Yesterday marked the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Today is solstice plus one. Today was two minutes longer than yesterday. Each day will continue to be roughly two minutes longer each day until about mid-February. Then each day’s sunlight will extend by roughly three minutes a day until mid summer.
Years ago, we lived between sunrise and sunset. Not so much anymore. Our lives are so insulated from nature that we hardly notice the changing of the seasons, much less the gradual lengthening of the day.
I visit my friends in Amish country in east Indiana once a month. They live much closer to the land and don’t live in artificial light like “Westerners” do. When the sun sets around 5:00pm, they operate by candlelight and go to bed early. They rise when the rooster starts screaming. Their days are lived the way we are supposed to live, with the natural order of the days.
If you were given 2 more minutes of “useable” day each day, how would you spend the time?
In modern times, we are bombarded with so many distractions. We have so many avenues of instant entertainment. “Influencers” who provide entertainment on social media understand that they must provide something visually interesting in the first four seconds of their video or it will be skipped. We live in a short attention span world.
With such readily available mind-numbing drivel provided twenty-four hours a day, we are continually distracted. Nay more, we are addicted to the dopamine rush we get if our social media posts gain traction and acquire more “likes” or “subscribers.”
We work our thumbs more than our minds.
You could have two more minutes each day. Put the device down.
Focus on your dreams, not on your screens.
My kids are well versed in modern social commentary and colloquialisms. The new phrase going around online gamers is “touch grass.” It means that someone is so good at the game they obviously do nothing else. Perhaps kids this good at video games should go outside and touch the grass to prove that there is life beyond the game controller.
Go outside and touch grass. Put the screen down. Sit in a patio chair and stare at nothing. Walk in a park or along a stretch of road. Make use of the precious waxing hours of each day to come.
It’s about that time of year when people start talking about making New Year’s Resolutions. In this effort, they take on some massive project like losing weight. Some of us who have lived in the gym often dread January. The gyms are crowded with people with good intentions and bad directions. They work out like they are twenty again and starve themselves, hoping to look like the cover of Men’s Health. These endeavors so often fail. Starvation diets never work, and a three-hour marathon workout leaves you sore for a week.
Treat all your dreams, goals, desires, and plans like the winter solstice. Add a little each day. Start with miniscule portions. Stay there for a while before increasing little by little.
This doesn’t just apply to fitness or health goals. Learning woodworking, scrapbooking, cooking, drawing, music, golf, etc. are all lofty goals not achieved all at one sitting. If you play guitar “until my fingers bled” like Bryan Adams, you won’t want to play with raw fingers tomorrow.
The Japanese have a word, Kaizen, which means continuous improvement. It refers to incremental changes over time which result in huge improvements.
Kaizen is much like the days after winter solstice. Daylight hours are lengthened by mere minutes. Too small to notice. In a month, you might detect the day getting longer. By June, the sun sets late in the evening.
One day after a haircut shows no determinable difference. After a month, you notice, holy shit, you need a haircut. I mean, for those of you with hair. I just notice the ring of fuzz around the sides of my head tends to grow out around my ears. But alas….
Apply Kaizen to your life. Make insignificant changes each day. Adding something or subtracting something.
No one will notice if you lose a pound. But they’ll suddenly wonder what you’ve been doing when it occurs to them you may have lost fifteen pounds. They won’t believe you when you tell them you only made one slight change in your life or your attitude towards food.
The days are getting longer folks. Put down the screen, go outside. Determine who you are and what you want to be. Then make tiny alterations each day, making the most of the two minutes you are given, and watch how things develop over time.
Weeg
March 1st, Tri State Holistic Wellness will be $70 cash per hour. Home visits are $100 cash per hour.
Joe “Weeg” Weigant is a Licensed Massage Therapist, Holistic Health Practitioner, Herbalist, Metaphysician, and Empowerment Coach. He combines bodywork, energy work, and coaching to improve quality of life by healing from the outside in and from the inside out. Weeg coaches his clients to drop the white flag of victimhood and pick up the banner of empowerment, inspiring them to stop riding in life’s trunk and take the wheel of their lives.
Weeg sells Nature’s Sunshine Products, Pure Herbs Ltd., doTERRA, and Juice Plus+. Weeg suggests lifestyle changes and provides herbal remedies to his clients build new habits for long life and vibrant health. He teaches Karate and Tai Chi, Reiki Certification, as well as seminars and workshops in metaphysical and spiritual matters. Weeg is available for sessions at Tri State Holistic Wellness by appointment only.
Contact by text 812.568.5356, or Facebook Messenger to set an appointment.
Love this! We live in instant gratification so your haircut analogy was striking. Kaizen is a skill I'm inspired and empowered to learn and implement now...thank you for sharing your experiences and wisdom!
-Mandy