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Surviving Winter – It Takes a Village

by ultrapeg

Ah, winter in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  This is an area characterized by challenging and unpredictable weather all year.  A few days ago our temperatures went from -21 degrees to +40 in the span of about 24 hours.  We often say that we can experience all 4 seasons in a single day, sometimes in a matter of hours.  A visitor once asked me “what is typical weather for this time of year?” and I could only reply “there is no ‘typical'”.  The best advice on any given day is to dress in layers and be prepared for anything.  During my years in New England I kept a running log that included what I wore each day to accommodate weather conditions.  Using this guide I was able to decide how to dress within 5 degree increments of temperature change in either direction.  After arriving in South Dakota, that guide soon went out the window.  There are so many variables affecting outdoor comfort here that it is almost impossible to know what to wear.  Even though I subscribe to the theory that there is no bad weather – only poor clothing choices, it’s worth repeating that my best advice is still to dress in layers and be prepared for anything.  Since I try to get outdoors as much as possible all year long, I also advocate carrying a backpack big enough to allow for the addition and subtraction of clothing as conditions change.

Having said all of that, there are hazards to outdoor activities in the winter.  After a stint of super cold and snowy weather it is not uncommon to experience a welcome break in the action featuring sunny days and temperatures that can even reach the 50’s.  As attractive as these periods of respite are, they bring with them a pattern of thaw and freeze that can create dangerous ice.  This past week pretty much everyone I talked to has had some kind of fall on the ice, myself included.  Each new storm spreads a new layer of snow on top of the previous layer of ice.  The new snow sometimes provides extra traction, but it also masks what’s hidden beneath it.  A layer of black ice underneath a shallow layer of snow brought me down.  Fortunately I was not significantly injured, but it was enough of a scare to drive me indoors to the dreaded treadmill.  It takes a lot to get me on the treadmill , but as I get older the possibility of serious injury from falling looms large.  As much as I love being outdoors, it’s not worth the risk.  A few mild and sunny days in a row can be sufficient to clear one of my favorite winter walking areas.  It’s worth the wait.

The good news is I don’t have to use the treadmill every day.  There are other indoor options.  It’s times like these that I am especially grateful for my yoga and Pilates practices.  Both disciplines supplement and support my walking so that I can stay strong and mobile throughout the long winter.  There are many other reasons to bring mind/body practices into your life at any time of year, but winter can be a particularly good time.  Despite the fact that we’ve passed the solstice (yay!) the days are still short.  Little by little we are seeing changes in the extent of daylight in the afternoons, but mornings are still really dark.  An article from Harvard Health Publications titled “Let the Sun Shine Mind Your Mental Health This Winter” points out that winter can throw off the circadian rhythms of our natural internal clocks.  This can affect moods and even overall mental health.  We’ve all heard of “Seasonal Affective Disorder” which, as defined by the Mayo Clinic, is a type of depressions that occurs with the changing of the seasons.  The Harvard Health article emphasizes the importance of physical exercise as an antidote for this problem.  Just 30 minutes of daily exercise not only helps relieve stress but also “may help your body release endorphins, your natural ‘happy hormones'” which can help elevate your mood naturally, without drugs.  The article further advocates yoga as a meditative practice that can help quiet the mind and mitigate symptoms of depression.

Another article in Harvard Health Publications titled “How Simply Moving Benefits Your Mental Health” provides additional support for exercise as a mental health booster.  The article states that regular exercise “can reduce anxiety by making your brain’s “fight or flight” system less reactive”.  In fact, according to this article exercise can “be as effective as medication and psychotherapies“.  Exercise boosts mood “by increasing a brain protein called BDNF that helps nerve fibers grow.”  The article specifically identifies yoga and other practices “in which you pay close attention to your bodily sensations, position in space, and . . . breathing as you move. . .  can reduce the severity of symptoms in post-traumatic stress disorder. Changing your posture, breathing, and rhythm can all change your brain, thereby reducing stress, depression, and anxiety, and lead to a feeling of well-being.”  The article goes on to say although you can practice these disciplines on your own, “a recent study found that when you try to move in synchrony with someone else, it also improves your self-esteem.”  I love this result!  Not only are mind/body movement disciplines shown to improve mental health, but moving with others makes the practice even better.  There are many reasons to take classes but here is another one we can add to that list.  Since “synchronizing” can imply mimicking, I don’t necessarily advocate doing this in a class, especially if you are new to the practice. However, especially in Pilates we do think about the rhythm of our movements so perhaps we could consider the class like an orchestra with each of us moving in concert with one another – not necessarily mirroring others but still making individual contributions to the presentation as a whole.  What a great concept!

If you still need more reasons to find a way to keep moving even when conditions outdoors may be discouraging, let me cite one more article in Harvard Health Publications.  This one, titled “Challenge Your Mind and Body to Sharpen Your Thinking Skills” by Heidi Godman, an intriguing title all by itself, highlights the advantages of both movement and social engagement. The article cites Dr. Kathryn Papp, a neuropsychologist and instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School, who says “Until the mid-1990s, we thought that people were born with however many brain cells they would die with. We now know that the growth of new cells — a process called neurogenesis — occurs throughout life, even in older age.” And the good news is “researchers have found that physical exercise leads to the release of cellular growth factors that are important for neurogenesis.” Furthermore, the “combination of growth factors and new brain cells that comes from healthy living, challenging the brain, and staying socially connected in a meaningful way may actually help protect the brain or keep it more resilient against changes that cause dementia”.  Classes in yoga and Pilates accomplish all three of those goals – challenging the brain through connecting the mind to physical movement, social connections with other class participants and, as Dr. Papp puts it, “the grand poobah of them all: exercising.”  Seems to me that this is one more reason to give classes a try.  Although there are no guarantees, it certainly can’t hurt.

If you’re new to regular movement practices, my advice remains to take it slow, go at your own pace, don’t worry about what you look like and just keep at it.  Remember that the goal is practice, not perfection.  But keeping all of the advantages mentioned above up front in your mind might help keep you motivated when you’re tempted to quit.  And if you continue to practice you just might find that you begin to notice the difference in both your mental and physical well-being.  What is that worth to you?  Seems to me it’s priceless!

Forward and Back – The Progress Dance

by ultrapeg

Many of you know I am a huge podcast fan.  There is no special pattern or theme to the podcasts that make their way into my playlist.  So many things interest me and I find podcasts to be an enjoyable way to learn about different topics and ideas without having to sit in front of a screen or even anchor myself to a chair with a book.  They open up worlds for me that I can later explore in more depth if desired.  Podcasts are an especially welcome treat for me when I’m walking.  Fortunately, I have the amazing luxury of a 100-mile bike trail running through our town so I can walk and listen without having to worry about vehicle traffic.  It gets tricky in the winter when snow clogs the trail, but a few years ago the town paved a portion of the trail which is plowed during the winter.  Most of this section lies in full sun for much of the day so even when the hours of daylight are few, the trail dries out pretty quickly providing an ice-free path which is greatly appreciated.  I feel very fortunate to have this resource.

On my walk this morning I listened to a podcast that originates from Upaya Zen Center in New Mexico called Tonglen for our Times. The main speaker for this talk is teacher and author, Sean Murphy.  Tonglen is a meditation practice where the practitioner breathes in the suffering of the world and breathes out loving-kindness.  The idea is that energy can be transformed from something seemingly negative into something more useful.  There are examples of this throughout nature. One that was cited in the podcast was the transformation that occurs in the process of composting.  A speaker described how she had begun using worms in her compost pile and saw that after a few days there was no evidence at all of what had originally been in the pile.  Even the smell was gone. What we reject as garbage had been transformed into nutrient-rich loam. One person’s trash is another creature’s treasure. Also mentioned was how peacocks can eat what to humans is a poisonous substance and turn it into a source of nutrition that allows them to become such beautiful creatures.  Then there is the process of photosynthesis where plants take the energy from sunlight and create the sugar they need for their own growth and survival. We can all think of other examples of natural transformation of energy.  In fact, one of the laws of physics is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It is simply transformed.

One of my favorite podcasters, Caroline Casey, takes this concept a step further.  She suggests that we all carry an imaginary portable composter into which we can throw all negative energy as we feel it.  The composter will then transform that energy and send it out to the universe in a form that will help create things that are useful.

So what has this got to do with progress?  The fact is, we have the power to transform some of our own energies from something that no longer serves us into something that might be useful in another form.  Think of recycling.  Once my husband and I had yard sale in which we sold some old clothes which were no longer useful to us.  Some Haitian women came along and bought them to send back to their home country.  There the clothes would be taken apart and re-made into something useful to others.  Transformation of energy from useless to useful.

In the Upaya podcast Professor Murphy talked about the constant play between opposing forces of energy.  These forces are not “positive” or “negative”.  They just are.  And, in fact, each energy needs the other.  You’ve probably heard it said that we would not appreciate Spring if it weren’t for Winter. Sometimes the difficulties we face are necessary for us to appreciate the benefits we have in our lives or to find the positive energies we can give to others.  There are energies that produce light and dark or exert forces that are relatively strong or weak. Balancing these energies within ourselves takes constant effort and presents many opportunities for practice. Discomfort of all kinds is often the result of too much of one force or not enough of another. Things get out of balance.  The concept of progress, especially in reference to our daily lives, is never one straight forward line.  We move in one direction for a while and then something happens and we find ourselves going in a another direction.  Sometimes this is by choice but more often it is circumstances beyond our control creating the energy that propels us.  And balance is something we never seem to be able to maintain for any length of time. Just when we think we’ve figured it out, the situation changes and we find ourselves starting all over again at the beginning.  This might make us feel discouraged, but that’s also a form of energy.  With practice, we might be able to take that energy and turn it into an opportunity to learn something new.

Experiencing difficult situations that can cause suffering is a fact of life.  We have all experienced pain of one kind or another.  Sometimes that pain can last a long time or even become chronic.  Another example of opposing energies are those of joy and sorrow.  Although none of us can escape sorrow, most of us have also experienced joy.  Even the most tragic lives have had periods of joy.  Sometimes we’re so focussed on the down side that we forget that there have been and will again be up sides also.  It seems to be a human characteristic that we remember all the negatives and forget the positives.  Or maybe we fixate on some time in the past when things seemed to be so much better than they are right.  This can cause us to overlook the good in our current reality and see only what’s missing.  If you recognize yourself in that statement, remember that not only is hindsight 20-20 but memories are faulty.  What seemed idyllic then no doubt had it’s own drawbacks.

Which brings us to two more opposing forces, ability and inability.  If for whatever reason you are unable to accomplish tasks or goals that you set for yourself, you might find yourself sucked into an emotional vortex that sends you spiraling downward.  How can you transform that energy into an opposing force that propels you back upward?  Here are a few ideas:  first, just stop.  Even for a few minutes.  Take some deep breaths.  Find Child’s Pose in your mind.  You don’t need a mat; you can do this in a chair or where ever you are.  Professor Murphy talks about the difficulty of not knowing what to do when faced with suffering you can’t get away from.  His suggestion is to stop struggling and wait until the way becomes clear.  That may not happen within your hoped for time frame.  But chances are it will eventually happen as long as you don’t try to force it and stay open to the possibilities.  Take an honest look at the task in front of you.  Is there a way you can change it so that it doesn’t cause so much discomfort?  Maybe that simply requires a change of attitude.  Or a modification of the method. Remember, too, that nothing lasts forever.  Everything is always changing all the time.  The thing you can’t do today may suddenly become do-able at some point in the future.  Or, better yet, it might become irrelevant as some new priority takes its place.

One more thing Professor Murphy suggests in the podcast:  when you don’t know what to do with inescapable pain, take care of yourself.  If you put self-care in the forefront, you will be in a better position to recognize the way to move forward when it presents itself.  The fact is you are no good to anyone if you don’t take care of yourself.  This is not being selfish.  It is just common sense.  You can’t give what you haven’t got.  Another suggestion I would add is to ask for help.  We are all interdependent.  When we’re hurting we tend to isolate thinking no one can possibly understand what we are going through.  But everyone has had their own experiences with stress and darkness.  Allies can come from the most surprising places.  Treating yourself with kindness and compassion is always good advice. No matter how desperate and hopeless life may seem, there is always something to be grateful for if you give yourself a chance to find it.