Michelle Witte, Nederland. Have you ever noticed that your mind, body, and spirit go through seasonal changes just like the Aspen trees we all love? How do your natural energy levels, appetite, and desires to socialize or interact with the outside world change throughout the year?  Are you more or less active in the winter vs. in the  summer? What kind of foods call to you on these cold winter evenings?

Other animals rearrange their lives quite a bit throughout the drastic changes happening season to season in Nederland and the surrounding region. We see bears gaining weight and hibernating, we observe the squirrels hurriedly collecting pine nuts in the fall for their winter caches, we notice changes in color and thickness of their fur. We witness many of our feathered friends flying south to warmer climates. As animals, we also undergo these physical and behavioral changes. Can you think of any ways that you adapt to winter each year?

In the modern world it can be easy to forget the fact that we humans are animals, that we are nature. It seems that many cultures have forgotten that as people we are intimately connected to the environment and are just as much  a part of the ecosystems as are the trees, birds, and rocks. We often think of nature and the wild as something separate from ourselves, that we are mere observers. In reality we can use our observations of the natural world to better understand our own lives and our place in the great puzzle of nature. 

As mammals we experience changes in our physiological processes as a result of less daylight, colder temperatures, and for our ancestors a lack of resources that would normally cause us to migrate. Take a few moments to think about yourself throughout the years. Are there any different patterns that you notice about how you tend to look or feel during particular seasons or weather? The photoperiod, or amount of daylight in a day, many scientists have discovered has large impacts on our and all mammals’ sleep-wake cycles and other daily functions. The importance of the photoperiod to our ability to regulate our sleep cycles is huge. The light receptors in our eyes receive varying amounts of light which kick in a process to regulate our circadian rhythms. So you may notice your energy and sleep patterns changing with the daylight shifts season to season. 

These changes in light can not only affect our sleeping patterns, but our overall energy levels and therefore impact our emotions and mental well-being in significant ways we might not always realize. Most of us have probably heard that summer time is packed with vitamin D, which helps us metabolize and produce serotonin, a happy chemical in our brains. There have been several studies that monitor humans’ emotional and mental well-being as it correlates to the season. It can be a fascinating self-study to pay close attention to how our emotions and other functions respond to weather and seasonal variations.

It is important to not only remember that we humans are animals, but that we have only relatively recently developed our current lifestyle. For the greater part of our history we were nomadic hunters and gatherers. The Arapaho Indigenous people and other tribes who called our region home for thousands of years aligned  with the natural rhythms of the seasons of the mountains and forests. During the great majority of human existence, we have lived with the cycles of  the land, paying attention to its processes responding to the natural pace and rhythms of nature, including the seasonal change of  resources and weather. You’re strongly encouraged to tap into your animal self, and notice the seasonal changes and your natural responses in adaptation to those changes. 

Michelle Witte is the Nature Education Director at Wild Bear Nature Center in Nederland.

(Originally published in the February 18, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)