Hi Byte Wellness Fam- What a time to be alive.

Hope you and your loved ones weren’t directly affected by the most recent hurricanes (Fiona and Ian). If you have been, we’re sending you wishes for safety and peace.

If you can believe it, this week’s #PhyteWellWednesday discussion touched on a theme that ties our wellness journeys together with these natural disasters: balance.

Check out the recording below and join the private community to get invites to future weekly workshops.

Wellness Lessons From Nature

Climate-related natural disasters offer an undeniable example of how the law of *balance* governs nature. Let’s dig into it.

We need wind.

Moderate winds modulate temperature to maintain the climate we’ve come to rely on for growing crops. But, winds that are too strong can harm us and the physical structures we’ve built our lives around.

We need rain.

Moderate rainfall helps us grow the plants we need for food and serves as our major source of drinking water. But, too much rainfall can flood the streets, leaving us without shelter.

If we dig slightly beneath the surface of this metaphor, we find another comparison between natural disasters and our wellness. Not only is balance incredibly important to our wellbeing, but our actions can impact that balance.

Although hurricanes exist as a natural event, experts from NASA suggest that human efforts (via global warming) play a role in worsening the harm of these natural disasters.

So, our collective efforts to eke productivity and enjoyment out of life have the potential to boomerang back onto us in harmful ways which include, but aren’t limited to, increased hurricane severity.

If we have the power to increase the risk that climate change poses to our lives, we also have the collective power to direct our efforts in ways that minimize the risks of these natural disasters. The same goes for our individual wellness risks.

Balancing Wellness Habits to Prevent Disaster

Although we don’t always realize it, we humans are just another branch of nature. Are we really surprised that the same laws of balance that exist in nature also govern our own bodies?

Our wellness habits are one of the ways we shift balance in our bodies.

Here’s an example: Our bodies and minds rely on us to balance rest and activity.

We need sleep and stress-killing relaxation practices to repair our bodies and minds. But, we need to balance rest with adequate activity (via exercise and other types of movement) for further repair.

Too much of rest or activity would be disastrous. Too little rest or activity would be disastrous. So, we need to constantly check in with ourselves…think critically about that balance.

And what do we do if we discover that we’re not getting enough activity or rest? We shift our habits to bring them into greater balance.

But, most of us know that habits aren’t always easy to change. THAT is why we spent the last 3 weeks diving into the science of behavior change.

If you're reading this Self-Love Letter for the first time, you can check out our past Letters and workshop videos here to see what you've missed.

You need to know that you already have access to the tools needed to shift habits to help you thrive!

You simply need to name them and figure out how to use them.

Discussion Question

Discussion Question:

• Think about your automatic wellness habits (like brushing your teeth).
  What makes them automatic?

• Why do you do them without any thought?

Happy Healthy Living,

Dr. Wuse