Part III: RECLAIMING - Working With Your Body
Chapter 7: The Return to Rhythm [Natural cycles and biological needs]
Aligning with circadian rhythms
Seasonal eating and living
The importance of rest and renewal
Movement as medicine
Creating environments that support health
Chapter 7: The Return to Rhythm
Aligning with natural cycles and biological needs
Your body is not a machine that should run the same way every hour of every day. It's a living system that pulses with the rhythms of the earth, the moon, and the sun—rhythms that have guided human health for millions of years. Yet modern life asks you to ignore these rhythms entirely, to maintain constant productivity regardless of the time of day, season of the year, or natural energy cycles your body is designed to follow.
The epidemic of sleep disorders, seasonal depression, chronic fatigue, and metabolic dysfunction we see today isn't because our bodies are broken—it's because we've broken our connection to the natural rhythms that regulate every aspect of our health. When we return to these rhythms, when we learn to work with rather than against our body's ancient wisdom, we discover that many of our health problems weren't problems at all—they were signals that we had lost our way.
Returning to rhythm isn't about going backward to some romanticized past. It's about integrating the profound wisdom of natural cycles with the realities of modern life, creating a way of living that honors both your biological needs and your contemporary responsibilities.
Aligning with Circadian Rhythms: Your Body's Solar Connection
Every cell in your body contains a molecular clock, all synchronized to the 24-hour rotation of the earth. This circadian timing system governs not just when you sleep and wake, but when your hormones rise and fall, when your body temperature fluctuates, when your digestive system is most active, and even when your immune system is strongest.
Your ancestors lived in perfect harmony with these rhythms because they had no choice—their days were structured by the sun. They woke naturally as light filtered through their dwellings, spent their active hours in bright daylight, and wound down as darkness fell. Their bodies never had to guess what time it was because the environment provided constant, reliable cues.
Modern life has shattered this ancient synchronization. We wake to artificial alarms regardless of natural light. We spend our days under fluorescent bulbs that provide inadequate light signals. We stare at screens that emit sleep-disrupting blue light well into the evening. We eat our largest meals when our digestive systems are preparing for rest. We expect the same energy and productivity at all hours, ignoring the natural ebb and flow of our biological rhythms.
The Morning Reset: Your circadian rhythm resets each morning based on light exposure. Within the first hour of waking, getting bright light—ideally sunlight—signals to your brain that it's time to be awake and alert. This triggers a cascade of hormones: cortisol rises to give you energy, body temperature increases, and digestive hormones prepare for the day's first meal. This morning light exposure also sets the timer for melatonin production approximately 14-16 hours later.
If you wake up and immediately check your phone in a dark room, then spend your morning under dim artificial lights, your brain receives confused signals about what time it is. Your circadian rhythm becomes disrupted from the very start of the day, leading to poor energy, mood problems, and sleep difficulties that evening.
The Evening Wind-Down: As the sun sets, your body naturally begins preparing for rest. Core body temperature starts to drop, melatonin production increases, and your nervous system shifts from the active sympathetic state to the restorative parasympathetic state. This transition is crucial for both falling asleep and achieving the deep, restorative sleep your body needs for repair and regeneration.
Bright lights after sunset—especially the blue light emitted by phones, computers, and LED bulbs—suppress melatonin production and keep your nervous system in an activated state. Your brain interprets these light signals as "still daytime," disrupting the natural preparation for sleep. This is why you can feel tired but wired, exhausted but unable to fall asleep.
Practical Circadian Alignment:
Get sunlight within the first hour of waking, even if it's cloudy
Spend time outdoors during the day, especially in the morning
Use bright lights during work hours if you're indoors
Dim lights significantly after sunset
Use blue light blocking glasses or filters on screens in the evening
Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet
Maintain consistent sleep and wake times, even on weekends
These simple changes can restore healthy circadian rhythms within days to weeks, dramatically improving sleep quality, energy levels, mood, and metabolic function.
Seasonal Eating and Living: Following Nature's Pharmacy
Your body doesn't just cycle daily—it also follows longer seasonal rhythms that prepare you for the changing demands of each time of year. Traditional cultures understood this intuitively, adjusting their diet, activity levels, and lifestyle practices to match the natural cycles of their environment.
Spring: Renewal and Detoxification: Spring is nature's time of renewal, when plants push through soil and animals emerge from winter dormancy. Your body, too, is naturally inclined toward cleansing and regeneration during this season. Traditional spring foods—leafy greens, herbs, and early vegetables—support your liver's natural detoxification processes and provide the light, fresh energy needed for increased activity.
This is why "spring cleaning" feels so natural—your body is literally preparing to shed the heavier foods, slower pace, and inward focus of winter. Supporting this natural tendency with gentle detoxification practices, increased movement, and lighter foods works with rather than against your body's seasonal wisdom.
Summer: Peak Energy and Activity: Summer brings longer days, higher temperatures, and peak solar energy. Your body naturally produces more energy during this season, supporting increased activity, social connection, and creative pursuits. Traditional summer foods—fresh fruits, raw vegetables, and cooling herbs—provide hydration and help your body manage heat while supplying the quick energy needed for peak activity.
This is when your body can most easily handle higher carbohydrate intake, more intense exercise, and later bedtimes. Many people find they naturally need less sleep during summer months and have higher energy for physical and social activities.
Autumn: Harvest and Preparation: As days shorten and temperatures cool, your body begins preparing for the lower energy season ahead. Traditional autumn foods—root vegetables, squashes, nuts, and warming spices—provide the grounding, nourishing energy your body needs to build reserves for winter.
This is nature's time for gathering, preserving, and preparing. Your body may naturally crave heartier foods, and you might find yourself drawn to activities like organizing, planning, and creating comfort in your living space. Your sleep needs may begin to increase as daylight hours decrease.
Winter: Rest and Reflection: Winter is nature's time of dormancy, when trees store energy in their roots and animals retreat to conserve resources. Your body, too, is designed for lower activity, more rest, and inward focus during the darkest months of the year.
Traditional winter foods—stored grains, preserved meats, fermented vegetables, and warming stews—provide the steady, grounding energy needed to maintain health during the cold, dark season. Your body may naturally crave more sleep, prefer gentler exercise, and gravitate toward introspective activities.
Working with Seasonal Rhythms:
Eat foods that are naturally in season in your region
Adjust your activity levels to match seasonal energy
Allow for more rest during winter months
Take advantage of peak energy during summer
Use seasonal transitions as natural times for lifestyle changes
Pay attention to how your body feels different during each season
Fighting against these seasonal rhythms—trying to maintain summer energy levels during winter, or eating the same foods year-round—creates unnecessary stress on your system and disconnects you from the natural support that seasonal living provides.
The Importance of Rest and Renewal: Your Body's Repair Cycles
Rest is not the absence of activity—it's an active, essential process during which your body performs critical maintenance, repair, and regeneration functions. Yet modern culture treats rest as laziness, productivity as virtue, and constant activity as the ideal. This fundamental misunderstanding of rest's importance contributes to widespread chronic health problems.
Sleep: Your Nightly Restoration: During sleep, your body performs functions that cannot happen during waking hours. Your brain clears metabolic waste products that accumulate during the day, including proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease. Your immune system strengthens, producing infection-fighting cells and antibodies. Growth hormone is released, supporting tissue repair and regeneration. Memories are consolidated, and emotional experiences are processed and integrated.
The profound importance of sleep becomes starkly clear when we see what chronic sleep deprivation does to our most essential hormones. Even short-term sleep loss can crash testosterone levels so dramatically that bodybuilders use a single sleepless night to hide illegal steroid use—their testosterone drops enough to test as "normal" after just one night without sleep.
For parents, especially mothers managing nighttime feedings and early morning wake-ups for months or years, this represents a serious health crisis disguised as normal parenting. The chronic sleep fragmentation that comes with caring for young children can lead to measurable hormonal dysfunction, immune suppression, and the symptoms we often label as postpartum depression but which may actually represent the rational response of a severely depleted nervous system.
Quality sleep requires not just adequate duration but proper cycling through different sleep stages. Deep sleep supports physical restoration, while REM sleep supports mental and emotional processing. Both are essential, and both are disrupted by the interrupted sleep patterns that modern parenting often requires without adequate community support.
Daily Rest Rhythms: Even during waking hours, your body follows natural energy cycles that include periods of peak alertness and natural rest periods. Most people experience an energy dip in the early afternoon—not because of lunch, but because of an innate biological rhythm. Traditional cultures often honored this with siestas or quiet time.
Working against these natural rest periods by consuming caffeine, sugar, or forcing peak productivity during low-energy times depletes your system and prevents the natural restoration that should occur throughout the day.
Weekly and Monthly Cycles: Your body also follows longer cycles of activity and rest. The traditional practice of a weekly sabbath—a day of rest—aligns with biological needs for periodic restoration. Women's monthly cycles include natural phases of higher and lower energy that, when honored, support optimal health and productivity.
Active Rest and Restoration:
Prioritize 7-9 hours of quality sleep nightly
Honor natural energy dips with brief rest periods
Take one day per week for true rest and restoration
Include relaxing activities like baths, gentle walks, or meditation
Spend time in nature, which naturally calms the nervous system
Practice saying no to activities that deplete rather than restore you
Create transition rituals between work and rest
Rest is not earned through productivity—it's a biological necessity that makes productivity possible. When you honor your body's need for rest, you discover that you have more energy, better focus, and greater resilience during active periods.
Movement as Medicine: Your Body's Natural Pharmacy
Your body is designed for movement. Not just exercise in the modern sense of scheduled gym sessions, but varied, natural movement throughout the day. Every system in your body—from circulation and lymphatic drainage to hormone production and mood regulation—depends on regular movement to function optimally.
Movement for Circulation: Your heart pumps blood through your arteries, but returning blood to your heart through your veins depends largely on muscle contractions. When you sit for long periods, blood pools in your lower extremities, lymphatic fluid stagnates, and circulation becomes sluggish. This affects everything from brain function to immune system efficiency.
Traditional lifestyles included constant, varied movement—walking, climbing, carrying, reaching, squatting, stretching. These movements kept all systems flowing and prevented the stagnation that leads to many modern health problems.
Movement for Hormonal Health: Physical activity is one of the most powerful regulators of hormonal balance. Exercise stimulates the production of endorphins—your body's natural mood elevators and pain relievers. It improves insulin sensitivity, helping regulate blood sugar. It supports healthy cortisol rhythms, reducing chronic stress. It stimulates growth hormone production, supporting tissue repair and muscle maintenance.
Different types of movement support different aspects of hormonal health. Strength training supports growth hormone and testosterone production. Cardiovascular exercise improves insulin sensitivity and endorphin production. Gentle, flowing movement like yoga supports parasympathetic nervous system activation and stress hormone regulation.
Movement for Mental Health: The connection between movement and mental health is so strong that exercise is often as effective as medication for treating depression and anxiety. Movement increases production of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which supports the growth of new brain cells and neural connections. It provides a natural outlet for stress hormones and pent-up energy. It connects you to your body, grounding you in physical sensation rather than mental worry.
Natural Movement Patterns:
Include movement throughout your day, not just scheduled exercise
Practice varied movements: walking, stretching, carrying, climbing
Spend time barefoot to strengthen feet and improve balance
Include both strength and flexibility in your movement practice
Move outdoors when possible for additional benefits of nature exposure
Listen to your body's movement needs, which vary with energy levels and life circumstances
Use movement as stress relief and emotional processing
Movement is medicine, but like any medicine, the dose and type matter. Too little movement leads to stagnation and dysfunction. Too much, or the wrong type, can create stress and depletion. Learning to read your body's movement needs and responding appropriately is part of returning to natural rhythm.
Creating Environments That Support Health
Your environment is constantly communicating with your body, influencing your hormones, nervous system, and overall health. Creating environments that support your natural rhythms and biological needs can dramatically improve your wellbeing without requiring any conscious effort—your body simply responds to healthier environmental cues.
Light Environment: Light is one of the most powerful environmental factors affecting your health. Natural light exposure supports healthy circadian rhythms, vitamin D production, mood regulation, and immune function. Artificial light—especially at the wrong times or of the wrong spectrum—can disrupt these processes.
Create environments that maximize natural light during the day and minimize artificial light in the evening. Use full-spectrum bulbs during winter months. Consider sunrise alarm clocks that gradually increase light to support natural waking. Install blue light filters on electronic devices or use blue light blocking glasses in the evening.
Air Quality: The air you breathe directly affects every cell in your body. Indoor air is often more polluted than outdoor air due to off-gassing from furniture, carpets, cleaning products, and building materials. Poor air quality creates chronic low-level stress on your system, contributing to inflammation, fatigue, and respiratory problems.
Improve air quality with houseplants that naturally filter toxins, open windows regularly for fresh air circulation, use natural cleaning products, and consider air purifiers in bedrooms and main living areas. Spend time outdoors regularly to give your lungs a break from indoor pollutants.
Sound Environment: Chronic noise exposure elevates stress hormones, disrupts sleep, and creates nervous system dysfunction. But healing sounds—like nature sounds, gentle music, or even silence—can have profoundly restorative effects.
Create quiet spaces in your home, use sound-absorbing materials to reduce noise, consider white noise machines to mask disruptive sounds, and prioritize spending time in naturally quiet environments like forests or near water.
Nature Connection: Humans have what biologists call "biophilia"—an innate affinity for nature. Regular exposure to natural environments reduces stress hormones, improves immune function, lowers blood pressure, and enhances mood and cognitive function. This isn't just psychological—it's measurable biological change.
Bring nature indoors with plants, natural materials, and views of outdoor spaces. Spend time outside daily, even if just for a few minutes. Consider the Japanese practice of "forest bathing"—simply being present in natural environments without agenda or distraction.
Social Environment: Humans are social beings, and the quality of your relationships directly affects your physical health. Social isolation increases inflammation, suppresses immune function, and elevates stress hormones. Supportive relationships have the opposite effect, promoting healing and resilience.
Create environments that support positive social connection while providing adequate solitude for rest and reflection. This might mean rearranging living spaces to encourage conversation, establishing device-free times for family connection, or creating regular opportunities for community gathering.
Living in Rhythm: A Daily Practice
Returning to rhythm isn't about perfect adherence to rigid schedules—it's about developing sensitivity to your body's natural cycles and creating flexibility to honor them within the context of modern life. This becomes a daily practice of listening, responding, and adjusting.
Morning Rhythm: Begin each day by asking what your body needs. Do you feel energized and ready for activity, or do you need gentle movement and quiet time? Get natural light early, eat when your digestion is strongest, and set intentions that align with your natural energy levels.
Daily Rhythm: Notice your natural energy cycles throughout the day. When do you feel most alert and creative? When do you naturally want to rest? How can you structure your activities to work with rather than against these rhythms?
Evening Rhythm: Create rituals that support the transition from activity to rest. Dim lights, avoid stimulating activities, practice gratitude or reflection, and prepare your environment for restorative sleep.
Seasonal Rhythm: Notice how your body feels different throughout the year. What foods are you naturally drawn to? How do your sleep needs change? What activities feel most appealing? Adjust your lifestyle to support these seasonal shifts.
Life Rhythm: Recognize that your needs change throughout different life phases. The rhythms that serve you in your twenties may not serve you in your forties. Pregnancy, parenthood, menopause, aging—all bring different rhythms that deserve honoring.
The Rhythm of Healing
When you return to natural rhythms, healing becomes less about forcing change and more about removing the obstacles that prevent your body's natural healing processes. Your body wants to be healthy—it's designed for resilience, repair, and regeneration. When you provide the conditions it needs and remove the stressors that overwhelm its systems, healing often happens naturally.
This is the profound truth of the rational body: when you work with your body's wisdom rather than against it, when you honor the rhythms that have guided human health for millennia, many health problems resolve not because you've treated symptoms but because you've addressed their root cause—the disruption of natural rhythms.
Your body remembers how to be healthy. It remembers the rhythms of the earth, the cycles of the seasons, the natural flow of energy and rest. These rhythms are written in your DNA, encoded in your cells, waiting to be awakened. Returning to rhythm is returning home to your body's deepest wisdom, creating the conditions where health becomes not something you achieve but something you naturally are.
In a world that demands constant productivity, choosing to honor natural rhythms is a radical act. It's a declaration that your body's wisdom matters more than cultural expectations, that your health is worth protecting, that you trust the ancient intelligence that has guided human thriving for countless generations.
The return to rhythm begins with a single choice: to listen to your body's signals and respond with compassion rather than force. From that choice, a new way of living emerges—one that honors both your biological heritage and your contemporary life, creating space for the profound healing that happens when you finally come home to your body's natural wisdom.