A few summers ago, I moved residences. I loved that my new office was on the main floor and that I could work with my big, sliding door open all day.

Then came the winter.  I hadn’t established much of a community. I simply hammered away behind the computer during daylight hours and did errands in the evening to break up the monotony.  Working primarily by myself under unnatural light, sometimes going days without seeing daylight or another human  No diet, supplement or productivity hack could compensate for how I felt.

By March, I said to my son, “I’m killing myself”. In April he and I went to Mexico to check out a community that would serve me over the wintertime.

The last two winters my Mexico days would look something like this:  Rise around 7:30, go outside for a brief walk, do some work, aquafit class at 10:45, lunch, poolside meditation, work, walk to the golf course to practice some putting, dinner, a little more work, evening swim, reading, then crash. I slept with my doors and windows open which meant the birds, monkeys and sun would wake me up the following day. I was in a community with dozens of people around me at any time, and everyone smiled – including me - all day, every day.

Friends said I was “lucky”. 

It was survival.

Aha! ~ Wild animals don’t get depressed in nature, they get depressed in captivity. ~ David Wolfe

You see the correlation between blue light exposure and depression is a significant concern yet ignored or downplayed by mainstream institutional voices. Many people underestimate how much their environment influences how they feel. Blue light emitted from screens, LED lighting and fluorescent bulb is disruptive to human biology and circadian rhythms creating mood disorders including depression. The body has evolved under a balanced spectrum of natural sunlight which queues hormones how and when to function. Blue light, especially after sundown, confuses the body’s internal clock which means imbalanced hormones, poor sleep and dis-ease.

The modern western worker is dominated by windowless offices, cubicles, hospitals, stores, lit by artificial light.  Add digital devices and equipment and suffice to say that a vast portion of the workforce – office employees, data analysts, warehouse workers, healthcare staff – spend their entire shift under artificial lighting.  Many leave for work in the dark, return home in the dark then wonder why they feel depleted, disconnected or exhausted.

The simple truth is this: we are a battery, made of water, charged by sunlight. Water holds energy and the molecules hold the charge.  When the body loses its charge, it cannot function optimally. 

Perhaps the greatest lesson from my winters wasn't about Mexico but about environment.  When a plant struggles, we don’t medicate the leaves. We examine the soil, the water, its proximity to sunlight and the conditions in which it lives.

So then why do we spend enormous amount of time trying to manage our symptoms while ignoring the environment creating them? The body has an incredible capacity to heal, regulate, and thrive when given what it was designed for.

Sometimes the answer isn't found in a bottle, a treatment or a program. It’s found in sunlight.

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