Nature - Winter solstice 2024
Winter solstice
21 December 2024 is the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. It is the day with the least daylight and the greatest darkness. Today is the start of astronomical winter.
We are entering the coldest months of the year because the sun appears lower in the sky throughout the day, sunlight is spread over a larger area and is, therefore, less intense. From tomorrow onwards the sun will rise earlier and set later and each day will gradually grow longer and sunnier.
Nature is cyclical
In Scotland where I live, nature is notably cyclical and we have as many words to describe the nature of our seasons as the Inuit have words for snow. Seasonality is a poorly understood aspect of human health. If we want to live our best human lives, we should understand how seasonal fluctuations affect our biology.
At its most basic level, our body uses signal from our seasonal environment to determine how much energy to use for movement and work, and how much to use for staying warm. The three most important seasonal signals we receive are as follows:
Food
Light
Temperature
Food
For me, eating seasonally means eating what is grown close to where I live. One of the biggest mistakes I see people making is eating imported food out of season and even out of location. Our ancestors did not grow and eat pineapple in Scotland and we confuse our bodies when we do so today.
In my part of the world, very few carbohydrates grow in winter so my diet tends to be even higher than normal in meats and fats. That said, we eat a range of root vegetables and things like apples throughout the winter.
Light
One of the biggest differences I experience between the seasons in Scotland is the duration of of my exposure to daylight. Presently I’m experiencing around seven hours between sunrise and sunset. That will increase to around 19 hours by the time of the summer solstice in June.
I’ve written about the importance of natural light before. Because I see so little of it in winter I try to get outside regularly.
Temperature
The temperature where I live rarely dips below freezing in winter and rarely surpasses 70F/20C in summer. Nevertheless, it still feels cold in winter and signals to our body that it needs to function differently, and create more internal heat.
I try to maintain my early morning barefoot grounding sessions as the sun rises and try to exercise outside regularly in winter