Happy First Day of Fall!

The Autumnal Equinox has arrived! The night and day are now nearly of the same length as our sun crosses the celestial equator moving southward. Let’s say thanks for (nearing) the end of the blinding long days of sunlight and heat!

I find it interesting that many of my readers are greatly bothered by the longer hours of daylight during the first half of the year, particularly in the northern regions. I’ll try and do my next posting on this topic. For now please enjoy this lovely Fall scene.

It’s in the Rain

The storm is finally rolling into Los Angeles on this fine Friday evening. A brisk cool breeze is shooting through my window, lifting the curtains and my spirits!

I never realize how much I’ve bottled up my feelings until it rains–I think I convince myself that I am fine, but then it rains and I realize I’ve just been holding my breath all that time. I feel whole when it rains and is cool like it is now. I feel full of life, energy, vigor, am my spirit swells with the joy of existence.

It is raining now –I can hear it hitting the cement, washing the diesel dust off the leaves and houses. And I can smell it–my body takes deep breathes of air. My muscles relax.

Looking back, my first experience with this feeling was when I traveled to India and Nepal. It was a sorching hot dry season, and at the end of one month it finally rained. It wasn’t until then that I realized how unhappy my body had been enduring the heat and dust and filth. That is exactly what I do here in Los Angeles–I endure. From one short rain spell to another. My life is marked by rain, like milestones.

I grew up with rain as part of my normal environment. Some people disliked it, but I always loved it. Rain makes me feel secure. There is some kind of physical component–making me aware of my senses, my self/being, heightened awareness; but there is also an emotional core to it. I love how it makes me feel–introspective but not in the sense of being withdrawn–more like reveling in my inner-self, my inner-life and creativity. It also draws me out–I love how my perspective on the world changes. Things look different when it rains–a perfectly coiffed hairdo gets spoilt–or mascara runs–appearances blur and pretense goes out the window, crisp newspapers become wet and ink bleeds, dry earth becomes sticky and loamy, surfaces get slippery. Walking out in the rain it’s like I have my own little ‘tent’–I examine things more closely–the world seems more fascinating. I could go on and on! What do you love about the rain?

So here is to this wonderful rainstorm–a song by Enya called “It’s in the Rain,” which I only just heard tonight when I stumbled upon an interview of her on YouTube.

Lyrics:

Everytime the rain comes down
Close my eyes and listen
I can hear the lonesome sound
Of THE sky as it cries

Listen to the rain
Here it comes again
Hear it in the rain

Feel the touch of tears that fall
They won’t fall forever
In the way the day will flow
All things come, all things go

Listen to the rain… the rain
Here it comes again… again
Hear it in the rain… the rain

Late at night I drift away
I can hear you calling
And my name is in the rain
Leaves on trees whispering
Deep blue seas, mysteries

Even when this moment ends
Can’t let go this feeling
Everything will come on again
In the sound falling down
Of the sky as it cries
Hear my name in the rain

How to cool down quickly, and avoid a “heat induced mental meltdown”

Last night I had, as a fellow Summer SADder termed it, a “heat induced mental meltdown,” which you can read here. I was starting to get very depressed because of Summer Seasonal Affective Disorder but this morning….wow! what a difference. It is like I have come back to planet earth. There was a gray sky, a cool 70 degree breeze, large clouds…..how wonderful.

I have to say I’m still not sure if the heat or light bother me more, but after this bought of 100+ degree weather I think the heat affects me a little more. However, looking at the cloud cover outside right now makes me feel so good..I can’t even convey it. It’s pure relief.

Speaking of cloud cover cooling…here is something that might help you take cooling into your own hands, literally. Someone posted something interesting in the forum about a discovery that helps increase athletic performance by cooling down the vascular system via a chilled glove type contraption. <OK so my husband just saw this–look at the picture below–and immediately said, “it’s the J.P. Prewitt hand model guy from Zoolander”–we had a good laugh about that one!

At any rate, two scientists–as chronicled in Stanford Magazine— have studied temperature regulation in mammals for decades, and discovered that by cooling our hairless skin areas–ears, nose, cheeks and soles of the feet–the quickest and maximum effect can be reached. Our vascular system is setup so that blood vessels in those areas are intense–to help affect maximum cooling.

Our forum member rigged up her own contraption using plastic convenience store cups filled with ice and experimented, only to find that lo and behold it works!  I would probably try the ones with the screw on lids–or a plastic water bottle.  (sorry I wrote here earlier “foam cups” and that doesn’t work at all…..!).

I don’t find this surprising since a few weeks ago I realized how amazing I felt when drinking cold ice water–it gives me a greater sense of mental clarity and instant cooling. What I didn’t realize, was that maybe part of that ‘instant cooling’ had to do with that I was holding the cold mug not by the handle but by the body (since it feels so good on my hand).

This is something worth looking into! Ice cold footbaths…here I come!

Hit the road jack–SAD-SPF

A reader and I discussed about how taking trips this year –getting away from the intense summer sun and heat–have filled up our Summer SAD tanks, so to speak–extending the amount of time before Summer SAD breaks through the clouds. I like to think of these cool-trips as akin to mental sunscreen. Let’s call it “SAD-SPF” –however refreshing the trip determines the SAD-SPF “factor.”

My trip to Seattle–the cooler temperatures, the rain–refilled my bucket which had been emptied after so many months of endless heat and sun in Los Angeles. That trip was SAD-SPF 50. Like a layer of protective cream…. my trip to Big Sur slathered on another layer of SAD-SPF 30 although this recent heat wave is quickly breaking through my armour.

My trip to Big Sur seems like another lifetime….the cool morning air, the majestic fog that would drift in and swoop over the freeway….sigh. I’ll add a few pics but post a gallery when I get time. It’s an amazing stretch of coastline sheltering coves for migrating whales, seals, and birds. It alternates from looking like the coast of Italy to the coast of Scotland, and inland it’s a heaven of redwood trees, waterfalls, and creeks. The poison oak was changing color, which reminded me that in other climes Fall is arriving.

Hang in there everyone! Go put on that SAD-SPF to avoid the summer depression!

And unfortunately….most of this past weekend I spent prone in bed –in my underpants –watching old episodes of Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives; depressed about the heat and hit with a sinus headache. Even within the haven of my airco’d bedroom, the heat was too much–I hate being trappped! Now and then I’d emerge into the soupy heat of my apartment to make myself to dishes or laundry, or practice piano (my salvation). Or to eat–sort of.

But today (Labor Day) I’ve decided to try another track. Hit the road Jack!! time for some SAD-SPF.  With grand ideas of an early morning jog dashed I commanded myself to get assembled, go outside, and water the plants. Spraying my sandaled-feet with cold water was refreshing but I was glad to be back indoors from the impending 100 degree heat. For my anti-Summer-SAD remedy we will to head to the coastal breezes, and the loving arms of a dark movie theater–and we must leave early enough to avoid me stripping my clothes off again!