Self Care

Sunlight, fresh air, and exercise -- oh, my.

My image, trying some new prompts on HiDream I1 Fast

Spring is trying to spring in North Texas — although we’re looking at a low of 28 degrees F on Sunday — and the days are topping out in the high 60s to low 70s.

My doctor is a big proponent of sunlight, and started riding my butt about getting outside during my Great Cortisol Poisoning period of 2020-2022. I argued with him a bit — pointing out that I am a light-eyed, fair-skinned redhead — and he looked at me like I was stupid, before gently pointing out that sun exposure was a spectrum, with “Lobster” at one end and “Dead Fish” at the other; and that 10-20 minutes outside early in the morning or late in the evening wasn’t going to up my chances of skin cancer all that much. It would, he continued, do wonders for mood regulation, my immune system, and my quality of life in general.

I countered with a proposal to start taking vitamin D supplements, to which he responded with vitamin D is good, vitamin D your body makes naturally rather than going through the digestive system is better, and that sunlight exposure wasn’t just about vitamin D production.

I hate to admit it, but Doc was pretty much right. There’s something about sunlight on skin that makes the whole day a little brighter, and a little sweeter.

Yesterday — Friday — was the first day that the morning was warm enough, so I scandalized¹ the new neighbors by wandering around the front yard in flip-flops, Army running shorts,² and a boonie hat, talking on the phone to a friend for twenty minutes.

While it hasn’t totally cleared the winter blahs, I felt good enough that I actually finished some overdue Raconteur Press stuff, wrote a little bit, and then went for a two-mile amble around Tiny Town lake that evening.

Getting up at 0500 hours this morning for work — I am not a morning person, and never will be — was … less oppressive.

When people on social madness media talk about “self-care” they’re usually talking about things like “Jammies, soup, and my recliner” or “couch, hot cocoa, and a good book”, and while these things are, indeed, glorious, I suspect that there is a very old part of us that doesn’t just like sunlight, fresh air, and blood stirring; but actually needs the sunlight, fresh air, and exercise to feel … human.

I worry.

I know for a fact, and personally, how hard it is to set aside outside time. How much easier it is to curl up on the couch under your living room LED lighting, and stare at an OLED screen, but I suspect that the depths of how bad that is for us have yet to be fathomed. I understand the need when you’re finally home after a long work day, to just be home.

I’m just not sure it’s healthy.

I especially worry about children, those still-developing nervous systems, and still-forming psyches — bodies, nervous systems, and psyches which 300,000 years of evolution designed to use the stimulation and stressors of sunlight, fresh air, and exercise to properly form — stuck hunched over a flickering blue screen.

I see the explosion of disorders in children, and I wonder how many of those children have grown up under artificial light, curled up on a recliner; whose social interaction has been solely watching idiots influencer videos for hours at a time … in the name of “child safety”.

Ugh.

I don’t know the answers, but I think we need to figure out some — and right rikki-tick.

Ah, well. Think I’ll help Rita with some gardening this evening. Get my hands into some dirt. Maybe get my fishing gear out of the shed, clean it up. It’s been years since I drowned a worm.

Either way, it’s time to shake the winter blahs and get about living. See y’all tomorrow.

Ian

1. It’s going to get worse, guys. Just saying.

2. Mint Chocolate Chip camo if you must know.