Seven years ago, whenever I got asked, “How are you?” I answered, “I am tired!” This had been going on for at least a year, and eventually, I got really over that state of affairs. I needed to change things, somehow! Hence I went searching for answers. Like almost everyone embarking on a health journey, my first change was dietary. I discovered that fats didn’t make me fat or sluggish, but carbs did—my first big eye-opener. Hence I went on a keto journey, which had its problems, but I lost visceral fat and had much better energy levels.

A book I was reading at the time (Primal Body, Primal Mind) opened my eyes to various environmental factors impacting my health (i.e. tap water, personal care products etc.)—another significant insight for me then. I got more curious! I knew somehow I was onto something. More reading & researching eventually led me to discover biohacking. A nutritionist I was seeing at the time suggested I check out cold exposure. So I did, and as it happened, I stumbled across a blog titled: Cold Thermogenis 6 – The Ancient Pathway.

I did not know what hit me! My brain could not take it in, but it was profoundly intrigued and hooked. I went back to that blog again and again. I could not let it go and started to read and listen more from Dr Jack Kruse. And that is when I first came across light and circadian rhythms. Boom! A major resonance and knowing deep inside of me arose. Circadian rhythms and light were what I had been looking for all along without even knowing!

We know today that man is, essentially, a being of light.

– Prof Dr Fritz-Albert Popp

Over the next 1-2 years, I consumed everything I could find about light and circadian biology and started to change my lifestyle and light environment. One of the very first things I started doing was not switching on the lights on cloudy days. This was my very first baby step towards aligning my life more with my environment. After a while, the indoor light seemed too bright/aggressive whenever I flicked the light switch on.

Eventually, I replaced light bulbs with yellow, orange and red colored light bulbs, which caused a few dramas in our household, but I insisted. Blue blockers became an integral part of my life after dark. But most importantly, I rediscovered my relationship with the sun! Wow! Talk about game changers. I fell in love with the sun and called her my new best friend. Her touch and caress were what I really needed. Literally, everything in my life improved, and I could not stop talking about light and its impacts.

When I realized that I had been living for decades with only seeing a handful of sunrises, I was dumbfounded. How did I let that happen? I guess I was distracted and did not pay attention. But that changed! I started seeing the sunrise every single day, and my life has never been the same. It does not even take any effort. I now deeply desire to see the sunrise and to spend more time outside in the elements.

Of course, this is by design. After all, we are hardwired to be addicted to the sun. Due to my new love affair with the sun, my priorities changed. One byproduct of this was the massive increase in my solar callus. I went from burning in 30min to 4hrs (at noon at the peak of New Zealand summer) over the course of two years – note that the sun is much more intense here due to the thinner ozone layer.

All living beings are adapted to sunlight. If sunlight does not promote health, but harms it, the reason is that we handle sunlight incorrectly.

– Dr Alexander Wunsch

I could have never imagined how drastically my life would change over these last seven years. Everything is different now: who I am, what I do, what I want, and how I relate to everything around me. My health is rigorous, my energy and mood balanced, and I feel better than ever before. Yet I know that my circadian journey has just begun. Lately, I have been learning to pay more attention to seasonal changes and adjust my rhythm accordingly. I have never felt so aligned with winter, the slow pace, and I am deeply at peace because of it.

Many people think we should always feel great, upbeat, energized and motivated. What a modern-day fallacy this notion is. Nothing stays the same. Daily rhythms, seasonal rhythms, and in-between rhythms, like the lunar cycles, all fluctuate. We tend to neglect and dismiss all these ebbs and flows in our quest for sameness, productivity and control. And it costs us dearly: mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

– Albert Einstein

I feel that aligning with the daily rhythms is the first step of any holistic healing journey. Once that foundation is in place, the natural next steps are cultivating awareness of longer-cycle rhythms and making space for those in our lives. After all, we ought to respect our mammalian nature and step back into the rhythms that guide, shape and sustain us. I am incredibly grateful for this ever-deepening circadian journey of discovery and realignment, and I hope you feel inspired to join me and reclaim your place in the bigger scheme of things. Health is the natural state that follows an aligned life. See you out there ☀️