The month of October starts off with an abundance of things-pumpkin and slowly starts the transition to all things fall, autumn leaves, spicy drinks, candy (sugar free) and Halloween. Halloween is a frightfully fun way to kick off the longer holiday season, but it also is meant to invoke lots of fear. We go to haunted houses, watch scary movies and dress up like our favorite villains. Fear can be fun when we want a quick thrill, but it’s drastically different when it’s part of our real day-to-day existence. Fear is healthy as a general survival mechanism as it tells us when to run from that zombie. It also arouses our bodies and brains, which is why we are drawn to scary things in the first place; but continual perceived threats in your environment take a big toll on your mental and physical wellbeing. Living in a state of constant fear can affect the immune system, cardiovascular health, the gut, and long-term memory. It also makes it more difficult to regulate emotions. As you indulge in fictitious fears this month, stay alert to how continual perceived threats are affecting you or your loved ones and make the effort to minimize the sources and regulate your reactions. Moderation doesn’t only serve you when it comes to fear. It’s also the name of the game when it comes to eating and drinking.
October is National Liver Cancer Awareness Month, so it’s a great time to think about what we are putting into our bodies. Though one of the key roles of the liver is to eliminate toxins, that does not give us a green light to consume food and drink to our heart’s content. Reducing alcohol intake and eating healthy go a long way in improving liver health. This is an ideal time to make even small improvements to your lifestyle. For all the good stuff, read on as our contributors have lots of great information to share. As most of us know, this is BREAST CANCER AWARENESS SEASON. Join us during this month to make sure we are doing our Self Breast Exams, getting our Mammograms and other screenings, and for others, starting/finishing the treatment that we had to endure. Kudos to you and your strengths. And to all of our survivors, ALL on a journey, and those angels that we lost to this WE LOVE YOU. We are headed into the “giving season”. All year long, it seems to my eyes like we’re way too focused on our differences instead of seeing all the ways in which we are alike. After all, we all have to deal with failing health, losing loved ones, breakups, divorces, troubled children and more. These are the realities of being alive. The grass is not always greener at our neighbor’s house. A bit of compassion, a smile, or a kind word have the power to go such a long way, and it’s easy to be stingy with these things being consumed with our own circumstances. When we take the time to reach out to our neighbors, extend a helping hand and just choose understanding over judgment, we make the world a better place, and we enhance social wellness overall. We don’t all have to agree in order to live peacefully alongside one another. A quilt made up of squares that all have the same pattern is not a very interesting quilt. Let’s spread some love and kindness as we go about our fall preparations this month. There is a ton to absorb in this month’s issue. Get your fear on via horror movies, your favorite pink drink, and afterwards smile at your neighbors, help your friends and enjoy everything that this month has to offer.
