We welcome November today with its special grace, marking the final threshold of the autumnal season. We celebrate the abundance of the earth as we prepare for the restful season of winter. It’s a unique and bittersweet time with joy and grief socializing together in the rooms of our hearts.
We’re entering the season of hearty meals on cold days with fast fading sunlight, thick socks, and chunky sweaters. The seasons are a wheel of energy all their own, a tide with which we can flow. Spring and summer tides are composed of yang energy: outwardly focused, active, growing and creating. Autumn and winter tides are composed yin energy: inwardly focused, receptive, restful and refueling.
We can align with this energy by honoring our own individual need for rest, for inward reflection, for receiving inspiration. By choosing to acknowledge our discomfort with inactivity while also allowing ourselves the space and time to be inactive. Nothing in nature is active 100% of the time. We are not made to be constantly engaged, constantly creating. Our individual energy cycles daily (sleep wake cycle), seasonally, and learning to work with our innate rhythms is key to a balanced life.
Energy, Caffeine, and Natural Rhythms
Many of us feel more tired during the autumn and winter months due to the days getting shorter, so there is often a corresponding increase in caffeine intake. Caffeine makes us more alert by blocking the neurotransmitter Adenosine. Adenosine is what signals drowsiness throughout the day. It can be a helpful short-term solution, but as any coffee drinker knows, you do build up a tolerance to it’s effects and then require more to get the same level of alertness. There are other effects as well.
The use of caffeine to block adenosine resets our circadian rhythm. The only other time adenosine is as low as caffeine makes it is when we are first waking up. So when we take caffeine whether through coffee or tea or any other supplement, we trick our bodies into believing we are just waking up for the day. Though caffeine has a short half life, this is why drinking it at 2pm can have you feeling wide awake at midnight or later. This is how the misuse of caffeine can lead to an increase in sleep troubles/sleep debt.
There are a number of factors that contribute to how well we feel. You can learn more about how to work with your body’s natural rhythms to optimize your energy, and support your wellbeing no matter which energy state you are in, by booking a consultation with me.
The information provided in this digital content is not medical advice, nor should it be taken or applied as a replacement for medical advice. Jessica Jascha, the Jascha Botanicals, and their employees, guests, and affiliates assume no liability for the application of the information discussed.