Are You Season Savvy?
Are You Season Savvy?
Moving into mid-March, we approach a major shift of seasons. Winter into Spring takes us from a harsh season into a gentler one. Colorado just experienced it’s greatest blizzard since 2003. With 24-plus inches of snow accumulation in an 18-hour time span, it was a comfort to observe from the warmth of home.
Hopefully, Winter will complete its dumping by month’s end so Spring can fully awaken on March 20th. With a new season just weeks away, I notice many people getting ready for this shift. Lawns are being fertilized and aerated, fallen leaves and branches are being raked and discarded, and walking paths are becoming more crowded.
Are you preparing your seasonal tasks? It’s easy to observe the outer chores and routines, but do you know that your inner body has its own seasonal cycles? Perhaps you have not considered that you are a seasonal being.
If you are someone who follows a “same-ole-same-ole” routine daily, monthly or even from year to year, you may be putting your health at risk. Stanford University researchers identified more than one-thousand seasonal variations of microbes and molecules in over a hundred humans. The study, concluded over four years suggests what early civilizations knew, that it is vital to our health to be connected (in sync) with nature and her seasons.
Interesting patterns in immunity, inflammation, neurological and cardiovascular conditions presented during this study confirming a shift in our internal functioning. Perhaps this is why more people experience allergy symptoms in the Spring and a stronger immunity and higher blood pressure in the Winter. Some neurotransmitters are light sensitive (dopamine, serotonin and brain-derived neurotrophic factors) and contribute to the moodiness of Seasonal Affective Disorder in the Winter. In the sunnier seasons, these symptoms usually lessen or disappear altogether.
Recently, I’ve posted a series on the importance of observing your personal circadian rhythms and how that may boost your wellness levels. New science shows how the human body also shifts with the seasons.
I definitely notice more bugs in my garden in the spring and summer than I do in the Autumn and Winter. Science is now showing our internal terrain (microbiome) to be similar with its seasonal, shifting microbes.
In these final days of Winter, and heavier diets, I encourage you to explore ways you may adjust your internal system to Spring’s lighter, fresher foods to feed your seasonal microbiome. Take advantage of the warmer, sunnier days to get out and get active, improving circulation and neurotransmitter function.