American songwriter Jimmie Davis once wrote, "Sunshine is a welcome thing. It brings a lot of brightness."
He's absolutely right. When the first rays of the sun pours into your bedroom window, you will squint at it under your sheets, but it sure brings a welcome smile on your face. Most parts of the earth receives sunshine throughout the year. I wonder how I would survive the dark, sunless months, if I lived closer to the poles.
We don't pay much attention to the gift of sunshine, simply because it has always been available to us in abundance. In the freezing months of December, when the sun looks bleak, we wish for a little warmth and brightness. When summer comes rolling by, with the sun merrily basking us with golden rays, we forget how blessed we are to receive this wonderful gift of nature.
Why the Sun Is Your Best Friend
Wouldn't you rather wake up to the morning glow instead of the incessantly screaming alarm clock? Would you not feel more alive after a brisk morning walk in the sun, instead of gulping down your low-fat decaf? It is an established fact that those who wake up to the first rays of the sun are less likely to feel lethargic, and low in enthusiasm than those who force themselves to wake up to artificial mechanisms. Your body clock, when in sync with nature, helps improve metabolism, productivity, and satisfaction. Your body will thank you for the extra bit of sunshine it receives, as it boosts your immunity, hormone production, and memory. Say goodbye to skin, bone, and muscle ailments with that extra dose of sunshine on your body.
How Much Sunshine Is Too Much Sunshine
While medical experts vary with the amount of sun one needs. While on one hand, lack of sun exposure has lead to an alarming increase in Vitamin D deficiency in the general population, too much exposure to sun increases the risk of skin cancer due to ultra violet radiation. While the jury is still out on what is the correct amount of sunshine needed for good health, let's go with a balanced approach. A good amount of sunshine that would make you look slightly flushed and bring a glow to your skin is safe. Make sure to take as much sun protection as needed, in order to avoid burning. If however, you come home looking like a red lobster, you know you have gotten yourself way too much sun.
What better place to enjoy sunshine other than the beach? Head to the closest beach with your sun protection and beach basket to soak in some golden rays and dig your feet deep into the soft sand. There's nothing more therapeutic than enjoying a sunny day playing with the waves or frolicking on the beach. If beaches are not your favorite, head to the hills. While you can enjoy the cool mountain breeze, you will also enjoy the warmth of the sunlight that will feed your body with the energy to go on.
Sunshine Is Your Best Bet for Good Health
Don't fear the sun. The sun is the reason for life on this planet. It has been around for millions of years, and will continue to do so for many more million years. Enjoy the sun and feel yourself growing alive as you turn your face towards the sun.
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Summer was on the way; Jem and I awaited it with impatience. Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the tree house; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.
Helen Keller
Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadow.
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
The sun,--the bright sun, that brings back, not light alone, but new life, and hope, and freshness to man--burst upon the crowded city in clear and radiant glory. Through costly-coloured glass and paper-mended window, through cathedral dome and rotten crevice, it shed its equal ray.
Anne Bronte
A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine.
Lillie Langtry
Anyone's life truly lived consists of work, sunshine, exercise, soap, plenty of fresh air, and a happy contented spirit.
Joey Tolbert
For every day that there is sunshine, there will be days of rain,
it's how we dance within them both that shows our love and pain.
Ken Kesey
You've got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you're just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you.
John Ruskin
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.
