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Winter Blues? Seven tips to light up your life

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I am not a fan of rainy, cloudy days. I mean one or two here and there are fine but the continual cloud cover of Canadian winters can play on my health and happiness. I miss the sun terribly and find my mood starts to mirror the gloom of shadowy days after any extended period. Perhaps because am a Leo born in the heat of August, but I always feel more alive when the sun is shining on my face whether it is -1 degree Celsius or 20 plus.

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I remember many, many years ago hearing about S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder). It seemed to explain the symptoms starting in the late fall and continuing into the winter months. I felt a sapping of energy making me feel moody, tired or even blue.

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Kelly Spencer – Happy Healthy YOU

(A wellness column by Kelly Spencer: writer, life coach, yoga & meditation teacher, holistic healer and a mindful life enthusiast!)

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I used to try and book a winter holiday down south each year. My parents had a place in Florida they migrated to annually, so it was an easy, cost effective trip for me and my kids. But as life happened, kids in university and obligations redefined, the trips don’t happen anymore, as much as I crave them.

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S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) can be mild or even more serious form of depression. Seasonal Affective Disorder affects about 2-3% of Canadians. Fifteen per cent experience a milder form of SAD that leaves them only slightly down, but still able to live their life without major disruptions. People with seasonal affective disorder make up about 10% of all depression cases, with some groups of people who are at higher risk of seasonal affective disorder, according to Canadian Mental Health Association.

Adults are at higher risk of SAD than children and teenagers. After the age of 50, the risk of SAD starts to decline. Researchers aren’t yet sure why. Women may be more likely to experience SAD. Some research found that women may be up to nine times more likely to be diagnosed than men. People in more northern countries or cities are more likely to experience SAD than those who live close to the equator. The amount of daylight you receive changes as you move north, and that change is thought to be part of SAD.

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Even if you don’t have SAD, it is shocking to the Canadian system to see the sun go down in the late afternoon of November. In contrast, it sure does make you appreciate the gorgeous northern sunsets of summer at 8:30 p.m.

My friend and colleague Dr. Mark Dickson recently obtained Verilux “Happy Light.” He brings the lamp to work and I often use it at my desk. I love its brightness and after a few minutes I don’t know the light is on. HappyLight therapy lamps mimic sunlight to enhance mood, energy, sleep and focus – but without the UV rays. They are said to assist with winter blues, sleep disorders, light deprivation, jet lag, shift work and other symptoms alleviated by exposure to healthy light. HappyLight lamps are full spectrum, 10,000 lux lamps.

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How do you know if you have affects from lack of sunlight?

Many have concerns with wanting to sleep all the time, or have troubles getting a good night sleep. Often feeling tired all the time, making it hard to carry out daily tasks. Appetite changes, particularly more cravings for sugary and starchy foods which can cause weight gain can happen. Many experience feelings of sadness, guilt, irritability, hopelessness and tension and feeling stressed more so than usual and avoiding people or activities normally enjoyed.

It is very important not to diagnose yourself without speaking to a professional because there may be other causes for these symptoms. And even if it does turn out to be depression, it may not be the SAD form of depression.

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Sunlight is an essential ingredient for a healthy and happy lifestyle, but many of us don’t get the amount of daylight we need to experience its benefits.

So here are seven tips to light up your life.

1. Light therapy lamps. There are two types of light therapy: Bright light treatment, with the light box at a certain distance from you on a desk or table. Then you sit in front of it while you read, eat breakfast, or work at a computer. The other is Dawn simulation. For this treatment, a dim light goes on in the morning while you sleep, and it gets brighter over time, like a sunrise.

2. Get outside. If the sun is out, take a few minutes and soak it in! Even if the clouds are covering, spending time outside can still soak in some sun rays even if muted. Go for a walk, as it encourages your brain to release endorphins, a neurochemical that boosts your mental health, decreases your sensitivity to stress and pain, and can even make you feel euphoric.

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3. Open the curtains and sit by a window. If you have a desk job in an office or are sitting on a chair at home during the day, move it by the window so that you are getting a better charge from the sun’s love.

4. Get your sleep. Go to bed at a good time, avoid the extra nap that might interfere with a good night’s sleep and set your alarm. Routine can assist with proper sleep requirements.

5. Avoid the extra carbs and sugars. They can cause us to crash more. And if you are already feeling blue, weight gain sure as heck is not going to help the situation.

6. If needed, counselling. If you can’t shake the blues, talk to someone about it. Seek assistance to find effective coping mechanisms.

7. Make like Canadian Geese and migrate south. If you can, go to the sun. Find the heat, the warmth and the sunlight and soak it in. By the ocean is even more beneficial because of the negative ions in the salty ocean air that is believed to produce positive vibes by producing biochemical reactions that increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy.

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(If you would like to see an article on a specific topic, please email kelly@indigolounge.ca)

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The mindful medicine of music

Today, I woke up later than usual. I didn’t sleep well. I had been playing scenarios of what I wanted to serve for appetizers for my book launch coming up… at 3 a.m.!

Although I have many exciting new adventures and chapters in my life, stress is stress. Stress often gets labelled during a ‘negative’ or ‘bad’ situation and our parallel reaction to it, but the reality is that the exciting, happy and positive events and adventures can carry their own backpack of weight causing us to have physiological and emotional responses such as obsessive thinking, increased stress hormone responses, lack of sleep and so on.

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Kelly Spencer – Happy Healthy YOU

(A wellness column by Kelly Spencer: writer, life coach, yoga & meditation teacher, holistic healer and a mindful life enthusiast!)

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This morning when waking, I decided to make a tea and hit my yoga mat. As I was attempting to centre and still my mind, it wanted nothing to do with it. My mind was like a squirrel on Red Bull. I was low energy and depleted from my restless sleep which included getting up at 4 a.m. and eating some of my boyfriend’s leftover apple pie, which was packed for his lunch.

I needed to match my movement to my mind to release, before I meditated.

With my mind feeling like ‘brain stew,’ I decided the song with that title by American alternative punk-rock band Green Day was perfect. Instead of forcing my yoga practices to suit what I thought it ‘should’ look like, I allowed the present moment’s need to dictate what was needed, and I needed to rock out on my yoga mat. So, I did.

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Charles Darwin once remarked, “If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.”

Albert Einstein declared, “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician.”

Jimi Hendrix called music his “religion.”

Studies have shown that there is a universal medicine in music that can shift our moods, increase our blood flow, lower our stress hormones and calm the mind.

How can music do so much good?

Music seems to “selectively activate” neurochemical systems and brain structures associated with positive mood, emotion regulation, attention and memory in ways that promote beneficial changes, says Kim Innes, a professor of epidemiology at West Virginia University’s School of Public Health.

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Innes co-authored a 2016 study that found music-listening could boost mood and well-being and improve stress-related measures. The study focused as well on older adults suffering from cognitive decline. Her study compared the benefits of music to those of mindfulness and meditation, with many mental-health perks. She found that both mindfulness and music practices were linked to significant improvements in mood and sleep quality.

“Both meditation and music listening are potentially powerful tools for improving overall health and well-being,” Innes says. If the idea of listening to music seems a lot more practicable to you than meditating, these findings are great news.

Music can be medicine for your mind. Johns Hopkins Institute experts discovered many health benefits by learning and using music in different scenarios. When 13 older adults took piano lessons, their attention, memory and problem-solving abilities improved, along with their moods and quality of life. You don’t have to become a pro, just take a few music lessons.

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Another study showed that after one month of music lessons with children between the ages of 4-6, 90% significantly improved their ability to understand words and explain their meaning. Other research found that musically trained women and children outperformed those who weren’t involved in music when completing a verbal memory test.

If you enjoy moving your body through walking, the gym, yoga practice or whatever, music can exercise your brain while you do it.

“There are few things that stimulate the brain the way music does,” says one Johns Hopkins, otolaryngologist. “If you want to keep your brain engaged throughout the aging process, listening to or playing music is a great tool. It provides a total brain workout.”

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When I teach toddler or kids yoga, a lot of the teaching we do is through song. The kids love singing and they seem to remember and connect to the words being sung in a way that is more powerful than the plainly-spoken world. It seems to light them up, even if our singing voices are not award winning.

Stacy Horn from Time notes the elevatory mood brought on by singing: “The elation may come from endorphins, a hormone released by singing, which is associated with feelings of pleasure. Or it might be from oxytocin, another hormone released during singing, which has been found to alleviate anxiety and stress. Oxytocin also enhances feelings of trust and bonding, which may explain why still more studies have found that singing lessens feelings of depression and loneliness.”

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Patricia Casey, a columnist at the Irish newspaper Independent, notes a number of studies that celebrate the healthy power of singing: “One study found that a choir singing Mozart’s Requiem released an immunoglobulin s-IgA that assists our immune defences, while others have shown that choir music reduces cortisol, one of the markers of stress in the body.”

Research has shown that music can reduce anxiety, decrease blood pressure and decrease pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory. Listening to music can assist to release, realign and let go of tensions. The power of music can jump start creativity, joy and focus to complete task or projects.

When we can pay attention to how our bodies react to different forms of music, we can remedy ourselves in each moment with what works for us. What might work one day or for one person might change to another. The practice of mindfulness teaching us to bring present moment awareness.

Meaning… what do I need now? When we can understand ourselves better and how we feel and store stress, we can prescribe one of the best forms of holistic medicine, more accurately… MUSIC.

(If you would like to see an article on a specific topic, please email kelly@indigolounge.ca)

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