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Embrace the Dark

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Today December 21, 2011 at 10:30pm Arizona time will mark the winter solstice. It’s a time when the Earth’s northern pole is tilted the farthest away from the sun which generates the least amount of daylight in the northern hemisphere. In other words, it produces the greatest amount of time we spend in the dark.

For millennia, astronomical events like the winter’s solstice have held great significance to many cultures as evidenced through monuments like Stonehenge in Brittan and Newgrange in Ireland. As early as 46 BCE, Julius Caesar established December 25th as the date of the winter solstice. Since then, many cultures and religions adopted observances related to the winter solstice, including Christmas, Hanukkah, and Yule.

In nearly all traditions, the winter solstice observance revolves around the theme of rebirth and new beginnings, since the day marks the shortest day of the year and the return of more daylight. Yet, it is the time of greatest darkness that may hold the greatest opportunity for emotional and spiritual enlightenment.

Metaphorically, the subconscious as well as our creative and feminine aspects are linked to the night and the moon. In western culture, these aspects of ourselves are often repressed and subsequently feared, since that which is unfamiliar is ripe for misunderstanding and anxiety. Yet, for those who are brave of heart, I invite you to take this year’s solstice as an opportunity to begin to explore a deeper connection to your emotional and spiritual bodies, which exist as sure as your physical body does.

The process is simple. There is really nothing to “do”. You only need to “be”. It starts by sitting quietly, in the “still of the night” if you will, as you listen to the soft whisper of your inner voice guiding you with a wisdom beyond your own. Yet, for many this by itself is a daunting task in an age of electricity that literally turns night to day and further represses our creative subconscious. To be still and gaze into the darkness is so unsettling that many choose to avoid it, reinforced by society’s mantra of “just do it”. For those willing to try, change that mantra today to “just be it” and see what can happen.

It’s likely that you’ll discover a feeling of relief as if the weight of a great burden has been lifted from your shoulders. Your body will physically relax and your blood pressure and heart rate will likely lower in response to this new relationship to your being, rather than doing. It will feel like a more natural state of existence. After all, we call ourselves “human beings” right? When was the last time you were called a “human doing”?

In this simple exploration, you can experience directly the connection between your physical body, your mind and what ever you envision as your spirit or greater consciousness. In my experience of working with a variety of clients over the years, increasing one’s awareness of this relationship is directly proportional to the increased level of wellness one experiences in their daily life.

So take what ever time you can spare on this day of rebirth and renewal to shine your own light into the dark recess of your awareness and discover new connections to yourself. Embracing the darkness today, can help you become healthier and feel more vital in the daylight of the months to come.

Happy Solstice!

About Paul Kulpinski, LMT

Paul Kulpinski is a licensed massage therapist, holistic wellness educator and co-founder of Mountain Waves Healing Arts in Flagstaff, Arizona. Information contained in this blog should not be taken as medical advice. Readers are advised to validate the information presented here with other sources including your personal physician for information specific to you.

The Addictive Tan

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What if you were in business that sold a popular product that was addictive? Cigarettes and tobacco you are thinking, right? Maybe so, but what if simply being out in the sun was addictive? What if the reason indoor tanning salons are so popular was because getting a tan was addictive? Crazy, right? Nope, that’s exactly what tanning is, addictive; according to the latest research published in the journal Addiction Biology.

Dermatologists have suspected that tanning was addictive and this suspicion was what led to the new research. The researchers say that dermatologists would remove skin cancers like a basil cell carcinoma only to observe the patient go right back to their tanning habit. Many patients report symptoms consistent with addictive behavior like not being able to stop tanning.

This latest research comes from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The study used frequent tanners who used sunbeds at least twice a week. Each of the tanners used the same tanning bed twice during the study. Once where they received the full dose of UV radiation and the other time with the UV radiation filtered with out the tanners knowledge. In both sessions, researchers monitored brain activity and found that with full UV radiation, the areas of the brain associated with addiction were activated. The same was not true when the UV radiation was filtered.

Additionally, when the tanners were interviewed after each session, they reported a lowered desire to tan after the sessions with full VU radiation, indicating that they felt satiated by their session. After the session with the UV radiation filtered out, they reported the same level of desire for tanning as when they arrived.

This latest research builds on a study in 2004 at Wake Forest University. In that study, researchers found that when skin cell cultures were exposed to UV radiation, they produced melanocyte stimulating hormone, which contains endorphins which acts as a narcotic on the nervous system.

This helps to explain the effectiveness of UV light therapy for people suffering from Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD). However, in those treatments, only the head and face are exposed to the UV light. In a tanning bed, the entire body is exposed and often for twice the recommended length of time. 30 million people tan indoors annually and 71% of them are women between the ages of 16-29. While all skin cancer diagnosis are on the rise, melanoma, the most deadly, is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in 25-29 year olds.

While dermatologists agree that frequent tanners should reduce their exposure to UV radiation, most would like to see more research before recommending traditional therapies designed to treat addictions.

Additional Sources:

New York Times
ABC News

About Paul Kulpinski, LMT

Why is Wintertime Cold and Flu Season?

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Did you ever notice that most people get colds in the winter? Some people even say that’s why its called a “cold” – because you get it in cold weather. As early as the 1960′s, British researcher Dr. R. Edgar Hope-Simpson theorized that a “seasonal factor” was responsible for the annual outbreaks of influenza following the winter solstice and the disappearance of it after the summer solstice. This has been a long standing mystery to the medical community, since it is well documented that the people are exposed to the influenza virus year-round. Why would we be more susceptible to the virus during winter?

Research also shows that vitamin D levels are at their lowest of the year during winter months and highest during the summer months. Is there a connection? New evidence is beginning to link the two.

The name “vitamin D” is actually a bit misleading, because vitamin D is actually a hormone in the same family of hormones as estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and cortisol. These types of hormones play an important role in the function of the nucleolus of our cells. Vitamin D’s role in the body’s absorption of calcium for bone growth, but its only recently that scientists have discovered the link between vitamin D and our cell function. The latest research, published last year, links vitamin D and our body’s immune system.

While many people take vitamin C to help their immune system, there is little evidence to support its effectiveness. Vitamin D however, has a growing base of evidence in its role related to the immune system. Some of the latest research was published in the February 23, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. In that report, researchers studied nearly 19,000 people and found that people with lower levels of vitamin D in their blood were up to 40% more likely to have experienced a cold. The connection was even more dramatic for those who suffered from asthma or other respiratory disease.

When most people think of vitamin D, they think milk. However, cow’s milk contains little to no natural vitamin D. Actually, the U.S. Government began requiring the fortification of cow’s milk with vitamin D as early as the 1930′s in its efforts to combat the bone deforming disease rickets. That’s how the vitamin D gets into milk. While there are other dietary sources that do contain natural vitamin D, the best source is to make it yourself.

Your skin synthesizes vitamin D upon exposure to the Ultra Violet B rays of the sun, which are greatest during the middle part of the day. For people living near the equator, exposing your skin to 15 minutes of sunlight twice a week is enough to generate the vitamin D your body needs to stay healthy. The farther away from the equator you live, the more exposure time you need because of the indirectness of the suns rays. So what happens in wintertime? We stay indoors more, we bundle up in clothing when we do go out and the suns rays are even more direct, limiting our exposure to the UVB rays that produce vitamin D.

The link between wintertime colds and vitamin D is getting stronger isn’t it? While the researchers do want to study vitamin D’s effects on colds in some clinical trials, it seems worth it to me in the meantime to go outside and get some sunshine each day to help your body manufacture some vitamin D. It might be just what you need to get you through this cold and flu season. As for all of the warnings about avoiding the sun, that’s a topic for another blog post that you can read about here.

Sources:
Risk Of Colds And Flu May Be Increased By Vitamin D Deficiency

What Is Vitamin D? What Are The Benefits Of Vitamin D?

Epidemic Influenza And Vitamin D

The Vitamin D Cure

Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Vitamin D

Vitamin D

About Paul Kulpinski, LMT