“That’s so normal!”

The past few weeks, most of my acupuncture patients have been saying “I’m so tired!” or “I’m falling asleep on the couch at 8:30pm” or “It’s so hard to get up for work at 6am.” Usually followed by “what’s wrong with me?!”

To which I say: “That’s so normal!”

Check your weather app. In Oakland right now, the sun sets before 5pm and rises after 7pm. And your body knows this. Your body knows this even if you spend all your time indoors with artificial lights that allow you to wake when your alarm goes off, and allow you to stay up to all hours of the night.

Your body, indeed your very cells, know that the day and night rhythms in December are very different than in June. And your body knows that we humans are not immune to these rhythms and that our health benefits from attuning to and respecting them. And your lovely, intelligent Body is doing it’s best to communicate this with your Mind.

Unfortunately your Mind, while smart, is not always wise. So your Mind ignores your Body’s messages, or discounts them, or overrides its wisdom. And then your Mind gets worried about not being able to keep up the same pace as earlier in the year, and thinks something is wrong.

To which I say: “Go to bed earlier!” “Sleep later!”

And if your life is such that this is not realistic, you can also respect the rhythms of the season by slowing down your overall pace, by choosing to do less when possible, by creating more spaciousness in your schedule. The changes don’t have to be dramatic to have a dramatic impact on your wellbeing.

Body wisdom is truly wise. The key is learning to listen.