Are You Suffering From a Nature Deficiency?

This modern, hermetically sealed lifestyle is turning many into indoor zombies — with dulled senses, suppressed immune systems, depressed spirits, and sharply increased risk for illness and disease. One can hardly call that living — particularly when the healing power of nature is so close at hand and, literally outside your front door. If you are suffering from a nature deficiency, and there’s a good chance you are, the good news is that it’s an easy fix — with benefits that have the power to change the course and quality of your life. Here’s how to get started:

Here comes the sun.
Though many of us have been scared off the stuff, sunshine in moderation is essential to our health. It enables the body to create vitamin D, which is key to boosting immunity and warding off serious disease. How to slip in a bit of sun without booking a flight to the Bahamas? Eat lunch outdoors a few times a week. When the days grow shorter, get out there for a brisk walk, point your face to the sun, and get your dose of D!

What’s that smell?
Stale office air, off-gassing office carpets and chemical-spewing copy machines at work all chip away at our overall health. Why steep yourself in it? Get out at lunchtime, even if it’s just to pick up some food from down the street. While you’re walking, take a few deep breaths, and fill your lungs with fresh outdoor air instead of the re-circulated indoor stuff. It will help clear your lungs, boost alertness and reduce your exposure to office toxins. In the evening, take a walk around the neighborhood with one of your kids, to sneak in a bit of fresh air plus that all important quality time. When I was growing up my father used to take a 30-minute walk with either me or my brother several times a week, and I remember how we each relished the time we spent on our one-on-one walks with Dad.

Keep it simple.
Getting into the great outdoors doesn’t necessarily mean climbing Kilimanjaro — although I highly recommend walks and hikes in peaceful locales. Sometimes, the wilderness is where you find it. Even a 10-minute break on park bench in a quiet park or garden will help calm your mind and reconnect you with the natural world. If getting yourself and the kids outdoors is a challenge, make a celebration of it. One of my patients turned an annual summer meteor shower into a friends and family star-gazing event, complete with a picnic dinner for all and kids on the lawn in sleeping bags on the watch for shooting stars.

Listen to the world around you.
Just as honking horns, barking dogs and crying babies can escalate irritation and blood pressure levels, soothing sounds from the natural world can calm the mind and body, and help bring blood pressure back down into the healthier range. When possible, head to a peaceful park, take the headphones off, and listen to the sounds around you. If getting outside isn’t an option, sound machines that replicate the sound of things like streams, running water and soft rains can help bring the sounds of nature indoors — at least until you can get out for a dose of the real thing.

Surprise your eyes.
Make your brain work a little harder by exposing your eyes to the ever-changing light and colors of the natural world. More vivid than any computer screen, the colors found in nature actually force your brain to work a bit harder to process it all — helping to increase activity in the brain and develop those neural pathways. Think of it this way: Step outside and get smarter — now that’s a no-brainer!

Explore new ground.
Hug a tree. Lie in the grass. Dig your toes deep into the sand by the sea. Bottom line: Connect physically with the earth and natural world to energize your body. By making regular contact with the ground, you’ll restore and help maintain the body’s natural electrical balance, thereby promoting your optimal health. To read more about the “earthing” connection to wellness, take a look at the fascinating new research in “Earthing.”

No matter what big pharma would like us to believe, ultimately, true health just doesn’t come in pill form — it comes from the things we do to promote our well-being. Though most of us know that spending time at the beach, in the woods or far beyond the city limits is a rejuvenating experience, it’s important to remember that nature has the power to heal — as long as we give it a chance — so get out there!

For more information on how to optimize your life, visit drfranklipman.com/.

Photo credit: Marina Perevezentseva

Cabbage Sutra

I was once practicing meditation in Benares, India, in a monastery situated right in between a bus station and a train station. In this very urban, crowded place, there was one patch of garden that was a few square feet.

I was sitting outside there one day next to the few little tufts of grass and other growing things, when I noticed that within the garden there was a single cabbage growing. In that moment, I had an amazing experience. Sitting there, just looking at the cabbage, I realized oneness with it!

When I looked at the cabbage, what I saw was forces of nature coming together in a certain configuration, at a certain time, with tentative form and tentative color, coming together, arising, being born, growing old, decaying, dying. I recognized that what I called my “self” also was just forces of nature coming together in a certain way at a certain time, with tentative form, having been born, growing old, decaying and dying. I saw I was composed of elements, with no self entity beyond that or behind that. Just a constant flow of energy. I became totally at-one with this cabbage.

I remembered the Mahayana Sutra where all the Buddha does is hold up one flower. He doesn’t speak at all; he just holds up a flower. In that tiny garden at that time I understood how all of the laws of nature, all the inherent truth of life, could be revealed in one moment of seeing deeply into an event or an experience or an object or a person.

This whole experience reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, a young girl one day taking a trip through the Looking Glass. Suddenly, I was looking at everything from a completely different angle, recognizing that there is no inherent substance to anything in our lives; there is no solid entity like an unchanging ego that we need to do battle with.

In spiritual life, we are not facing an implacable enemy of self that we need to fight, that we need to overcome or eradicate. Spiritual life is understanding the true nature of things, most importantly our own true nature.

It is as though we were trying to dislodge a tree in a forest; the most powerful and direct way would be to uproot it. The root of the tree that is our daily grasping and fear is ignorance. We can approach the tree and start picking off leaf after leaf and twig after twig and branch after branch, only then beginning to peel away the bark, and start cutting off inch after inch of the trunk, to finally get to the root. Or, we can take the direct way.

In spiritual practice the only true confrontation we have is with our own ignorance. Ignorance is the root of this tree of uneasiness and dissatisfaction in life. All of our effort is directed toward understanding. We do not need to do battle with all the different leaves or twigs; we need to see clearly how things are.

I had a moment like that in the tiny garden in the monastery in Benares. I was a bit chagrined that it was a “lowly” cabbage that was my vehicle for seeing more clearly at that time. I couldn’t imagine, for example, a text called the Cabbage Sutra. But there the cabbage was – plain, homey, not ornamental or showy … and there I was, trying to understand my life.

For more information on how to optimize your life, visit SharonSalzberg.com

Originally published on HuffingtonPost.com

Photo credit: smarzinske

Just Jump

You know the parable of the frog: If you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will leap out right away to escape the danger. But if you put a frog in a pot that is filled with water that is cool and pleasant, and gradually heat it until it starts boiling, the frog will not become aware of the threat until it is too late.

This is a pretty good illustration of how our culture, through slow but steady changes away from ancient communities that worked for humans for millions of years, now finds itself in acute distress—on the verge of snuffing out human life.

Undertaking the cleansing lifestyle is a little like reversing this process. As the accumulated waste with its accumulated toxins and bi-products leave the body, the proverbial boiling water gets turned down. What a relief to escape the jaws of death! However, the cooled water is a gateway to another stage: although the water temperature is no longer a threat, you look around and realize that you’re still in a pot!

The roots of our suffering are in this pot—in the civilization in which we find ourselves. The towering, cylindrical walls rise up around us and separate us from our home in the natural world. The pot isolates us from the interconnectedness of the greater living world, which our pre-technocratic ancestors simply took for granted. The best I can determine is that this isolation is the cause of all modern psychopathology. As long as we are cut off from our interdependent relationship with the living world, we are like a plant cut from its roots—roots that would otherwise generate and regenerate us. Cut off, we become madmen, consumed with ourselves, our fears and shortcomings, and our need to possess and protect ourselves against this world in which we’re stuck.

If you have escaped the boiling water by successfully cleansing your cells and tissues, you’re sensitized now to the myriad other injustices to the human organism that most people just accept as normal life. People, like frogs, don’t belong in pots. They are a part of the whole natural world. This is the reality beyond the immediate peril of the murderous water temperature. Frogs and people belong in nature doing what frogs and people do best—leaping across stones and streams, creating life-generating communities, and bathing in sunlight at the break of day.

At this stage, seekers may look for respite in spiritual or philosophical systems, while isolating themselves further, suffering in silence and antisocial behavior because the world doesn’t make sense to them. Or they may just ignore the internal unrest and tell themselves that this better place they have reached is the best one can expect from life—that it’s the end of the road, a dead end they should accept. Only when it dawns on them that they are in a place they don’t belong will they initiate the next cycle of growth and liberation.

The next step toward more gratifying life experience is to leap out of the pot, regardless of the water temperature. The more we respond to things that disturb us, instead of writing them off as normal, the more we discover that we can make liberating changes.

The wonderful thing about life and growth is that there is no endpoint. It’s nice to stop boiling, but even tepid water can’t make the pot our home. It’s a tomb. Frog or man, being buried alive in a pot is far worse than suffering a short, painful death.

The beauty is that with every cycle of growth another one awaits, as illustrated in the upward spiral of the double helix—the very promise of human life, past, present and future! Life-generating challenges satisfy and vitalize the mind, body, and soul.

If we think of heaven as an adventure of greater vistas, greater knowledge and creativity, and the opening of gateway after gateway, we can begin to create heaven on earth.

Time to jump the pot, turn it upside down, and play drums froggy-style!

Ribbit!

Feeling Spent?

First, a confession. I love music and have been obsessed with rhythm from an early age. I grew up in South Africa, where music and its ritual use are a very important part of the way of life in traditional African cultures. In my home, music was always playing from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep. What I did not know then, was that my love for music and rhythm, would be a portal into understanding the way I see health today.

In 1984, a few years after finishing my medical training in South Africa, my wife and I emigrated to the USA and settled in New York City – we could no longer continue living under Apartheid. I completed a 3 year residency in Internal Medicine and for a number of years after that, immersed myself in the study of Chinese Medicine, Functional Medicine, Nutrition, Yoga and Meditation. When I opened my own clinic, the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in Manhattan in 1992, I had a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of my Western training and of all the other systems I had been studying.

Over the years, I started seeing more and more patients coming in complaining of feeling exhausted, depressed, overwhelmed, achy, run down and older than their years. They weren’t sleeping well, had no sex drive and were running on empty. I labeled this “syndrome” SPENT because that’s how these patients were feeling. It is a modern day stress syndrome and has become epidemic. Western Medicine does not have any solutions for it and in fact, does not even recognize that it exists despite so many people feeling this way.

When I started thinking about why this was happening, I realized that the only time I never saw patients who had these symptoms was when I was working as a doctor 28 years ago in KwaNdebele, a rural area in South Africa. I saw diseases symptomatic of physical hardship, of poverty and malnutrition, very different to what I see today in my practice. There was no electricity, indoor heating or refrigeration in KwaNdebele. Folks went to bed when it got dark, arose with the sun and ate whatever foods were available in season. They lived in accordance with the cycles and rhythms of nature, they had to.

I thought about what I had learned in Chinese medicine, that humans are part of the natural world and governed by the universal forces of nature. Human bodies do not exist in isolation; we are creatures of our environment and are subject to the powerful dictates of cyclic rhythm. This rhythm is an integral part of the self-organizing dynamic of nature and so I looked to see if there was scientific research on what I thought was happening. Sure enough there was a field called chronobiology, the science that examines cyclical phenomena in living organisms. Your body has more than 100 Circadian rhythms. They are based roughly on nature’s 24-hour cycle, influencing different aspects of your body’s function, including sleep & wake cycles, body temperature, hormone levels, brain wave activity, heart rate, blood pressure and even pain threshold. These rhythms are part of every aspect of our body’s inner working. Although most of us know that such rhythms exist, we fail to appreciate their power in determining our health. Even in medical circles, chronobiology, the study of physiological rhythm is consistently underrated.

We have internal body clocks set precisely to these rhythms and cycles of nature. The “master clock” is located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a distinct group of cells located in the hypothalamus, which uses signals like light and darkness to know when to release certain hormones and neurotransmitters, which tell us when to wake or go to sleep. Destruction of the SCN results in the complete absence of a regular sleep/wake rhythm. Light is the drummer in our physiological band or orchestra, it keeps the beat, our body clocks try to harmonize themselves with nature.

Then I looked into the field of genomics, the study of genes and I had my Aha! experience on why this was happening.

We evolved over millennia as people who lived in harmony with day and night and the seasons. These cycles and rhythms became imprinted in our genes, which are almost identical to our ancient ancestors. So in our genes we are still our ancient ancestors, but we have outpaced our biology and are living at a pace that is foreign to it. Our modern lives are out of sync with these rhythms and we land up feeling Spent.

For most of us, the only time we become aware of body rhythms and their importance is if we have jet lag. This is probably the easiest way to recognize our internal body clock. Anyone who has flown over a few time zones, for instance New York to London, knows what I am talking about. You get tired easily, feel sluggish, you have trouble concentrating or thinking clearly, your body aches, you have trouble sleeping and you may even have digestive problems. But unlike when you are Spent, after a few days your body clock adjusts to the new time zone and you feel better.

Our lifestyle today simply makes it harder to stay in tune with the rhythms of nature. While no doubt beneficial in many ways, we have created artificial environments that insulate us from the cycles of the seasons and of daylight and darkness. We use artificial light to extend our activities well into the night and even during the day, we spend most of our time under artificial lights, getting very little natural light. It becomes difficult to hear the ticking of our body’s internal clock. The result is that many of us pay a price as our natural body clock gets thrown out of it’s natural rhythm. Our poorly synchronized lifestyles extract a significant toll.

The good news is that when prompted correctly our genetic clocks can reset themselves. The body will move naturally towards healing if we give it a chance. When our rhythms are in sync, we have more energy, everyday tasks are easier to perform, things just seem to flow better. Athletes call this “being in the zone” or having their game on. Finding your “groove” is not just psychological, it is physiological too. By making small changes in your lifestyle, you can feel remarkably more energetic, start sleeping better and reclaim your rightful vitality.

Here are just a few tips taken from my new book, Spent: End Exhaustion and Feel Great Again that will help you to reset your body clock and rediscover your natural rhythm.

* Get some natural light during the day by going for a walk, preferably in nature.

* Keep a consistent daily schedule. Get up at the same time every day, regardless of what time you go to bed.

* Have an “electronic sundown.” At around 10 pm, turn off your computer, TV and all electronic equipment.

* Darken your room completely. That means covering or turning off any of the blinking or glowing lights from the alarm clock, the cell phone charger, the DVD clock and timer, etc. Each little bit of light can stop your melatonin levels from rising, which you need to induce sleep and to reach the deep restorative sleep your body requires. If you can’t darken your room, wear an eye mask.

* Eat in accordance to your body’s rhythms. Since your metabolism peaks at about noon, it is better for your body to have a bigger breakfast and lunch and smaller dinner. Eat good fats and protein for breakfast because that is what your body needs for fuel during the day. Healthy smoothies are a great way to get both of these into your diet. The typical sugar and carb-laden breakfast of a bagel, muffin, toast or sugary cereal are just about the worst things you can have; so avoid those at all costs.

Native Plants & Your Garden

Laura Mathews

What if plants could multi-task? You know, do more than stand there and look pretty.

Consider this: in order to add color and interest to your yard, you’re looking for a flowering shrub.

You could choose a deep pink flowering azalea. That would be pretty.

Or you could choose native spicebush. That would be pretty, too. But spicebush, like other native plants, offers deeper beauty. Like azalea, it flowers in the spring. Unlike Azalea, it has multiple seasons of interest. And since it is genetically predisposed to thrive in much of the US, maintenance is less. It also comes with its own butterfly: the spicebush swallowtail.

Plants have purpose beyond their ornamental value. By adding plants that are native to your area, you’re doing yourself and nature a favor. Native plants need us less. Let’s say you’d chosen the azalea. As pervasive as these are, they’re sensitive. They’re native to China, so they aren’t used to North American growing conditions. To keep them thriving here, it’s suggested you feed them with an acid based fertilizer a couple of times a year. To keep them looking good, you’d need to hit them with a fungicide spray. They’re prone to powdery mildew.

Not feeling all the work and all the chemicals? Let’s look at the spicebush. It’s a naturally occurring shrub throughout the east coast and into the Midwest. It doesn’t need us. Spicebush, like most native plants, will thrive without the regular addition of fertilizers and chemicals because it has evolved to grow in northeastern climate and conditions. As with many native plants, it offers three seasons of interest. Delicate yellow flowers start the spring, yellow leaves mark fall, and berries decorate spicebush for the winter. The spicebush swallowtail butterfly will lay eggs on the leaves and the larvae will feed on the leaves. Native shrubs benefit birds, too: “Spicebush is a McDonalds for birds,” says Judy Bono, a Native Plant expert. Birds can feed on the larvae in spring and the berries in the fall and winter. And spicebush is but one of many native plants.

Spicebush

My point? The spicebush, though less perennially popular, will enrich your garden in more ways than one. Choose plants that are supposed to grow in your location, and you’ll create a symbiotic relationship in which you, your plant, and nature all benefit. I call it right plant, right place, cubed.

Good arguments for natives can be made on a purely economic basis as well. Native plants cost less because they don’t require chemicals or, once established, as much or any watering. And there are some native plant appreciators who simply prefer natives’ delicate aesthetics: say, the wisps of purple flowers of the redbud tree as compared to the explosion of pale pink blooms of the yoshino cherry tree.

But it’s interest in environmental preservation that is truly fueling the current rage for native plants and convincing folks that they’re crucial for our ecosystem. From soil, to birds, to insects, “Nature contains incredible layers of relationship,” said Jan Getgood, of Meadowood Nursery, an all-native plant nursery. According to Getgood, our efforts to re-arrange Mother Nature in our developed areas by introducing non-native species has impacted the biodiversity that those species support.

Douglas Tallamy, from the University of Delaware, has energized plant lovers with his book, Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in our Gardens. In it, he explores the relationship between native plants, birds and insects. Certain insects only feed on certain plants. Birds for instance, search for certain insects; often in spring, caterpillars. Native oaks, for example, support the most butterfly and moth species, over 500, who lay their eggs in oaks. Those eggs become caterpillars and feed the majority of migrating birds. Birds need protein provided by insects to feed their young. While birds gain sustenance from seeds and berries, that’s not enough to support their offspring.

“We need to abandon the idea that we are planting purely for the aesthetics of plants.” Said Tallamy. “Landscapes need to be functional for nature.”

So does this mean we need to tear all our plants out and start over with native plants? Hardly. In fact, native plant experts suggest starting small.

“First, make sure there are no invasives, then replace your plants with natives through attrition,” said Tallamy. “Reduce the amount of lawn you have and plant your areas densely with native plants. Almost everyone has more lawn than they need. ”

Gardens that are tightly planted provide food and shelter for insects and wildlife can gradually allow nature to rebound. The hope is to create a corridor through suburban landscapes that allows wildlife to move freely and find shelter and food.

Of course, gardeners nurture plants. So the idea of pulling out your hybrid tea to replace it with clethra feels a little counter intuitive to us. Native plant champions argue that we should quell our guilt: “People need to know its O.K. to kill a plant,” said Lorrie Preston, President of the Appalachian Audubon Society. Preston suggests looking closely and really thinking about some of our problem plants. Rather than putting a plant on life support with additives or keeping it in bounds with excessive pruning, take the plant out and replace it with a native.

“Plants have their own purpose. We have to understand and think about how a certain plant can serve nature,” said Preston.

Years ago, when natives were called wildflowers, the only way to find them was to start your own from seed. Now, you can find native plants at your Garden Center. Often, there will be entire sections devoted to native plants. And don’t think your plant palette will be whittled down to nothing. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower center at the University of Texas hosts a native plant database of more than 7,000 plants. Many of our garden favorites are native: echinacea, rudbeckia, and coreopsis come to mind. And there are several resources on line, including these:

-Wildflower.org

-Plantnative.org

-National Wildlife Federation

With native plants, you enjoy their beauty and the beauty of the nature that they attract—all while ensuring that birds, butterflies and, well, everything, will be here in the future.

Laura Mathews is a horticulture student, life-long gardener and professional photographer from Pennsylvania.  Currently, when she’s not driving her teenage daughter from place to place or chasing her kindergartner around the yard, Laura is writing blog posts for Punk Rock Gardens and shopping for a small farm.