Consider investing in a small batch of essential oils to drop in a diffuser or even
Iwas raised by a fervent gardener, so my young nose often took in sensory treats transported from yard to vase. To this day, I know that a room graced with a freshly cut lilac or mess of herbs is the place to be — especially when my mood swings low.
There’s science behind that. As Ashley Abramson writes for Elemental, “of all five senses, smell is the one most closely linked to emotion and memory.” Consider investing in a small batch of essential oils to drop in a diffuser or even a pot of hot, steamy water. New to aromatherapy? Lavender is a great place to start. If you’re a fan of woodsy smells, experiment with burning dried sage or palo santo or even clipping evergreen branches. Scented candles can be lovely as well, but there’s reason to be picky about these and steer clear of chemicals.
Given that all realms of life happen under one roof for so many of us right now, you might try using scents to draw some lines in your day. Maybe fresh greens keep you company at your desk (or work-from-home spot) and rose oil diffuses by your bed, signaling you to power down.
Five words was all it took to break through the blockade that surrounded my heart, freeing it to feel legitimate pain and eventually inspiring it to let go:
Some things are just sad.
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A wise friend said this to me over dinner six months after I, at age 33, had suffered two unexpected and rare heart attacks in one week. The sadness he was referring to was not only the malaise that surrounded my subsequent loss of health, heart function, and confidence about life as I had known it. …
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In recent years, there has been a fad for taking cues from our early ancestors to improve our health today. We know that we didn’t evolve for our current sedentary lifestyles, and we understand the ways our bodies were optimized for endurance exercise like long-distance running. But one under-discussed element of our fitness evolution is the hours-long dance party.
Take, for instance, the San people of the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa. In the 1950s, anthropologist Laurence Marshall and his family spent months at a time with these indigenous people, who were then still hunter-gatherers. About once a week, they observed the San medicine dances, typically beginning after dusk when everyone would hang out by the fire. As both men and women sang joyously and clapped to ancient songs, a handful of men would start dancing in a winding, twisting line around the group, stomping out the song’s beat, often adding extra light steps. Men would do most of the dancing, but women would also dance a turn or two when the mood was upon them. As the night drew on and the fervor of the hypnotic dance steadily increased, more men joined in, and by dawn some begin to enter a trancelike state, which they call “half-death.” The San believed there was great power in this half-conscious state, which freed the medicine men’s spirits to communicate between this and other worlds, to draw out manifest sicknesses and as-yet-unrevealed ills, and to protect people from unseen but lurking dangers.
A daily tip to help you stay healthy and hopeful all through January.
It’s rare that I make it through an otherwise-at-home day without walking and talking. This pandemic necessity happens in one of two ways: Either I walk in the woods, by the water, or through my neighborhood alongside someone in my family bubble, or (thanks to the magic of headphones) I do it while engrossed in a phone conversation with someone dear to me. The ingredients are simple: I need to move, and I need to want to spend the time with my real-time or audio companion (all obligatory or task-specific calls strictly prohibited). …
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A daily tip to help you stay healthy and hopeful all through January
Perhaps now more than ever, healthy routines are powerful companions. Making batches of soup in the cold weather months is one routine I swear by. Because my winter self is most alert, willing, and creative (thanks in part to the boost from morning light) in the first part of the day, I like to cook then.
Soup making pairs particularly well with a body clock tuned this way. I can chop, sauté, and season during coffee hour and let things simmer and stew throughout the day. As I write this, a bean soup is on the stove — loaded with cannellinis, onions, carrots, celery, and kale. …
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