Lifestyle Support – December 2025

Sunday, 28 December 2025

Use lifestyle to put yourself in rhythm with your circadian clock, so your body knows what time of day it is. Circadian dysregulation causes inflammation of the brain and oxidative stress. Oxidative stress accelerates the aging process and can contribute to health complications.
 
In Part 2 of unpacking sunlight as a valuable tool to support your circadian rhythm, your energy and sleep, let’s talk about sunlight in the middle of the day.
 
The sunlight around 1:00pm – 2:00pm in the day is a full spectrum of blue light. This is not the same as the blue light from your phone or computer. This light spectrum tells your body it’s the middle of the day. Go for a walk or stand outside to support your circadian rhythm.

Sunday, 21 December 2025

Use lifestyle to put yourself in rhythm with your circadian clock, so your body knows what time of day it is. Circadian dysregulation causes inflammation of the brain and oxidative stress. Oxidative stress accelerates the aging process and can contribute to health complications.

Sunlight is a valuable tool to support your circadian rhythm, and over the next four weeks I will unpack how you can use the sun to support your energy and sleep.

Do you like to watch the sun rise? The sunrise creates a red hue in the sky. The red light from the sunrise triggers sensors in your eyes to turn melatonin off and Cortisol on. When you wake, Cortisol is the activating hormone that gets you moving. At the same time, your pancreas wakes up to ensure you can take the glucose from your food and move it into the cells in your body to power your day.

Sunday, 14 December 2025

Cortisol has been getting a bad reputation in the media lately, but this hormone is important for motivation, especially in the morning. When you wake, Cortisol is the activating hormone that gets you moving. When Cortisol levels are constantly high for long periods of time, that is when it has a negative effect on the body.

I mentioned that Cortisol is an activating hormone, so you need to move your body. If Cortisol isn’t used, the body will store it as belly fat. If you are starting to feel stressed, go for a walk or do ten air squats. Even calf raises will help to lower Cortisol levels.

Another technique to bring down Cortisol is to scan the horizon, moving your eyes laterally from one side to the other. Scanning the horizon sends signals to the amygdala in the brain that you are looking for danger, and this lowers Cortisol. The amygdala controls fear, emotions and motivation. It is part of the limbic system which controls behaviour and memory.

Sunday, 7 December 2025

Many households this time of year welcome a beautiful pine into their homes and adorn it with twinkling lights and gleaming decorations. The practice is usually attributed to German, Latvian and Estonian traditions in Europe and, in the UK, Prince Albert brought pine trees to Britain when he married Queen Victoria.

Associated closely with the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, this ritual actually predates the Christian religion. Celts and Druids believed that evergreens symbolised eternal life and worshipped them at the winter solstice. Ancient Romans decorated their homes with evergreens for their December ritual, Saturnalia, held in honour of the god Saturn. Egyptian, Chinese and Hebrew communities are also noted to celebrate the evergreen as a symbol for eternal life.

Whether you share the practice of decorating your home or not, you can’t deny that the month of December is wrapped up in things that sparkle, smells of ginger, orange and cinnamon, and a general sense of slowing down and spending time with people we care about. Wishing you a wonderful start to this month of festivities.