Earth Day Medicine 2020

Anchoring in to the Earth and Nature to #beresilient today.

50 Year Anniversary 

Earth Day 2020

Long before COVID-19 invaded Central Texas, the Egyptian Goose did. These "invasive water fowl" are extremely territorial and can now be found on most of our Central Texas lakes. They're a beautiful bird, amazing markings and color, a gorgeous, flowing water "ginger" as my similar-traited son would call them. But they are also the oddest things. Their incessant honking can leave you standing with curiosity trying to figure out where they are "roosted" - and most likely it will be in the most unlikely of places. These web-footed creatures are often found in branches of our trees forty feet off the ground; perched on our dock roof christening it with yesterday's lunch; and even found perched at the apex of our house! Yes, they do seem to take habitat in their new territory and chase off the local feathered friends, but fingers crossed, nature will take its course on this new, local eco-issue.

I woke up this morning with the intention of fully immersing on the lake where these geese live on this Earth Day. It's been a pretty mental week for me. Is it a month with the same family, "socially" isolating with just them? Perhaps it's not knowing at all what is real, true, fact or fiction anymore? Or the weekly trip to the grocery store cloaked ear to ear with the new fashion statement of a mask - some still clinically drab and others conversation stoppers in the isles - of which I continually get called out for heading down in the wrong direction? I didn't think all of this was especially stressful, but perhaps my cortisol levels would tell a different story. It's mounting up.

For several days I've been in the Corona-Cave - a deep pit that, frankly, I had no desire to climb out of. I'd sworn myself to do my best at listening more, keeping thoughts, opinions, comments and requests to myself. "Just be and serve", I told myself. Keep everyone else happy and hang on; this, too, shall pass and everyone, including "yourself" will lighten up. 

I was visiting with a friend last night about intentionally "doping" your body with positive, "happy hormones". She's had a crazy few years with a divorce, joint custody, running her own business, moving, working to find a new "normal" in a life where she must remain very buoyant and flowing to handle what rolls in daily. There's so much science validating the importance of finding your daily "dop"(amine) and ways to do it. It was refreshing to share the facts with her. Information that I'd clearly forgotten personally in one very long week.

#natureismedicine

It's Earth Day. And I needed my dop. I needed to crank up what my personality totally thrives and energizes on: adrenaline, dopamine and oxytocin. Truly, it's my sugar, my crack, my spirit. When I have it, I function off an entirely different realm. And I realized I had been doing my best to deliberately suppress all that makes me "me" in order to sustain, be more present, more available, more approachable to my family. So on this, the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, I needed to Get Out and get a dose of my own medicine (truly, did Earth Day not exist before I started elementary school??)

#natureismedicine

I'm a patreon, friend, ambassador - and believer - in the evidence-based science that Wallace J. Nichols shares in his book, Blue Mind. Water is Medicine. There are so many studies that support the fact that it absolutely increases flow, adrenaline, dopamine, oxytocin, creativity, and a sense of peace - all while reducing blood pressure, cortisol, stress, anxiety and depression. Then, genius, we should be using it intentionally just like the medications from "behind the counter" that big pharmco's advertise do just what the science of Blue Mind validates. It is not going to cost me a nickel to go outside. Bathe in nature. Look, listen, feel - and sense. And, more importantly than solely venturing out on a paddle to see how far I can go, or a surf sess to see what I can try heelside, isn't it much more important to be aware of how I'm really feeling and use those activities as a "go to" when in mental need?

"Neuroscientists and psychologists are validating that the ocean and our waterways are a wellspring of happiness and relaxation, sociality and romance, peace and freedom, play and creativity, learning and memory, innovation and insight, elation and nostalgia, confidence and solitude, wonder and awe, empathy and compassion, reverence and beauty -- and help manage trauma, anxiety, sleep, autism, addiction, fitness, attention/focus, stress, grief, PTSD, build personal resilience, and much more."

~Wallace "J." Nichols, Blue Mind Rx

#natureismedicine

So after a run and workout this morning, I knew I "needed" the lake. I needed the ripple effect of what it could - and I knew - would - do when I immersed my mind, body and spirit in this morning's amazing, foggy waters. Sure, physical fitness is a given when you're active, but intentionally going to something for the "mental fitness" leaves an impression on our entire being. And that's exactly what I needed - until the thunder cracked overhead. Push pause. Nothing better than a spring time, mid-day thunderstorm, dense fog and a shoreline view of it all taking place in front of you like magic on the water. Just watching it transpire and listening to it's thunderous grand scheme was already calming me.

#natureismedicine.

And as I witnessed today, it is even a remedy to it's own. A lesson, a medicine, an amazing synchronicity so much larger than ourselves. As I looked out towards the water, the textbook opened even farther. Those silly Egyptian Geese were on our boat dock. They flew in during a torrential downpour. After I got past my immediate, non-nature loving response of "good gracious, they're going to poop all over the place," I honed in a bit more on what was actually taking place. The storm was at it's peak with the rain pouring from the sky - and collecting with huge streams flooding off our boat dock roof. And right at the very line of where the torrents of rain were pouring like buckets off the eaves, those crazy birds were sitting in the roughest, toughest line of water. They were not taking refuge where it wasn't raining, where it was lightly misting, or where it was raining the least. Nope. They were full on in the midst of the storm - and then choosing to even surpass that and hunker down where they were being hit the hardest. Bring It. Turn It On. We Got This. We Need This. We are planting ourselves right where things are the toughest.

#natureismedicine.

Watching the geese intentionally find their place "in the thick" of what nature was delivering, willfully practicing patience, resilience and heightening their tolerance, strength and potential. I got it: Don't hide. Get in the thick of it. Push the envelope. Pursue adversity. Grow. Strengthen. Seek - and you will find.

My hopes are that on this Earth Day we all do a little seeking - and some finding. Using what is at hand, omni-present and powerful. It may not cure all; and agreed, sometimes there are next steps that need to be taken. But it certainly can move, unlock, connect - and re-connect us. And it just might be some of the best medicine that doesn't come from over the counter.

"Water reassures our primal nature. It is a feeling of rightness because the brain tells us we’re in a good place that can provide for our most fundamental needs.

'This is the spot,’ says the brain. ‘Build your cabin here.’”

~ J.

We Wish You Water.

Happy Earth Day 2020