supposed to be eating?
Our eyes are complex and subtle organs, they are the gateways to our bodies. For that reason, about two years ago I threw my sunglasses away. I now live with no eye protection by the beach in summer and on the snow in winter. This was originally to improve my eyesight, which, at 40 I detected was deteriorating slightly, but since researching into the benefits of sunlight, I have realised that covering our eyes all year round, as many people do nowadays is perhaps a mistake. In addition to sunlight and vitamin D and wellbeing, I now know that receiving natural (not artificial) light in the eyes is crucial for setting our metabolic and hormonal patterns during the day.
Eating according to the season is also crucial for our finely-tuned bodies, as long those bodies know what season they are in.
If I have to use the computer after sunset or before sunrise, I have installed a program called f.lux, which turns the screen orange (cuts out the blue light) during the hours of darkness and mimics daylight during the day. Most of the time, I try not to use the computer when it is dark outside and I try to dim the lights after sunset, so that my body can wake up at the right time or get ready for sleep.
In spring we are replacing the windows in our house. I have already begun searching for full-spectrum glass to insert into crucial windows in the kitchen and living areas and after dark I have been using candles to light the rooms. Reading recently about the dangers of petroleum-based candles however, I have looked into buying battery powered candles and eventually want to make candles from beeswax from my own hives.
It is now 8.16 a.m. and sunrise was five minutes ago, so it is time to get out for my morning walk! A sunrise and sunset calculator can be found here.
