Small, simple practices, such as shutting down digital devices at a set hour each night, can help. This inevitably drives us to push ourselves harder, which only causes us to start feeling worse and weakens our immune system.Ĭonversely, if we return to a life that’s more in sync with circadian and cosmic rhythms, we can improve our mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. Metabolic function, mood and cognition are all compromised, performance suffers, and the mood-boosting chemical serotonin dips too low. But when we live out of sync with natural cycles of light – as we do in society when we banish darkness with artificial light, and work and rest according to a clock, not the rising and setting of the sun – this natural internal clock is disrupted. So by living in a way that’s more in tune with the natural cycle of light and dark, dictated by Earth’s daily rotation and yearly revolution around the sun, we allow our bodies to function better. It also governs the body’s other hormonal and bodily processes – from hunger and digestion to body temperature and energy levels. It’s responsible for creating the hormone cortisol in the morning, helping us to get out of bed, and for prompting a rise in melatonin at night, making us feel sleepy. Most cells and tissues in the body run on molecular ‘clocks’ that operate most effectively when they synchronise with the external light-dark cycle they mirror.įor example, the circadian rhythm – the 24-hour cycle that regulates our sleep and waking times – works best when it syncs with the cycle of night and day. But our bodies also act and react cyclically, biologically responding to fluctuations of light and dark. These are small examples of how the cosmos operates according to nature’s rhythms. We live on a planet that rotates on its axis, alternating between day, an extended period of light, and night, a roughly equivalent period of darkness.
So why not follow her ideas? You could make 2021 your best year yet… The revolutionary part? Remembering it’s not tech that’s in charge of making you feel better – it’s you. It might sound quirky, but this approach to living goes back to basics by asking you to observe what is happening in the world around you. She believes that we’d all be happier and healthier if, rather than getting up when our phone alarm goes off, we lived our lives based on when the sun and moon tell us to. Jennifer works with celebrities, corporate leaders and brands including Reebok and Netflix.
Sluggish? Craving carbs? It’s exactly this sort of disjunction that Jennifer Racioppi, a transformational coach and professional astrologer, tackles in her intriguing new book. The idea that our health could be intrinsically linked to the universe and the behaviour of the sun and moon might sound far-fetched, until you take a moment to think about how the short winter days have been making you feel.
The best way to beat the January blues, says astrologer Jennifer Racioppi – and live a happier and healthier life all year round – is to take a cue from nature