Happy Monday {{first name | my friend}},

Tomorrow evening, the sun crosses the equator heading south and fall becomes official for us in the North. The tilt that gives us seasons hits the halfway mark, and from here things shift to the darker side for the next 6 months.

‼️ If you haven’t joined our Earth Conscious Life community yet, our first live call is tomorrow – come find support for healthier living and lock in $10/month before the price rises to $15 after the call.

🌿 NATURE CONNECTION: Researchers at UCSF gave a group of older adults one instruction before their weekly 15-minute walk: go looking for whatever surprises you. Eight weeks later that group reported more joy and compassion and less daily distress. Even their selfies showed the change, with scenery filling more of the frame and the smiles getting wider. The entire intervention was a three-minute conversation at the start. Our mindset, and our attention really can make all the difference.

🤔 DID YOU KNOW?: The yellows in fall leaves were there all along, hiding under the green. The reds, on the other hand, were not. Anthocyanins are created fresh in autumn, after the tree has already committed to dropping the leaf. When there are warm sunny days followed by cooler nights, the tree will create deeper reds. So, sharper swings in daily temperature create more vibrant colors.

🩺 HEALTH HACK: Counter-intuitively, a hot bath cools you down. This is because blood vessels open, and heat escapes through your hands and feet, so your core temperature drops. Reviewing 17 studies, researchers found that a 10-minute bath between 104- 109°F, taken one to two hours before bed, shortened the time it took to fall asleep. Doing it directly before bed was too late.

Fall took top spot in last week's poll. What are you looking forward to most?

🟫⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍄 Foraging and mushroom season (4.7%)
🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔥 Fires, soups, and slow mornings (28.0%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️ 🥾 Hiking without the heat (29.2%)
🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧 🍁 Honestly, just the colors (38.1%)

To a healing future,

— Rob