Last week, I had the pleasure of watching some great sunsets. There was warm weather and clear skies. There’s just something about watching a nice sunset over the horizon. It’s a time to unwind and reflect. It’s stress relieving and puts your mind at peace. My hammock on my roof deck is one of my favorite spots to hangout. I get to see the entirety of the city as the sun goes down and the stars and city lights come on. It’s a wonderful thing.
As I make watching the sunset a more routine ritual in my daily life, I’ve started noticing the benefits that have come along with it. Our bodies are biologically developed to have certain responses to the sun setting. For one, the amount of light changes. This sends a biological response telling your body to calm down and get ready for bed. Since we live in the modern world, we are less and less likely to see the benefits from the sunset due to long amounts of time looking at screens. Some great advice if those who have trouble sleeping is to go camping without any screens. This is the best way to get back into a healthy sleep schedule. The darkness forces your body to wind down to fall asleep at a good hour. The lack of blue light admitted from your screens helps your body recognize that it’s time to go to bed when the sun goes down. A similar effect occurs when the sun rises. This light tells your body to wake up and it does so gently instead of the sudden stress call from your alarm.
But the magic of the sunset is more than just a biological response. The magic lies within what the sunset means and the time it takes to watch it. A sunset represents the end of a day. The end of an era. It gives you time to reflect on not only what you accomplished that day, but also what is going on in your life at that moment. It’s a very healthy thing to self-reflect without any distractions from phones or TVs. And a sunset is the perfect time to do this. You get to watch a beautiful episode of nature telling everyone it’s time to relax and calm down for the night. Having time for yourself to stop and think is always a good idea. Whatever is on your mind, it is always best to clear things up with alone time. This puts your mind in the right environment to work through its challenges naturally.
Once the sun is down and you see its gorgeous colors there is always a moment of bliss you get. You’ll be happy you took the time to watch such a beautiful and free natural phenomena. I hope you all get a chance to watch a good sunset at least once a week. It reminds us of who we are and what we want out of this short life.
Dabbl 