Meditation domes at the Beatles Ashram in Rishikesh, India

Back in graduate school, in one of my health classes, we learned about meditation. We learned that it can reduce heart rate and blood pressure, that it calms the mind and relaxes the body which can reduce pain and assist sleep, that it improves digestion. And on. To increase our appreciation, and unbeknownst to many of us, the professor brought in a meditation instructor who had us learn how to meditate. And so we learned. We meditated, kept journals, studied, took tests, got grades, and the semester was over. I was glad because it was a night class and I was working during the day and had a long commute. The 45 minutes per session, at home, was a lot to spend on non-doing. (We learned then and I realized over the years that non-doing is not really non-doing. The instructor used to say that it was the person who was the busiest or most stressed that would benefit most from meditation. I was naive.)

But … I kept it up for a while because I thought it might have been responsible for ending my ever-worsening migraines. Eventually I stopped because I wasn’t willing to give it the time.

Every once in a while I think of returning to it. Now is one of those times. Here’s a simple introduction.
How To Meditate

One thing I learned back then is that if you choose to sit cross-legged on the floor (but you don’t have to, you can sit in a chair or lie on your back or even walk) it’s best to place a pillow or towel under your sit bones so that your pelvis is tilted forward and your legs slope down a bit. Also, some people may wish to support their back so they sit more upright. That would mean leaning against a wall or the back of a chair.

I’m developing a recipe for blueberry lemon squares, actually blueberry-raspberry lemon squares. I’ve settled on this for the time being. I hope to have more photos as I continue to experiment. (In this one, the fruit is mostly hidden inside.)

Here are a couple squares in the process of defrosting. Very moist!

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground flax seed
2 tablespoons warm water

3/4 cup unsweetened low-fat almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
3/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest (one whole lemon)

1 1/2 cups blueberries (I used frozen)
1/2 cup raspberries (frozen)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 360 degrees F. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit along the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square Pyrex pan. Place the parchment-lined pan into the oven to preheat.

Mix flax seed and water. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In another large bowl combine almond milk, applesauce, maple syrup, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Add flax mixture. Stir until blended.

Remove pan from oven and place on hob or trivet. Working quickly, add flour mixture to wet mixture. Stir just until you see no dry flour. Don’t over-blend. Gently fold in the blueberries and raspberries (if you stir too vigorously, the whole batter may turn blue!) Pour batter into pan.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool for 30 minutes then lift cake (cake?) out of Pyrex pan holding the parchment paper edges and place on a cooling rack. After another hour, place onto a cutting board and slice into squares. Leave the parchment paper in place as you do this. Each square will lift easily from the paper if the cake is cool.

I like to freeze the squares and defrost the amount I need on the following days. I find the moisture evens out and the blueberries stay in place when you bite down. Or, you can eat it right away while it’s still warm. 🙂

Seven Words That Can Help Us Be A Little Calmer, BBC Culture, 25 January 2019

A new book [by Mari Fujimoto, a linguist] translates 43 Japanese words into English. … Fujimoto believes that by discovering words and phrases unique to other cultures, we can gain a wider understanding of our own lives. “It’s important to give another perspective, see that other life. In the West we tend to seek perfection, and we always feel like we have to be perfect, we have to do as much as we can, and meet other people’s expectations.”

South African artist David Buchler – who has written short essays for the book – has lived in Japan for seven years. “When I speak to people in Japanese, I’m very aware of what I’m saying and my gestures and being polite, thinking about how my words would affect them,” he tells BBC Culture. “It’s a very different approach to talking.”

Some Japanese words the article highlighted:

Shibui: The beauty revealed by the passage of time. This word reminds us to appreciate the things that improve with age.

Mugon-no gyō: A meditation that asks you to take a moment to reflect before doing – act, don’t react.

Fukinsei: Beauty in asymmetry. Symmetry represents perfection, and is alien to human experience. An art form must bring a sense of alternative possibilities, admitting change.

Teinei: A courteous attitude, where each gesture is performed with dedication and precision. Behaving with the utmost care in order to show excellence in your conduct.

Mono-no aware: The ephemeral nature of beauty. Being appreciative of transience. (We visited this word back in August on the Kintsugi post. It was defined as: “a compassionate sensitivity, or perhaps identification with, things outside oneself.”)

Shōganai: Meaning literally “there is no means or method”. Shōganai is a reminder that sometimes we have to accept things as they are, allowing us to let go of negative feelings.

Kodawari: Determined and scrupulous attention to detail. Motivated by a sincere passion and self-discipline, knowing that some of these efforts will go unrecognised.

Yūgen: Prizing what’s mysterious and profound. Yūgen is a kind of beauty that derives from understatement. Deeply tied to kanso, a reminder to perceive beyond what one sees.

I like these. I wouldn’t say the concepts are foreign to me, but wrapping them up in a word or a phrase places emphasis on them, and perhaps can shape the mindset of people who use the words often. Culture shapes language, but language can also shape culture.

In that first paragraph, the author of the book is quoted as saying, “In the West we tend to seek perfection.” Do you think that’s just a Western trait? Look at kodawari or teinei above. There’s some “utmost” going on there. I think humans everywhere seek perfection. Is perfection bad? In one way it is because humans are imperfect, so it’s unrealistic. In another way I think it’s good because it gives us something to shoot for. Maybe a better way of saying “seeks perfection” is “works towards a goal or a dream.” Even if the dream is never attainable, it’s worth having. Hopes and dreams are what propel us!

Now to the second part of that sentence, about how people in the West feel they “have to do as much as we can, and meet other people’s expectations.” Again, I wouldn’t say this is a characteristic of people in the West only or mostly. In fact, the Japanese have a reputation for conforming, for doing what is expected. They have a saying, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.”

Like most things, the healthiest place is somewhere in the middle, where we work towards goals that are realistic, and where we promote behavior that helps us get along but not at the expense of uniqueness.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. Kintsugi is similar to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, an embracing of the flawed or imperfect.

It’s harder for older people to stay warm when it’s cold:
Body Temperature, Kevin Kregel, PhD, Healthy Aging Project, University of Colorado Boulder, 2017

Some of the mechanisms we rely on to regulate internal temperature become less effective as we age.

I’ll just post the cold conditions. They also discuss hot conditions.

Cold Conditions
In an effort to defend body temperature, our bodies decrease blood flow to the skin to reduce heat loss. We also increase internal heat production through several mechanisms. One example is shivering—or the rapid contraction of muscles—which can quickly produce large quantities of heat within the body. But as we grow older, our bodies become less effective at controlling skin blood flow and generating internal heat. In addition, the layer of fat under our skin that acts as an isolator and helps to conserve body heat thins with age. Because of these changes, it is harder for older adults to maintain internal body temperature in the “normal” range in cold conditions.

Their recommendations are intuitive: raise the temperature of the room, wear more clothes, drink warm beverages. One they didn’t emphasize was to drink more fluid overall. We lose more fluid during cold conditions (see below), and as we age our thirst sensation decreases so we don’t replace lost fluid effectively. And adequate fluid is necessary to regulate our body temperature (thermoregulation).

It looks like the US military commissioned a report on the nutritional needs of personnel in cold temperatures. Chapter 9 dealt with dehydration. Great information:

Nutritional Needs In Cold And In High-Altitude Environments: Applications for Military Personnel in Field Operations, National Academy of Sciences, 1996.
9. Influence of Cold Stress on Human Fluid Balance

Factors Causing Dehydration In Cold Conditions

1. Cold-Induced Diuresis – We urinate more when we’re exposure to cold. It’s thought to be caused by movement of fluid from peripheral tissues to core when peripheral blood vessels constrict to keep the core warm.
2. Respiratory Water Losses – The amount of water vapor exhaled approximately doubles at -4 degrees F (100% humidity) versus 77 degrees F (65% humidity) (Despite high relative humidities cold air contains significantly less water vapor than does warmer air of even lower relative humidity.) The more one exercises in cold weather, the more vapor is lost.
3. Cold-Weather Clothing – Heavy or well-insulated clothing can trap heat and induce sweating to rid the core of that heat. Moderate-to-heavy exercise performed in clothing with high insulation can generate upwards of 2 liters of sweat per hour.
4. Metabolic Cost of Movement – Walking in snow versus a clear sidewalk increases our metabolic rate. Also, cold-weather clothing can be cumbersome and has been measured to increase metabolism by an additional 10 to 20%. Increased metabolic rate = increased water losses through lungs and sweating.
5. Reduced Fluid Intake – Voluntary dehydration (a reduced sensation of thirst) occurs when humans undergo stress. It occurs in hot climates and may be more pronounced in cold climates.

Did you see that number 5? Reduced thirst sensation? Older adults already have a reduced thirst sensation. Add to that reduced thirst due to cold weather and they may never feel like drinking!

Impact Of Dehydration

1. Physical and Cognitive Performance – Studies document significant reductions in muscular strength, muscular endurance, manual dexterity, coordination, and both aerobic and anaerobic work capacity, due to cold-induced dehydration. It has also been shown to reduce cognitive performance.
2. Thermoregulation – You can get too hot (because of reduced sweating) or too cold when dehydrated..
3. Cold-Injury – Dehydration can blunt cold-induced vasodilation, increasing susceptibility to cold injury. (Have you ever banged your hand when it was cold?)
4. A Change in Disposition:

Orth (1949) provides a summary of the potential effects of dehydration on soldiers’ health and performance in cold environments: “The lack of sufficient fluids in the diet to maintain a positive water balance causes at first a change in disposition, sullenness, loss of appetite, chronic thirst, discipline begins to suffer … and finally failing physical efficiency. The final step is dehydration exhaustion, this can take place in 3–4 hours in the desert, but it also can take place in as little as two days in the Arctic where solid water abounds” (p. 205).

Shivering? Irritable? Headache? Constipation? Fatigue? Inability to focus? You may not be drinking enough.

Hot beverages, even if they contain caffeine, can count towards your daily fluid intake. The diuretic effect of caffeine-containing beverages is weak and won’t compromise hydration.

This isn’t an endorsement of Geico. I just like the ad.

Yesterday I wrote that the human body has to hold a very narrow temperature range to stay alive. Hyperthermia and associated disability occur above 100.9 degrees F; hypothermia occurs below 95 degrees F. Normal body temperature is between 97.7 and 99.5 degrees F.

Imagine what is going on inside this man’s body to keep him in that very tight range while sleeping outside in minus 76 degree F weather:

They’re Very Deer To Me! The Hardships A Reindeer Herder Endures To Protect His Animals, Daily Mail, February 2014

In the frozen wilderness of northern Russia, reindeer herder Vladimir Bagadaev lives alone, braving temperatures of -60c [-76F] and even sleeping outside to protect his animals. The 46-year-old is one of a tiny population of Siberian indigenous people, known as the Evenks, whose association with reindeer dates back to prehistory.

Valdimir lives an often isolated life in a small log cabin near the forest, or taiga, battling one of the most extreme climates on the planet on a daily basis.

A handful of times every winter, when the animals wander particularly far, Vladimir is unable to make it back to his cabin and must sleep under the stars in temperatures that can dip below -60c.

To being with he locates a dead tree trunk which he will set his fire against before piling the wood high to create a large blaze.

He then scoops a shallow windbreak out of the snow to form his bed.

Amazingly, he then removes his jacket and outer trousers, for ‘comfort’, before climbing into his old woollen and canvas sleeping pouch, which was given to him by his father.

After a quick snow face-rub, and with his fur hat remaining firmly in place, he’s ready for bed.

I can’t believe he took his clothes off. And he washes his face with snow! Ok, I know, reindeer have been putting up with the cold for, like, forever.

Humans have evolved to keep their bodies warm by shivering, burning fat, or using the brain to develop methods to adjust ambient temperature, for example, by manipulating fire.

While reading about how birds can withstand 15 degree drops in body temperature when it’s cold, and how alligators dangle in frozen water, I wondered what kind of temperature cycling humans might experience. I learned that our core body temperature changes by about 2 degrees daily, going down when we sleep and going up when we’re active. In fact, if we want to sleep we have to help it go down, and if we want to be active or think well, we have to help our body temperature go up.

Too hot to sleep? Here’s why, The Conversation, January 2013

Sleep and body control of temperature (thermoregulation) are intimately connected. Core body temperature follows a 24-hour cycle linked with the sleep-wake rhythm. Body temperature decreases during the night-time sleep phase and rises during the wake phase. Sleep is most likely to occur when core temperature decreases, and much less likely to occur during the rises.

Our hands and feet play a key role in facilitating sleep as they permit the heated blood from the central body to lose heat to the environment through the skin surface. The sleep hormone melatonin plays an important part of the complex loss of heat through the peripheral parts of the body.

At sleep onset, core body temperature falls but peripheral skin temperature rises.

Below is an article on body temperature in relation to sleep. I posted some excerpts.

Thermoregulation, Tuck, 8 January 2019

Human temperature must be maintained within a fairly small range, up or down from the resting temperature of 98.6. Temperatures above 104.9 degrees Fahrenheit or below 92.3 degrees generally cause injury or death.

Humans have two zones to regulate, their core temperature and their shell temperature. The temperature of the abdominal, thoracic, and cranial cavities, which contain the vital organs, is called the core temperature. Core temperature is regulated by the brain. The shell temperature includes the temperature of the skin, subcutaneous tissues, and muscles, and it is more affected by external temperature. The core is able to conserve or release heat through the shell.

When you wake up, your body temperature is at its baseline of 98.6 degrees. Over the course of the morning through the late afternoon, your hypothalamus works to drive that up to 100.4 degrees. This rise in body temperature gives you energy, helping you stay alert. … In the mid-afternoon, your body starts to lower your body temperature to prepare you for sleep. At 5 am, a few hours before waking up, you’re at your lowest body temperature (96.4 degrees).

Here’s a chart I found on Wikipedia that shows normal body temperature cycling. It doesn’t match the above numbers exactly, but even the article said there is variation. Also:

In relation to sleep cycle, early birds experience an earlier body temperature peak than night owls do. In the chart [below], one might imagine their curve being shifted slightly earlier.

The hypothalamus regulates body temperature between 96.8 and 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit over each 24 hour cycle. During the normal human circadian rhythm, sleep occurs when the core temperature is dropping. Sleep usually begins when the rate of temperature change and body heat loss is maximal. The average adult’s lowest temperature is at about 5 AM, or two hours before waking time.

A cooler core body temperature is associated with sleep. Conversely, a warmer core temperature is energizing. Think about how awake you feel during exercising, and it starts to make sense. Human performance scientists have found a higher internal body temperature correlates with more alertness, better memory, and improved reaction times.

From your peak in body temperature in the early evening to the lowest point just before waking up, you experience a decrease in core body temperature of 2 degrees Fahrenheit.

Many mammals lose significant thermal regulatory capacity during sleep. Some animals like squirrels go into a torpor state during sleep, in which their body temperature dips well below the normal level for hours at a time. However, most research to date seems to indicate that humans do not have significant difficulty thermoregulating during sleep.

Thermoregulation in Humans: How Does Body Temperature Affect Sleep Quality?

A recent Dutch study shows just how important temperature is when it comes to sleep quality and fragmentation. The researchers fit human participants with thermosuits. Raising their skin temperature less than a degree Centigrade resulted in dramatic changes in sleep quality. People didn’t wake up as much during the night and the percentage of the sleep spent in deep sleep increased. The effects were most pronounced in the elderly and in people who suffered from insomnia.

The same researchers found that people with narcolepsy tend to have higher skin temperature when asleep, and also when awake. This warmer skin temperature may help explain why they’re so prone to fall asleep.

Thermoregulation is less efficient during deep sleep than light sleep. This is why having a too warm or too cold bedroom temperature can affect your sleep and cause you to wake up during the night.

However, some warmth before bed can be beneficial to inducing sleep. Why does a warm (but not hot) bath help so many get to sleep? Because it ends up cooling you down, especially as you dry off and the residual water on your skin evaporates.

One kernel I walk away with, besides that we only have a narrow range of 2 degrees with which to play, is that sleep happens when the core is cool and the peripherals (hands and feet) are warm. If your core is warm (controlled by the brain) or your hands and feet are cold (controlled by environment and the brain) you’re going to have a hard time sleeping.