RADIANT LIFE O C TO B E R
Cultivating a healthy mind, body, and spirit
Language of Flowers Flowers have long represented metaphors for virtue or vice; they inspire hope and bring solace, joy, and quiet reflections.
Inside this issue: Work with, not against, your emotions
Table of Contents
18 Nature
Mind & Body 36 A Good Infection
12 All About Dahlias These pretty blooms are prolific, yet complex. Learn everything you need to know and prepare to plant your own next year.
18 The Natural De-Stressor
As busy indoor lives have become the norm, it’s worth reminding ourselves to connect with nature from time to time.
We’ve all heard the saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” How does it apply to viral infections?
42 Ballet for Fitness
Ballet can help with fitness regardless of your age, height, weight, or body type—and it’ll help you with perfect posture.
Lifestyle
22 Health Benefits From Nature
Nature grounds us, and lifts us back up. Nature is highly therapeutic, and even just five minutes can be beneficial.
30 Getting Kids Back Outdoors
The average child spends more time on screens than asleep, and is even losing coordination and balance. Luckily, the remedy is close at hand.
48 Well-Worn Elegance Ros Byam Shaw breaks down the recipes for creating the perfect English-style room.
54 A Chef’s Love Letter to Crete In her debut cookbook, “Aegean,” Marianna Leivaditaki shares recipes, stories, and inspiration from her home island.
62 Cooking With Fall’s Bounty
Autumn is when the harvest reaches its peak—a perfect time to visit the farmer’s market. Here are three seasonal recipes.
Arts 68 Floriography Flowers are rich in symbolism—as we’ve long attached meaning to plants—and specific arrangements can send different messages.
72 The English Garden
English gardens can be many things; they’ve gone from monastic, meditative, and herbal fixtures to sprawling examples of grandeur and nobility.
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82 The Sound of Roses
To paint pictures of flowers is one thing, but it’s quite another to transform plants into the medium of sound. Explore some lovely flower-inspired compositions.
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Qing Fashion The Western image of ancient Chinese fashion is largely taken from a single dynasty—perhaps accurate in spirit, if not in detail.
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Eco Luxe
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Birds of Fortune
Luxury timepieces are by nature timeless— but major players including Cartier, Chopard, and Montblanc are making sustainability mainstream.
From the mythical phoenix to the common magpie, birds in traditional Chinese culture have long symbolized good fortune and wedding blessings.
Stressed? Try a Dose of Nature Nature’s healing properties are something we’ve lost—and need to remember Written by Conan Milner
NATURE
All photos by Shutterstock
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or Eden Cheng, owner of WeInvoice, success came at the cost of her well-being. She says that founding her company was rewarding, but extremely stressful, and her burden only grew with time. The stress became so intense that Cheng checked herself into a hospital for a few days. Doctors advised her to find ways to reduce her stress and lower her blood pressure, because if these factors remained elevated it could lead to major health problems. Cheng had heard of exercises and therapies that could help, but the strategy she chose was time in nature. Cheng started with daily walks into a forested area near her home, and her stressed out symptoms began to fade. She found these regular strolls in the woods gave her the time and space she needed to face all the pressures and responsibilities of running a new business. “I realized that I was able to think much more calmly and clearly about what to do next in my own personal and work life,” she said. “Gazing at the ancient redwoods and seeing the birds nesting among the trees gave me a better perspective on my own circumstances and reminded me that life is bigger than just my own work.” Cheng says simply appreciating the wildlife in her neighborhood while she walks her dog can refresh her mind and spirit. She still makes time for daily nature walks, especially after a long, hard day. Cheng’s experience isn’t unique.
Science Affirms What We’ve Long Known
Researchers have repeatedly documented the benefits of nature experiences,
something human beings have treasured ever since the industrial revolution started to pull us into the grind of urban living. Since the 1990s, Japanese researchers have been studying the health effects of forest bathing (shinrin-yoku). It’s a fancy name to describe a peaceful walk in the woods, but research reveals that this simple practice has the capacity to decrease depression, fatigue, anxiety, and confusion. Counselor, mental health educator, and author Tanya J. Peterson mentions a long list of other studies that underscore the tangible mental health benefits of nature. For example, researchers at Stanford and Yale both conclude that spending time in nature can help us heal and maintain wellness. “Immersion in nature, whether it’s a walk along a lakeshore, a hike in the woods, or a stroll around your own yard, has been shown to directly affect changes in the brain and nervous system,” Peterson said. “These physiological changes reduce our body’s stress response, lower anxiety, and boost mood and attention span.” Of course, you don’t need an expert to tell you that nature has a calming effect. Compared to the pressures, worries, and hectic pace of the modern world, an open field, or even a small garden offer us a more soothing rhythm to absorb our attention. But it only works
if we make time for it. “Personally, I find that for my own mental health and stress management, spending time in nature is a necessity rather than a luxury,” said Peterson. “I’ve lived with anxiety most of my life, and I’ve found that getting outside for a hike, a simple casual stroll, or kayaking in a nearby lake induces a deep sense of calm.” Peterson explains that a dose of nature doesn’t eliminate what makes her anxious. But it gives her a necessary pause that helps her regroup so she can better handle the problems that come her way. This pause helps mentally, and physically too. “I also have several autoimmune and digestive disorders, largely caused by stress, and getting outside daily is an important part of my treatment plan,” she said. “Connecting to the energy of the natural world and appreciating the beauty gives me a different perspective on life and expands my focus beyond my symptoms. Nature is a constant, refreshing reminder that there is more to life than stress and symptoms of illness.”
Into Our Unnatural Indoor Lives
The idea of nature as healer and teacher goes way back. In several ancient cultures, the forces of the natural world
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MIND & BODY
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger How viruses, bacteria, and even worms help to ensure our health Written by Jennifer Margulis
Many common illnesses provide crucial benefits for our immune system. Some can even cure other diseases. 36
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MIND & BODY
While many drugs promise relief from the symptoms of illness, those symptoms are often our immune system at work.
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etting sick is unquestionably dangerous for some. But what if these infections are actually agents of healing? That seems to be what happened to a British man who was suffering from swollen lymph nodes and unexplained weight loss. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer most common in people between the ages of 20 and 40, and those over 55. Then the ailing 61-year-old started wheezing and having difficulty breathing. He tested positive for COVID-19. His case was so severe that he was admitted to the hospital. The lymphatic system is the part of the immune system that helps fight infections with white blood cells. Think of white blood cells as soldiers, always alert and ready for a fight. They flow through the bloodstream to fight viruses, invasive bacteria, and anything else foreign that could threaten your health. White blood cells are made in bone marrow and stored in the blood and lymph tissues. When you have cancer in your blood—including leukemia and lymphoma—it develops in the cells in your
lymphatic system. Lymphoma is unchecked growth of abnormal white blood cells. After eleven days in the hospital, the 61-year-old British man was well enough to go home. A follow-up scan for lymphoma uncovered something astonishing. Not only had he made a full recovery from SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, but there had also been a widespread and unexpected reduction in the cancer in his lymph nodes. Without any cancer treatment at all, the disease was almost gone. The medical scans tell a visual story: Before he got a bad case of COVID-19, the cancer-affected areas were lit up like a birthday cake. After the severe infection, many of those areas disappeared completely. Others were significantly reduced. His doctors, who wrote up his case in an article published in January in the peer-reviewed journal Images in Haematology, argue that the severe COVID-19 infection may have had an “anti-tumor” effect. “There have been many documented cases of people with cancer who have then gotten a viral or bacterial infection
and their cancer goes away,” says Laura Orlando, who’s been teaching classes on environmental health for almost 20 years and was not involved in the study. “The presumption is that the immune system gets revved up in a manner that addresses the cancer,” says Orlando, an adjunct professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health as well as the executive director of the Boston-based, Resource Institute for Low Entropy Systems, a nonprofit that works at the intersection of human health and the environment.
Benefits of Viral Infections
At first glance, it would seem almost impossible for there to be any benefit in getting COVID-19. We’ve been bombarded with fear around catching COVID-19 for over a year. Especially terrifying to many is the idea of becoming a “long-hauler.” Long COVID is the term used for people who continue to feel sick for months after any measurable sign of the infection is gone. Long-haulers test negative but don’t feel well. Anthony Komaroff, M.D., editor of the Harvard Health Letter, estimates that tens of thousands of people are suffering from
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Ballet for Fitness Written by Donna Martelli
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EXPERIENCES
MIND & BODY Ballet helps you locate muscles you never knew you had, and develop poise that will help you dance through life’s complexities. Getty Images
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orget about those skinny girls in tutus moving across the stage on their toes. Ballet for fitness is a winner for anyone of any body type, regardless of age, height, or weight. The study of ballet gives you complete workouts yielding great strength, stamina, and physical endurance, as well as a beautifully toned and sculpted body. Even if you have an injury, weakness, or disability, a good teacher knows how to adapt the technique so you can reap its many benefits. If you want to feel your best, you might find that ballet addresses many body issues that are holding you back. I’ve spent a great deal of my life in a ballet studio and on the stage. I’ve traveled the world with a professional ballet company, yet I’ve been fascinated in recent years with the benefits that dance and movement offer. Ballet is my go-to for total fitness. I challenge you to experience this for yourself. While you may not be a candidate for the New York City Ballet, you can still reap the benefits of tackling the incredible discipline of ballet. Please take a look at some basic exercises here, and note the many benefits of practicing them.
Perfect Posture
Ballet posture is the ideal posture. The goal is
stacked-up alignment, which makes you look and feel your best. Picture your body all lined up with your shoulders resting on top of your straight spine, belly button lifting and pressing into your spine, shoulders over your hips, and hips over your knees which are over your middle toe. Think of pulling up from the top of your head while pushing into the floor with your feet. When you first start ballet classes, you’ll locate and strengthen muscles you never knew you had. You’ll carry yourself taller and straighter, and you’ll find yourself dancing through life’s complexities. Poise will surround you as you exude confidence in your daily life. Most importantly, your energy level will soar.
Ballet Moves for Fitness: Here are a few considerably basic movements. Concentrate sincerely on each movement, as your mindbody connection is a great leader. It’s okay to hold onto a chair or countertop for balance if you need to. With your perfect ballet posture, put your heels together as you slightly turn out your legs from your hips. For exercises 1–4, keep your feet in this position, which is ballet first position. You’re ready to try these moves:
Ballet begins with five positions. Shutterstock
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A timeworn rug is part of this English-style dining room. Jan Baldwin/Ryland Peters & Small
Patina
A fond appreciation for time-worn furniture and personal possessions is another key feature of the English style. “Signs of use, a little wear and tear, curtains that are faded at the edges, furniture rubbed to a sheen by generations of dusters and polish, floors that show the passage of feet—surfaces that reveal their history,” wrote Shaw. As interior designer John Fowler once described, the English style embodies a sense of “pleasing decay.” Patina represents authenticity and serves as a key reminder that the past is real. “Antique furnishings are integral to this style of decorating, conveying a comfortable aura of continuity and tradition, and the impression that possessions have been slowly accrued,” she wrote in her book. The weatheredness gives items character and life. By possessing a timeless piece, you respect and value the item for where it came from and the years of memories it holds, Shaw noted. Therefore, patina is an important feature of the style, and particularly cherished by the English in their homes.
Bringing the Garden Indoors
The English have a deep appreciation for gardens and the countryside. In the English home, this is often expressed through floral paintings, patterns, fabrics, wallpaper, or vases with freshly cut flowers displayed in rooms, Shaw said.
Mixing Furnishings From Different Styles and Periods
The English style favors mixing and matching furniture, making it easy to incorporate what you already own into the decor. It is also a very English trope, as England has always been a melting pot of cultures and styles. The style can
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ARTS
Language Flowers of
Written by Jennifer Schneider
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loriography, also called the language of flowers, has been a means of cryptological communication for centuries. Through arrangements of specific flowers, coded messages could be delivered to recipients. Plants have therefore represented metaphors for virtue or vice. The origins of plant symbolism can be attributed to the literature of antiquity, religious writings, and the documented study of medieval herbology. The Bible includes many instances where trees, fruits, or flowers lend themselves to sacred allegories. Many devout writers and artists from the medieval period through the Renaissance used floriography as a means to explain and interpret religious beliefs. The seventh-century English Benedictine monk Bede the Venerable likened the Virgin Mary to the lily by describing “the white petals signifying [her] bodily purity, the golden anthers the glowing light of her soul.” Therefore the lily flower has become a symbol of purity and humility. The use of botanical imagery flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries as many artists became interested in illustrating objects from nature with greater realism. Prior to the 17th century, flowers were primarily symbolic decorations, in service of the main subject. To provide more depth and context to a painting, a plant would either give clues to the identity of the subject or offer a moral description of the subject.
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Ludger tom Ring the Younger, a 16th-century German portrait painter, created a pair of flower paintings that have been regarded as the first independent flower pieces. The inscriptions on both vases read, “God is the word, in the plants (in herbis), and in the stones.” Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder was the first great Dutch painter of botany, and the head of a family of artists. He started a tradition of floral painting that influenced a generation of fruit-and-flower painters in the Netherlands. Bosschaert and other Dutch painters often referred to herbals and other botanical texts when composing floral arrangements. These bouquets typically combined flowers from different countries and continents in one vase, arrangements that were quite popular with patrons and nobility across Europe. The theme that predominated this period of Dutch still life is that of the vanitas. A vanitas is an artwork that symbolizes the impermanence of life relieved by the prospect of salvation and resurrection. Flowers became the ideal symbol of transience and impermanence. Some of the most commonly represented flowers in Dutch vanitas works include carnations, tulips, irises, sweetbriar roses, and poppies. The carnation’s genus, Dianthus, comes from the Greek words meaning “Flower of Zeus.” Red carnations often symbolize divine or earthly love. The iris flower’s name originates from pre-Christian mythology. Iris was the goddess
“Vase of Flowers,” 1607, by Jan Davidsz de Heem. Oil on panel; 29.2 inches by 20.7 inches. Mauritshuis Museum, Netherlands. Public Domain
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RELATIONSHIPS
Vulnerability Isn’t Easy
For reasons already mentioned, being transparent, authentic, and vulnerable don’t come naturally to young people. If you want kids to go deep and share details, talk with them without their siblings present.
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Try sending your kids outside when they’re frustrated, stressed, and tending toward depression. As an example, the dinner table is a place for light conversations, devotions, and sharing quick highlights and low points of everybody’s day. Don’t expect deep conversations about personal things unless the topic is relevant to everyone. To make vulnerability more likely, try talking in the dark at bedtime. Children tell me frequently that it’s easier for them to be open when they can’t see the fear or disappointment on our faces. Also, going for a car ride or a walk is wise. Again, extended eye contact isn’t possible. Boys will open up more when they’re busy doing something. So when you go for a walk, let them kick a rock. Girls may be able to handle talking while you sit with them. Boys need to be doing something—building with blocks, shooting hoops, doing a jigsaw puzzle, weeding the garden with you, or playing a favorite game.
Perhaps you’ve been frustrated that children tell you about how they’re feeling or what’s going on, but don’t elaborate. You start asking questions, which causes them to get mad that you always must know more, are never satisfied, and make every conversation into an interrogation. Instead of asking questions that force them to share details they may not be ready to share, when they pause, listen. Be quiet. They may continue. If not, try saying “and?” with an inviting tone that suggests you want to know more. You can say “Keep talking” or “Tell me more.” If they complain or even if they don’t, it can bless them to hear, “I want to understand you.”
One Final Suggestion
We want children to feel their feelings and to process them. We want them to understand their feelings and their feelings’ effects. Sometimes being distracted helps the processing. Children won’t feel as overwhelmed. They may make progress without trying. Spending time outside might be the perfect idea. Try it. Send your kids outside when they’re frustrated, stressed, and tending toward depression. Their dark bedroom full of technology won’t help them. Being outside, sometimes with you, will.
Photo by Getty Images
around them, easy, quick, and they get to choose much of what they do with it. As a result, they have a hard time with “hard” emotions. They may tend to stuff grief, fear, and disappointment rather than process them. We can model that those hard emotions are a fact of life. We can explain how we handle loss, grief, sadness, and the like. When children bravely share that they’re feeling something challenging, we can listen longer, help them find the words they need, and thank them for trusting us with their hearts. Also, when they share that they’re having a hard day, they’re angry, or mad at themselves, let’s not flippantly announce things like, “Tomorrow is another day.” Or “I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as you think it was.” This “toxic positivity” can shut children down. They’ll feel invisible and unimportant. It makes it less likely they’ll be honest in the future. If they learn to deny their hard emotions, these become bigger and more controlling, increasing stress and anxiety.
RELATIONSHIPS
Communicating With
Boys and Girls My friend Ginny Yurich says it this way: Nature provides many different types of safeguards to help kids as they navigate depression or anxiety. Exposure to full-spectrum sunlight, for example, causes the body to release serotonin—that “feel good” chemical. Kids often go from sad to glad when we change from an indoor environment to an outdoor environment. Being outside will lower cortisol levels, the chemical associated with feelings of stress. Rumination decreases after time outside, which can be notably impactful for the worrying child. Even the simple act of observing nature evokes feelings of calmness.
What About You?
Like with so many other things, how emotionally healthy you are will influence the children in your life. Would rereading this with yourself in mind be beneficial? Only you know.
Photos by (from left): Shutterstock; Getty Images
Dr. Kathy Koch (“cook”) is the founder of Celebrate Kids and Ignite the Family, a faculty member at Summit Ministries, and the author of five books including “8 Great Smarts” and “Start with the Heart.” Dr. Koch earned a Ph.D. in reading and educational psychology from Purdue University.
Boys have a smaller emotional vocabulary and will often answer “OK” to feelings-type questions. Girls have a larger emotional vocabulary and can more easily express themselves if they wish. Boys find it easier to communicate shoulder-to-shoulder while doing something. Girls are better able to communicate face-toface in direct conversation. Boys find being vulnerable and honest is easier when their dads exhibit these qualities. Girls find vulnerability is easiest when they’re with their moms. Boys and girls will share more when we don’t quickly overreact to what they tell us. Boys and girls feel seen and heard when we tell them we’re sorry they’re confused and can’t find the right words. Boys and girls profit when we’re willing to have ongoing conversations—not just one discussion—about their feelings. Boys and girls may find it easier to discuss difficult feelings in the dark at bedtime. Boys and girls benefit from us using accurate words to describe and explain our own feelings.
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A Healthy Relationship With Your Emotions You may think your feelings are you, but they’re more akin to passing weather Written by Nancy Colier
Our feelings are like thoughts or the words we speak—they come from inside but they are not who we are.
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he was someone who ruminated and worried all the time. Her mind was constantly busy chewing on and planning for one problem or another. She desperately wanted relief from her thoughts and the cacophony of her mind. And so we went to work. Through the practice of mindfulness, Lina learned to witness her thoughts; she discovered a separate place inside herself from which to watch her mind, and hear what her thoughts were telling her. She became the listener to her thoughts rather than the thinker, and in the process she unlocked a deep and muchneeded sense of peace. However, when we attempted to bring this same sort of mindful detachment to her emotions, it was a much harder and more painful process. While most of us can get
It’s not the feelings themselves that make us suffer, but rather the way we relate to them.
the hang of witnessing our thoughts, and can understand the purpose of it, it’s far more challenging and even threatening for us to detach from and take a witness seat to our emotions. It turns out that we’re even more attached to and identified with our emotions than we are to our thoughts, and we’re pretty darned attached to our thoughts. To take a step back for a moment, while I’m using the terms emotions and feelings interchangeably, technically, they’re different phenomena. An emotion is a chemical response that happens in the body, a physical process that includes brain activity and hor-
monal changes that we’re not conscious of. A feeling, on the other hand, is something we’re aware of, a state of mind that generally comes in response to an emotion or thought. But for the purposes of this article and limited space, I will use both terms to refer to what we generally call a feeling. That is, an internal experience that’s mental, physical, and also conscious. Emotions and feelings, as I’m using the two terms here, are those sensations we experience as deeper than thought, taking place in the whole body, and associated with the heart rather than just the head. Interestingly, we’re open to the idea that who we are is not our thoughts, but we are incredibly resistant to the idea that who we are is not our emotions. So too, we can accept that our thoughts might not always be true, believable, important, or even ours to decide. But, when it comes to our emotions, we are firmly convinced that our emotions are true and of great importance. We can let a thought float through our mind, without engaging it or paying it much mind, but that same willingness doesn’t apply when it comes to our feelings. Feelings are what define us (or so we’ve been taught) and therefore must be given our full attention and reverence. When we feel sadness, we say we are sad. When we feel happiness, we say we are happy. We are our emotions. So too, we imagine that our emotions hold some fundamental truth about our experience, that they contain important clues to our deepest nature. We view our emotions as the keys to the castle that is us. Our emotions, as we’ve learned to relate to them, are manifestations of our life experience. They hold our suffering and also our joy; emotions are our heart’s way of carrying and expressing our life. To detach from our emotions would be to lose some primal part of ourselves, to relinquish everything we’ve endured, suffered, and enjoyed. To relate to our emotions with a sense of separation would, ultimately, be to abandon who we are.
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Johner Images/Getty Images