aging

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!

Small Changes

by ultrapeg

rain-becomes-rainbowChange is all around us all the time.  Whether we like it or not, everything is in a constant state of change.  All you have to do is look at a photo of yourself when you were a toddler and then look in the mirror.  Clearly you have not stayed the same.  Then look around you.  Look at the town you grew up in.  Even young people will undoubtedly see changes in their surroundings. I have lived in my current location for just under 9 years.  Not a very long period of time.  Yet during that time I have seen numerous changes in my town and surrounding towns.  People and businesses have come and gone. New homes have been built where fields or forests once thrived.  Smart phones are now ubiquitous. It doesn’t take very long for change to be noticeable.  Pay attention and you will see changes around you every day.  And despite resistance, going back to the way things used to be is not only unlikely but probably unwise.  Hindsight is 20-20 but our memories are selective and faulty.  Nothing was really ever as great as we think we remember it to be.

Yet despite the overwhelming evidence that nothing stays the same, we often cling to the hope that somehow we can hold on to the way things are right now.  Especially if right now seems like a particularly soothing or, at least, non-threatening place.

Change over time can be subtle, like the changes involved in the aging process.  For young children, change occurs at a rapid rate.  The difference between a 6-month old child and a 1-year old child is dramatic.  But through the years, change seems to slow to the point where we may not even pay attention until something forces us out of our complacency. Similarly, a seedling might grow really quickly once it pokes through the soil.  But large trees grow more slowly.  Seasonal changes are observable, but incremental growth patterns may be less obvious.

It is common to recognize the passage of time at certain milestones – the beginning of a new decade, a child or grandchild’s graduation or marriage.  Yet even as these things happen we often don’t see ourselves as changing.  After all, the “internal me” is the same “internal me” that has been there all my life. Sure, I’ve accumulated knowledge and experience over time that has enhanced the way “internal me” views the world, but in my own head I seem the same as I was 20 years ago.  So why is it that my body sometimes refuses to acknowledge the sameness of “internal me”?  It is not uncommon to continue to try doing things the way we’ve always done them because inside we feel the same as we always did. Unfortunately, though, forcing the status quo as our bodies are changing can be frustrating and even dangerous.

Then there are times when change is forced on us.  There might be an accident, illness, loss or other circumstance that forces us to confront the reality of change.  This type of sudden change can be very difficult to accept and absorb. Sometimes it’s appropriate and even necessary to simply put our lives on hold temporarily until a way forward becomes clear.  Certainly recovery from a trauma – physical and/or emotional – may require this approach.  Stop.  Breathe.  Assess the situation as it really is (not as we might like it to be) and then take the next step.  Blaming oneself or some external person or circumstance is rarely helpful.  Also wishing that things were different than what they are won’t make it so.  Looking back into some rosy ideal of the past also just keeps you trapped in thinking like a victim instead of the strong, confident and capable individual that you are.

But just how does one move forward when every new step leads to unknown territory?  The world can seem like a scary place when the comfortable rug of familiarity is pulled out from under your feet.  Curling up into a little ball and opting not to move may seem like an option, but it is unlikely to be a viable solution.  At least not for long, anyway.  So what is the best way to overcome the pain of those first steps into a new world?  One suggestion is to keep those steps small. This is true of any change to your life – whether it is a change you decide to make or one that was not your choice.

Any change in your life – even positive change – involves some type of loss.  In the simplest of terms, it is loss of the way things were.  Perhaps it is the loss of a comfortable routine.  Bringing this discussion to my favorite topic – physical movement – suppose you’ve been told by a medical professional that you need to move more.  Maybe you used to be an avid exerciser, but you’ve gotten away from it through the years.  Or perhaps you’ve suffered from an illness or accident that has caused you to limit or alter your mobility for a period of time.  In this blog I have often spoken of the difficulty of getting back into movement after a hiatus.  Continuous movement is the optimal option, but what happens when something gets in the way?

One idea is to take baby steps.  Once a decision to make a change is made, many of us want to have it all instantly.  That’s the way of life we are fed.  Immediate solutions.  Why wait, the ads scream?  Get what you want NOW!

But there are some potential problems with that kind of thinking.  If you’ve been away from moving for a while, it may be painful to start again.  Your muscles may have lost some of their strength and resilience.  It will take some time to build them back up again. Rather than eliminating your pain, re-building your strength may bring some additional pain initially. This can be discouraging.  If not moving seems to keep the pain at bay while moving brings it on again, why would you want to subject yourself to that?  The answer goes back to the theme of this blog – change.  It has been famously said that if you want things to change, you can’t keep doing the same thing.  Staying still might seem like it will keep you pain-free, but it won’t change anything.  And the longer you stay still, the harder it is to make that change.  By contrast the pain that comes when you move may not subside right away, but if you continue with small incremental steps, your body will get stronger.  Just like the subtle changes described above, you may not recognize the changes in your body, but eventually you may realize that today you were able to do more than you could yesterday.  That’s change in a positive direction.  You may find that you have to move differently from what you’ve been used to.  But if you continue with the practice of small changes, you will probably find a way that will work in your new reality whatever that may be.

Making changes in this way still takes a decision and a commitment.   This is true for any change you need to make in your life whether it is a job change, a geographical move or adapting to a loss.  Taking the first scary step toward a new reality is the hard part.  Once you know that first step is possible, taking the next one might create a bit less anxiety. The world didn’t end when you took the first step, so it probably will still be there after the second step. There is also another advantage to small steps.  You can evaluate as you go along.  Maybe your goals will change as you get stronger.  If you’ve waded into your new reality slowly and avoided diving into the deep end right away, adjusting your course might seem more possible.  Since change is all around us, it is also possible to create some of those changes for yourself. You may not be able to change everything, but your attitude is always within your control.

Finally, it may help to remember all of the obstacles you’ve overcome in your life.  No matter who you are or what you’ve done I am certain you can look back through your life and recognize instances when you adapted to change despite misgivings or odds that seemed stacked against you.  We’ve all had those experiences.  Maybe you made a false start and had to re-think and try again.  If you did it once, you can do it again.  Chances are you have already done it many times. We all have our own individual inner strengths.  Find yours.  It will help you to make the best choices as you move through change.