Focus:
Slowing down, softening and being present for the purpose of healing our nervous system.
Repetition:
My nervous system is precious.
I promise to move slowly.
I promise to soften.
I promise to practice being present and purposeful.
Practice your morning routine this week. When you wake, journal about how you slept and how you feel, including emotions and physical communications from the body. After your morning routine, repeat the journaling exercise. If you are new to organ meats, make liver pâté. Freeze into cubes and eat a teaspoon per day - whether you enjoy it or not - trusting that you will enjoy it in the future. If you are not new to organ meats try adapting this more advanced recipe to ARP. This means at least removing the parsnips and flour. Feel free to add in anything from the foods “on the menu”.
New dental care routine
In the morning, oil pull with coconut oil (if you don’t have amalgam fillings) or olive oil (if you do have them). Brush with your homemade toothpaste or no toothpaste. Rinse with fermented kraut juice, kefir, whey, or any ferment. If you haven’t yet made any ferments, use diluted ACV but switch as soon as you can.
Before bed, floss with silk floss and brush with homemade or no toothpaste. Swish with ferments (or ACV+water) and get into bed. We want to replenish the microbiome of the mouth as store-bought toothpaste and mouthwash has depleted the healthy microbial community that should exist in our mouths, protecting us from dental and health issues.
Light Routine
No blue lighting before sunrise or after sunset. Use candles, a non-toxic oil lamp, or electric lights with incandescent orange or red bulbs. No screens or LEDs before sunrise and after sunset. Get morning sun in your eyes and on your skin for at least 10 minutes but aim for over 30 minutes. We cannot get the full spectrum of natural light through glass so just staying by a closed window will not be sufficient.
Each colour of light in the spectrum of sunlight communicates something different to your body and this spectrum changes throughout the day. For example, morning sun tells your body to make melatonin 16 hours later. It is optimal to get 4 hours of sun during and after sunrise so try to get as much as you can. Keep in mind that 4 hours would alone heal 50% of your microbiome, without any other interventions! We use fermented dairy on our skin to improve our microbiome and allow our skin to better communicate with the sun.
The sun provides our body with information on what time it is and when to make the proper hormones. Your body cannot balance hormonal health without being in the outside light. Even if it is gloomy and rainy, your body is still getting the necessary light. And the midday and evening light are important too! If you could go outside in the morning and be outside most of the day - even if you could only lie on a blanket because you were bedridden - you would be shocked at the changes that would occur in your quality of life! In the winter you need less sunlight, as the body utilizes melatonin for certain jobs that vitamin D would do, but you still need some! Our body is wise and knows there will be less light in the winter months and can compensate for that, but is not able to skip the natural light in the winter altogether.
Our hormones give us our personality and quality of life! The sun allows the hormone vitamin D (and vitamin A) to become water soluble instead of their natural form of being fat soluble, which in turn allows them to scavenge for free radicals, providing a powerful but gentle, daily detox. The sun causes our bodies to create melanin which is also a powerful antioxidant. Neuromelanin in particular is neuroprotective and necessary for our brain and nervous system. Melanin is also a natural sunscreen. It filters EMFs for us, stores electrons, and acts as a superconductor inside our body.
We want to limit our blue light intake. Please look into blue light blocking glasses if you must have a significant amount of screen time. We can only recommend Ra Optics or Dohohdo. Both are quite expensive but do work and are worth it. Alternatively, you can put free screen protector software on your devices from Iris. It is a good idea to replace LEDs with incandescent bulbs and to cover all the small LED lights you have in your home with black tape. Your bedroom should be like a dark cave: you should not be able to see an object directly in front of your face. If this is not possible, use a sleep mask made from natural fiber.
It wasn’t until about 200 years ago that humans living much of their lives outdoors. Our DNA sees being indoors all day as if we are hiding from something or we are sick, that something is wrong. Even if you have to work all day, make time to walk outside for five minutes at a time and eat your lunch outside. Your precious and ancient nervous system needs the sun to feel safe. It needs to be outdoors in nature and receive the earth’s frequencies. We will explore grounding in the future but for now: bare feet directly on the earth is best, and shoes with soles made of natural materials are second best, and concrete allows for grounding to take place but not asphalt does not.
Do as many tasks as you can outdoors and always make time for a walk. If you cannot walk outdoors yet, open a window or make a place to lie down outside. If you can barely walk outside, do that. Take a tiny walk and rest on the ground for an hour. Increase your time outside as you heal. The goal for optimal health would be to be outside multiple hours every day. Bundle up if it is cold but allow as much skin to show as possible. Wear as little as possible (within reason, of course) during the warmer months.
The sun is an ever-present gift of medicine for holistic health.