A journey of daylight discovery

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

description

For nearly 20 years, Steve Anderson has been jumping from roof to roof bringing brightness into peoples homes. Dubbed the "Daylight Delivery Boy", Steve professes to loving nothing more than a delighted customer.

Transcript of A journey of daylight discovery

Page 1: A journey of daylight discovery

A journey of Daylight Discovery.

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It's a cruel season that

makes you get ready

for bed while it's light

out. ~Bill Watterson

In Loving Memory.

Today I am 5 years older than I ever expected to be.

You see, my Dad, John Barrie or JB to his work mates,

died at the age of 44, taken slowly by cancer. His dad,

Fredrick, was 44 too when heart disease took him. Both

put to rest while the light was well and truly out.

I was pretty sure it would be the same for me.

Absolutely adored the man till I was about eleven then

something inside me changed and I spent the best part of

a decade angry. Not just with him, but a good amount

was sent his way - just an adolescent thing - raging

hormones and all that type of stuff till I was about 19 and

the birth of my first daughter. It was then I decided to

grow up and Dad and I sparked a friendship that was to

last two years and then he was gone.

Forever wishing I could have those 8 years back, this

book is dedicated to the memory of my Father. John

Barrie Anderson.

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

Acknowledgements

I have wanted to write this for an awful long time.

More than ten years ago I would rise far before dawn and

travel the forty five minutes to the ocean where I could

stand and watch and photograph the sun rising. These

photos were transformed to what I called art. An image of

a child born that day, the day of the sunrise, and a verse

of my creation were added. Writing those short poems

made me think maybe, just maybe. My mum Mary & my

brother Mark put the idea in my head all those years ago.

Thankyou

Three of these short stories are about people I must

thank. "Fiona stopped feeding me" talks of my beautiful

wife who has run over every page of this manuscript with

a red pen and most pages more than twice. "Theresa

makes up songs" is my PA who seriously brightens my

day. Her support is invaluable from managing my day to

happily completing the myriad of tasks I set, often

without a word, when in reality a look of concern or "are

you crazy?" would be the least required. "She married

him for love" talks of one great lady who represents all of

the fabulous people I have worked for these last ten

years, my customers. Thankyou

As anyone who has ever written a book knows, there

are many people assisting along the way. Although there

are far too many to name individually please know when

you read this I am thinking of you. Thankyou

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Contents Foreward

Chapter 1 Daylight as a Food

Chapter 2 I married him for love. The love of his food.

Chapter 3 What better type of Medicine

Chapter 4 Sunlight vs Multiple Schlerosis

Chapter 5 Fiona Stopped Feeding Me.

Chapter 6 A charity running better

Chapter 7 Teenage Darkness

Chapter 8 Gunnie pigs, Donkeys & Puppy Dogs

Chapter 9 How Well do you sleep at night.

Chapter 10 Kids to concentrate better & understand more

Chapter 11 Slip Slop we should be Slapped

Chapter 12 Alternatives to Sunscreen

Chapter 13 Theresa Makes Up Songs

Chapter 14 Working Smarter

Chapter 14 Happy Shoppers Spending Money

Chapter 15 Its all to do with the eyes

Chapter 16 Bad Teeth, Really?

Chapter 17 Sunshine Recipes

Conclusion

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

Forward

Just a few years ago a weekend spent in Melbourne was all about the shows. Mamma Mia at the Regent, The Jersey Boys at the Princess, Collingwood versus the Roos at Ethiad stadium I think it was called at the time and another forgettable game at the MCG. This was the weekend of Fiona's 50th birthday. The kids wanted to celebrate and began organising a way to do just that. Fi needed to escape and booked the flights, the shows and the games. To keep me feeling involved she did use my credit card and explained that it was my job to let the kids know. We returned to what I saw as a bit of a mid life thing happening. She started to very seriously study health and wellness, concentrating heavily on nutrition and some fitness. The so called mid life thing has now lasted several years and Fi has become the most widely read person I know in the area. I said to her once that it is easy to see how much she loved the area and she should think about going back to school and get a degree. It seems the things they teach at uni are a little behind the times and her words were "they don't teach what I need to learn" At about the same time an interesting thing was happening in my business. Many of my customers were coming back to me with very interesting tales.

"I’d like to be able to “put my finger on it” or describe the effect more clearly but there is a sort of intangible contentment aspect that is an extra component of ‘improved lighting’ " Bernadette, Tenterfield.

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"seems to have given my clothes new life. For some reason they feel cleaner and fresher" Irene May, Beaudesert. "I’ve noticed a change in my son’s eating habits. Before when I’d come home from work there would be plates, cups etc all through the house where my 19 year old night working son had been walking around the house eating. Now ... the mess is isolated to the kitchen as he enjoys sitting at the previously unused breakfast bar to eat directly under the skylight." Karen Rasmussen, Aratula

Trying not to sound up myself, I am pretty good at what I do and it has not been uncommon in the past to get comments from my customers about the job I had done or how great the new skylight was, but this was different, these people were talking about their feelings. The only thing that had changed was the skylights I was putting in. The new one's transferred a full spectrum light. Real Light The day Karen's note came, talking about her horrible teenage son and how he seemed to be drawn to the light I had to have a closer look. Wondering as I write this if just maybe, Fi & I need to get a life, I decided to do a bit of my own research. Many of the things I found are within the covers of this book. I discovered schoolchildren getting better marks and wanting to be in the class. Found employees working harder and loving their job. Shoppers spending more money when they came into the store.

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

Then one day I did something unusual. Instead of sending the typical email from my side of the desk to hers, I walked up behind Fi and looked over her shoulder. Are you reading Marks Sissons? Fiona and I were reading some of the same blogs. These health Gurus that she followed were talking about sunlight as a vital part of our health. Something to be sought out, to soak up, to seriously improve your life. 250 thousand years ago we first stood upright and from that day to this our body's have evolved. For pretty much 247 thousand of those years we lived completely outside under the suns' rays. I live in a house built in the 1940s that is 11 meters long by 7 meters wide. It held Mum, Dad and probably half a dozen kids through the fifty's, sixty's, seventy's and most of the eighty's. This is not a big house. As little as 30 years ago kids spent very little time inside this house. Today, in many of the homes I visit, the kids are inside the house. A study done on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland found that kids in that community played outside and average of four minutes a day. This is a travesty. We have been given an incredible source of mother natures' medicine for all, or at least all who live in this incredible part of the world, to enjoy and what do we do? We hide from it. It is my wish that these pages will help guide you. To your health and happiness and the sun smiling down through your days. Steve Anderson. The Daylight Delivery boy.

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Sunlight is Food

Turn your face

to the sun and

the shadows fall

behind you.

~Maori Proverb

Close your eyes for a few moments and make believe that it’s

Sunday morning, a very special and precious time, particularly when

following a night of unimaginable wonder and romance. Feel yourself

drifting along without a care in the world, just talking softly to the

one who you know is your soul mate. And as you stare deep into the

eyes of the one you love, you momentarily blink and something

starts to change; the ebony of the night sky begins to dissolve, its

place being gradually filled by a fresh morning blue.

You automatically find each other’s hands, clasping them

together with a gentle squeeze, and then with fingers intertwined,

you rush out to observe the perfect vision of nature and dwell in the

moment. It’s your first sunrise together. Maybe it’s just a romantic

tradition, or maybe there really is

something more, something of greater significance and meaning,

something spiritual. Because deep down inside, you know you were

drawn to that rising sun, just like a million young lovers have been

before, and will be in the future. You felt compelled and you

instinctively knew what you had to do.

And yet it was only 500 years ago that the act of gazing at the

sunrise meant death to all but a few of the highest Aztec priests,

something we find hard to believe or understand now. And a mere

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

2,500 years ago, Hippocrates, "the father of medicine", practiced the

sun-cure in the temple of Esculapius on the island of Cos, in ancient

Greece.

So as you think about those two facts, perhaps you can now

begin to see that it’s not only for the romantic angle that I challenge

you to be there just before dawn or sunrise and not feel compelled

to stop and watch the spectacle. And if you feel that, you are right.

There are other more salient lessons to learn: the reasons why.

Fortunately for us, there are people alive today who believe

they know those reasons why, the most famous being Hira Ratan

Manek, who was born in India in September, 1937. More commonly

known as HRM, he is a revered sun gazer.

It was on June 18th, 1995 that HRM embarked upon his

interesting and fascinating experience, and since then he has literally

subsisted and lived off the sun’s energy. In other words, for the past

18 years, he has not eaten any solid foods. While that may be hard to

swallow, if you’ll pardon the pun, he has been studied by various

researchers who have investigated and verified his claims.

Furthermore, medical evidence suggests that HRM is healthier than

the average person of his age. This year he is 77.

So, apart from never having to eat again, what other beneficial

effects can you possibly receive from looking at the sun?

Regular sun gazers are more than keen to extol its virtues. They

point to such things as an improvement in overall health, an increase

in energy, the ability to think more clearly (world leaders, please take

note), an increase in awareness, and something called wish

fulfilment.

"Wish fulfilment is practiced during the time that you are gazing at the sun. One focuses on inner desire and needs, and having these things come into one’s life. It is an amazing practice, and partly why I am so addicted to it. I have had countless things manifest for me after doing

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various wish fulfilments. It is kind of sad that I only get three months of sunshine living in Washington State!" (in5d.com)

You will not be surprised to learn that sun gazing

has been dismissed out of hand by those who

administer conventional medicine, in spite of the fact

that it has been practised since the dawn of time.

Evidence of sun gazing can be found in ancient Hindu scriptures,

and other great civilisations were also believers. It played an

important part in the lives of the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians,

the Assyrians, the Arabs, the Babylonians, the Cretans, the Aztecs,

the early Chinese and Japanese, and, of course, it had a significant

following in India, the birthplace of HRM.

Today, it is possible for anyone to join the sun gazing community.

You can even follow sun gazers on Facebook and, if so inclined, buy a

Hoodie.

On a personal level, I have only ever sun gazed during those

romantic interludes that I mentioned earlier, and I would

recommend that you limit your sun gazing activities likewise.

I cannot stress enough how dangerous sun gazing can be If not

done correctly. There are many factors involved and you should

never just go out and stare into the sun. While where you stand, how

you stand, how you gaze and the time of day are all important, you

also need to be aware of your own body’s strengths and frailties. For

example, if you are on the SAD (standard Australian diet) your body

does not have the strength to even try.

For more information, please consult the references listed below,

but whatever you do, do not attempt sun gazing without expert

advice and help.

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

References

facebook.com/sungazing1

Eat the Sun (documentary)

in5d.com/sun-gazing

thefastingpath.com

I must say that I feel uplifted when I realise that I haven’t left the light on and that this lovely

bright light (without heat) is helping me (energy bills) and the world we live in (carbon

footprint). Also I love the soft blue light at night. When I was little I would often stay at my

grandma’s house and loved the blue light and muffled noises

coming from the open air picture theatre next door.

Ann-Maree

Kingsthorpe

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I married him for love.

The love of his food.

At 15 Ann-Marie had a very different boyfriend. Pale skinned

and ebony hair flowing to her from a mix of Welsh, Scott, English,

Prussian & Irish lines, she was your typical Toowoomba Teenager of

the 70s & 80s.

This boy her Beau, her husband to be, did not have pale skin,

his family coming from a whole different continent, one his ancestors

had to deny, because we, the white Australian said they could not

own land. His skin was dark as was his hair & eyes.

She spoke to me not of the looks and the half said comments

and the taunts they received, but rather the kitchen her new mother

& she would spend time. Her eyes sparkled when she remembered

the lady who did not read or write, but could man the till at the

family shop and never miss a penny. Who would

create a meal or a thousand that could only, taste exactly the same.

“The same”. Meaning a mouth watering perfection that us poor

white Australians had to wait another twenty years to discover, and

then only some of us.

Well Ann-Marie was to grow to be an artist, a farmer, a Doctor

of art with her creations on show all over this world. Her children

when teenagers found

they are now cool, cause the meals that they eat just every day is

like, wow, and their friends line up and pander to gain a seat at the

table.

Why do I tell this story?

God I love my job, most of the time I bring sunshine into

people’s homes and that makes them smile. THe real bonus is it just

happens so often that I meet someone like Ann-Maree and then I

spend the rest of the day smiling.

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

Is there a

Better Type

Of Medicine?

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the

dark or the man afraid of the light? ~Maurice Freehill

You wake up in the morning and go and check on the kids, only

to find that one of them is showing all the symptoms of flu. That’s

the last thing you need with your busy schedule, so what’s the best

thing to do? You can either wrap them up warm and drive them

down to the local chemist, where you’ll be bamboozled by a wide

range of overpriced and largely ineffective over-the-counter

remedies for coughs and colds, or take him or her out into the fresh

air and expose as much of their skin as possible to the sunlight to

facilitate the occurrence of some natural miracles. And as a bonus, it

won’t cost you a cent!

“So what miracles are those?” I hear you ask, and you’ll be

surprised and pleased to hear that they are threefold.

The immune system T cells, which destroy the damaged &

infected cells in our bodies, move towards the surface of the

skin to increase their effectiveness.

There is a boost in the production of the body’s antimicrobial

pepticides, which destroy the cell walls of viruses and bacteria.

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There is an increase in the blood levels of germ-destroying

lymphocytes (white blood cells).

And that’s not all. In addition to the three miracles, there is also evidence that a person who exposes their skin to the sun could actively be preventing a number of very common conditions and diseases, many of which can prove to be fatal: breast cancer; colon cancer; prostate cancer; ovarian cancer; anthrax; cholera; E. Coli; dysentery; influenza; staphylococcus; streptococcus; heart disease and multiple sclerosis. It used to be very common for people to allow their children to go out to play in the sun. In fact, joyful, happy children running around and having fun in not much more than a pair of shorts and a singlet was a very familiar sight. However, those carefree days of playing in the sunshine appear to be very much a thing of the past. It has become so rare that a 2011 survey conducted amongst children living on the Sunshine Coast found that the average time spent playing outside was a meagre four minutes per child per day. The use of sunlight as a medicine, or "sunlight therapy" has a history of being discovered and then disappearing without trace. It found great popularity at the beginning of the 20th century, and this continued right up to and after World War II.

(August Rollier experienced great success when using sunlight to treat

tuberculosis in 1903, which led to his methods being adopted in hospitals

all over the world, over the next 40 years. After World War II, he used

sunlight therapy to treat 2,167 TB patients, 1,746 of whom made a

complete recovery. That was an astounding achievement for the time.)

Unfortunately, over the past fifty to sixty years, the use of sunlight as a medicine or “sunlight therapy” has seen a dramatic reversal in its fortunes. The authorities have taken against it and cast it as the villain of the piece; it is portrayed as an evil force and something to be feared and avoided at all costs. As a direct consequence of the medical fraternity’s actions, a great deal of knowledge about the healing powers of sunlight has been ignored or forgotten. As with any knowledge that is sidelined,

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

particularly that which has proven to have beneficial outcomes, it is to the detriment of society at large, and we are all poorer as a result. In the next chapter, I take great pleasure in showing you how a professor of medicine is harnessing the power of the sun to help cure himself of Multiple Sclerosis, a disease for which many believe there is no cure. References greenmedinfo.com/blog/5-amazing-properties-sunlight-youve-never-

heard-about?

innerself.com/Health/sunlight.ht mindbodygreen.com/0-5999/10-Healing-Benefits-of-the-Sun Over a Million People Die Every Year From Lack of Sun Exposure by Dr Mercola

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Multiple Sclerosis

stopped with the

help of sunlight.

Lethargics are to be laid in the light, and

exposed to the rays of the sun for the disease

is gloom. ~Aretaeus

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is commonly believed to be

unstoppable, and whenever anyone is unfortunate enough to be

diagnosed with the condition, they are prescribed medication and

told to keep taking it, even though both they and their doctor know

they will eventually deteriorate. The medicine just applies a

temporary brake to the speed of the debilitating process.

At the current time, there is an increase in the recorded cases

of multiple sclerosis in Australia. While that alone is a worrying

trend, even more frightening is the fact that nobody appears to know

why. It has been suggested that part of the reason may be due to the

fact that many people are not receiving sufficient exposure to

sunlight in their daily lives, and that as a result, they are contracting

MS. Dr George Jelinek is one such advocate of the theory. In fact, he

is convinced it is the case. Five years ago, he was diagnosed with

multiple sclerosis, and since then, he has availed himself of every

opportunity he can to sunbathe.

Actually, Dr Jelinek embraces a number of ‘alternative

therapies’ to treat his MS, sunbathing being just one of them. He

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

maintains a strict diet and also meditates every day because he

firmly believes that his state of mind affects his health. It will

probably come as a surprise to many to learn that Dr Jelinek is not

some new-age doctor, but a well respected member of the medical

establishment; he is Professor of Emergency Medicine at Perth’s

Charles Gairdner Hospital.

After being diagnosed with MS, Dr Jelinek decided to look for

answers to the questions posed by the disease. A subsequent review

of medical and scientific research soon gave him the information he

was looking for. Furthermore, the answers to his questions were

simple, economical and straight forward. They primarily pointed to

the treatment of MS with simple, affordable, and smart changes to a

person’s life style. Dr Jelinek George took note of his findings and

made those life style changes himself. That was over twelve years

ago, and since then, he has not suffered a relapse, and that type of

improvement is a common occurrence among those adopting an MS-

friendly life style.

The research showed that there were six times the number of

cases per head of population in Tasmania when compared to

Tropical North Queensland. A study by Professor Terry Dwyer

(University of Tasmania) found the more sun a person had had, the

less likely they were to contract MS. However, he is careful to stress

that it’s all still a theory and much too early to draw hard and fast

conclusions. More work needs to be done before people can be

recommended to increase their exposure to the sun in order to avoid

MS.

Dr Jelinek counters by saying that people with MS, like him,

don’t have the time to wait for final proof. “If you have the disease,

the evidence is – although not completely conclusive yet – it’s so

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compelling that I think it’d be silly not to get an adequate amount of

sunlight.”

A 34-year study that followed MS patients showed that a strict

diet can have a dramatic effect… and that’s one of the most

important messages Dr Jelinek has for people with MS.

“You know I think, for a person with MS you’d have to say the

results were quite breathtaking basically ... of the half of the people

that could stick to the diet the vast majority remained perfectly fit

and well after 34 years. The group that didn’t stick to the diet, the

vast majority were dead or bed-bound. That’s a fairly dramatic

difference.”

“Diet, sunlight, exercise, meditation, preventing depression,

resolution of difficult emotional issues and other lifestyle factors are

all examined in light of the massive growth in high quality medical

research in recent years. This new research supports that attention

to these factors can significantly improve quality of life and chance of

recovery for people diagnosed with MS”

“We subject our bodies to physical, emotional and mental

stress every day – with the hours we work; the targets we set; our

fear of failure and ultimately we compound this critical situation by

lifestyle choices we make to help ‘relieve the stress’…This noxious

and precipitous combination increases our chances of developing

significant physical and mental illness – unless we take time to smell

the roses and recognize the early warning systems our body has in

place…”

People who suffer with MS can stabilise their condition and

give themselves the potential to recover by modifying their diet,

exercise habits and other life-style aspects.

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

References

Abc Catalyst, MS Doctor 2004 producer: Graham Phillips

Life in the fastlane.com

The Intelligent Persons Guide to Beating Multiple Sclerosis. “Rebecca

Hoover”

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Fiona Stopped Feeding Me! Wine is sunlight, held together by water. ~Galileo

Five years ago Fiona Stopped Feeding Me I have this minor workaholoic problem and some- times I get a little involved. So to gain my attention the aromas usually flowing through our home ceased. She had decided it was time for us to have Christmas in July and until I stopped work. Organised it and scratched it out in my diary my tummy would keep rumbling. So I find myself sitting around a table of friends in a little winery called Rumbalara being told the best way to drink red wine is while doing the gardening early in the morning out of a coffee mug. Bobby, a slight girl, gorgeous South African accent had us all in stitches with her tales as she filled our glasses. I’m a boy so I don’t really understand these things, but I think she was flirting with me. Needless to say I left there with a case of wine under each arm and since then another case shows up every couple of months, my credit card taking a beating at the same time. I’m not allowed to drink the wine. Fiona says if I am going to be so easily manipulated by a pretty face I have to learn my lesson. (notice she forgets that it is OK for her to bend me to her will) This is why I offer this ethical bribe, I have to do something with the wine and I think the best thing is to give it to you. All you have to do is come & get it. Or if you are to far away I can come to you. Come & visit Theresa at 141 South Station Rd Silkstone (that’s in Ipswich), open Tues to Fri12.30 to 5.30 and Saturday Mornings from 9.00 To 12.00. While you are here you will be able to see the light. Then choose the Elephant or the Leopard Wine. If you are to far from Ipswich, just reply to this email Theresa will give you a call and organise for Bec or me to drop one off next time we are near. If I haven’t made your day brighter, I hope I can real soon. Have a fabulous day. Steve Anderson The Daylight Deliveryboy ph: 1800 99 44 99

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

I’ve noticed a change in my son’s eating habits. Before when I’d come

home from work there would be plates, cups etc all through the house where my 19 year old night working

son had been walking around the house eating. Now after the solatube

installation in the kitchen/family room the mess is isolated to the kitchen as

he enjoys sitting at the previously unused breakfast bar to eat during the

day directly under the skylight and our daughter does her homework

there. They have discovered a whole new horizontal surface they never

knew existed before. Shane & Karen Rasmussen

Aratula

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I was unsure about getting

a skylight in my son’s

bedroom, but now he is

getting up a lot easier

(I only have to call him

twice now, where it

used to be up to ten

times.) and he is not as

grumpy.”

- Debbie Gehrke Yamanto, QLD

Teenage Darkness.

I'm not a doctor and I don't know the

technical terminology, but I do know that

sunshine activates our happiness glands.

~Terri Guillemets

Fi and I live an interesting life, finding things we have in

common to fill our time over the next thirty years or so of marital

bliss. It wasn’t always this easy, as very recently, we experienced the

teenage stage, a period I call the horrible teens because people really

do become unpleasant at that time of their lives, and even though I

have a teaching degree, it doesn't make it any easier.

Today’s teens go through a much harder time than I did then or

have done as a parent since, and it’s more difficult for them than it

was for me as a horrible teen. And I was a horrible teen. Actually, I

was a horrible child as well. My mother received complaints about

my loud and erratic behaviour on the bus from as early as grade

three, and things got worse from there.

So, why do I think it’s more difficult for them than for me? Let's

take a look at one day I remember well and then compare it to a day

spent by two of my own teenage children, Ashlie and Ian.

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

I lived in Brisbane and my day began by picking up a couple of

mates on the way to the pool. We chose the Chandler Pool because

it was the only one on the Southside with a 10-metre diving board.

Cycling from Rochedale and picking Mountford up at Mt Gravatt

(8.4km), we headed for Milos's place in Carina (9.0km) and then

made our way to Chandler (7.2km), only to find out that the 10-

metre board was closed that day. Centenary Pool in Spring Hill was

the only other board that high in Brisbane at the time, so off we

went (24.5km). After several hours of climbing and jumping, it was

off to Mountford's Mums place in Annerley (7.7km) so he could bum

some money, and then back to my place (19km), arriving at sundown

for a game of pool and a sleepover. I didn’t usually get that much

exercise, but all the biking plus the swimming meant a massive

amount of time was spent out in the sun.

Now let’s look at what our kids do today. My life is spent

visiting people in their own homes, and what I see mirrors the stories

I’m about to tell. Our kids seem scared to go outside, or maybe the

entertainment we provide makes them think there’s no reason to do

so.

As I write this, we are preparing to welcome Ian back into the

fold, having left home about three years ago. I overheard him telling

my wife on the phone that he was concerned about getting in our

way. I had to laugh because from the age of 12 through to 19, he’d

spent all his spare time in his room, usually glued to a screen. I was a

teenage boy myself, so I understand the angst of lads like him, with

their raging hormones, testosterone, the lethargy-inducing

somatotropin, and the misaligned melatonin and seratonin forcing

changes on their circadian rhythms (body clocks). Yes, I totally

understand him wanting to sleep until noon. But sleep all the time?

The strange thing is he used to have a great love of sport that forced

him outside. He was captain of the school soccer, AFL, and cricket

teams, and played rep for his town and state. So imagine what he’d

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be like with absolutely no sporting prowess, like 8 out of 10 of us, to

get him outside.

Ashlie also spent a lot of time in her bedroom, in front of a

screen, occasionally venturing out for food, a brief conversation or to

go to a movie. Outside activities were a rare exception.

Ian showed no signs of teen depression, but Ash was hit hard

and spent most of her teenage years in a dark place. At the time, I

had no idea what it was all about, and so she went largely

undiagnosed.

But that may have been a good thing because what do we do

with our kids when they are diagnosed?

"You, your teen, and your medical provider should discuss what might

help your teen the most.

The two most common SSRI medicines are fluoxetine (Prozac)

and escitalopram (Lexapro). These are approved to treat depression

in teenagers. Prozac is also approved for children age 8 and older."

(Medline Plus Health Website.)

This book is a testament to the good things that happen to a

body when it’s exposed to sunlight, and that includes teenagers.

Society today has given them an escape from the sun, even to the

point of making them fear it. I think that is to their detriment, so at

the risk of being boring, I’ll just repeat that seratonin flowing happily,

a circadium ryhthm working correctly and an adequate supply of

vitamin D can only do good things for the growing body. Now, go on

and chase your kids, oops, I mean teenagers, outside.

References

"The Paleo Answer" Loren Cordain wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_suicide.

pacificquest.org/blog/bid/195659/I-need-help-with-my-troubled-teenager

"A Relentless Hope: Surviving the Storm of Adolescent Depression"

Dr. Gary Nelson

Page 25: A journey of daylight discovery

A journey of Daylight Discovery.

Charity Running Better

Delivering daylight is not a career choice that’s going to make

me a millionaire. In fact, it’s not even going to earn me as much

as I hoped and believed it would when I first started my small

business. But money isn’t everything, is it? I may not have the

cash, but I know that I’m rich because by just doing what I do, I

feel good, and that makes me want to share. And by share, I

mean helping one or more charities.

It could have turned out very differently, because a

few years ago, I had an experience that left me in two minds. I

was asked to repair an old skylight in one of the main offices of

a local charity. While there, I was given a tour and shown the

counselling rooms where young people were taken to talk

about how their lives had been affected by the breakdown of

their family unit. I couldn’t help but notice that the rooms had

no windows and that they were quite simply depressing places

to be in. Immediately, I saw a way to help and volunteered to

install a new solatube in each room. As you might imagine, the

suggestion was greeted positively, so I carried out the necessary

work. When I’d finished, I let myself out, knowing that the

counsellors were working, but that both they and the troubled

youth they counselled would have a much more pleasant place

in which to talk. Although I wasn’t expecting any payment, I was

surprised not to receive even a phone call or a brief letter to say

thank you. The lack of acknowledgement was a bitter pill to

swallow at the time and bothered me for a while, but I soon

consigned that feeling to the bin, as I realised that not only does

life go on, but more importantly, those counselling rooms had

Page 26: A journey of daylight discovery

been made more conducive to a happier outcome than they

were before.

When I help people today, I look for those I know who

are working hard to make their charitable organisation run

smoothly. That way, I get to stay close by and see the help I give

actually make a difference.

The Toowoomba Hospice and the Personal West

Employment Agency are two prominent examples of

organisations which need our help.

The Toowoomba Hospice is the place where many of

our loved ones go to spend the last days of their lives in as

comfortable surroundings as possible, while being allowed to

retain their dignity and respect. Once a year, I’m put in a cherry

picker and told I can’t get down until I raise some money for the

hospice, but I need help. Consequently, I’m looking for more

people to get involved. So, if I come to you to do a job, when

I’m finished and bring up this subject, could you please say yes

to the call and help me to help the Toowoomba Hospice.

The Personal West Employment Agency finds

employment for people with disabilities, and I’m proud to say it

does an excellent job. Why am I so proud? Because I’ve been

voted on to the board and now take ownership over how well

the agency does. So again, if I come to work for you, when I’m

finished and I ask about your business or place of work, it’s

because I am looking for prospective employers for some pretty

incredible employees.

If feels so much better helping others when you have a personal stake in the outcome.

Page 27: A journey of daylight discovery

A journey of Daylight Discovery.

How well did you

sleep last night? Are you awake

through the day?

Firelight will not let you read fine stories but it's warm and you won't see the dust on the floor. ~Irish Proverb

The kind of light that you work in affects both your productivity and enjoyment of the task in hand. Study after study indicates that the most incredible things can happen just by changing from one type of light to another. At school, kids show improved performance, both in the grades they obtain and in their attendance levels. And in the world of work, employees put in more effort, concentrate more and are subject to less absenteeism. In the high streets and shopping malls, customers buy more and the amount of money spent on energy decreases. With all of those benefits of natural light, it’s hardly surprising that we’ve tried to make things easier to use. Even our televisions, computer screens, ipads and phones produce a light that mimics daylight in order to make it easier to concentrate through a crisper colour rendition. That’s a great help during the day, but as with a lot of modern technology, there is a dark side. In 2005, a study at the Kyushu University in Japan compared the effects of the exposure of people to different colour lights prior to going to bed. The three colours were: a yellow (3000k ) incandescent bulb, a white bulb that was a little less than

Page 28: A journey of daylight discovery

daylight (5000k) and a blue/white bulb that was a little more than daylight (6500k). The subjects were exposed to the lights and then had their sleep patterns monitored. The study suggested that the higher the colour temperature light that the subjects were exposed to prior to sleeping, the less time they spent in stage 4 sleep (the deepest sleep). Here is the conclusion: Given that the S4-sleep period is important for sleep quality, our findings suggest that light sources of higher color temperatures may reduce sleep quality compared with those of lower color temperatures. Studies in Switzerland and the United States have come up with similar conclusions, so what do they mean for us? It’s well known that our bodies produce or stop producing melatonin (the sleep hormone), depending on the level of available light. The production of the hormone is controlled by the pineal gland, and it sets our body clock, telling us when to wake, when to fall asleep and also how deeply we sleep. Our computer screens, ipads and televisions release light at a level that is close to daytime light. result, our bodies think that it’s daytime and become awake and alert. In other words, our bodies get confused and stop making melatonin. If we don’t have any melatonin, we will experience a night of disturbed or very light sleep. During the day, working under incandescent lighting, the yellow colour can trick our bodies too. The melatonin starts pumping and we start feeling listless. Our concentration lapses and, depending upon what we are doing, it can lead to situations that are downright dangerous. And if that should come on top of a light or disturbed sleep the night before... well, you can begin to see the magnitude of the problem. Now it’s time to ask yourself if you are being exposed to the right kind of light at the right time. For example, a quick stroll

Page 29: A journey of daylight discovery

A journey of Daylight Discovery.

around the house can literally turn you from a morning grump into bright-eyed and bushy-tailed bunny. Go into each room in turn and think about the purpose and function of each one in your life. Think about when the lights are turned on, and then check the type of light by pressing the switch. If it’s a work room, a white light is the best. If it’s a room for relaxing, then yellow is the way to go. However, some rooms are multipurpose and require both types. For example, in my kitchen, the down lights which we use for food preparation are white, while the light in the centre of the room is yellow. When the cooking is done, the white light goes out and the yellow goes on, so when I go to the fridge for a snack, there is no shock to my body clock. In other rooms, my computer monitor has a program called f.lux, which changes the colour of the screen, depending on the time of day, and I have started using blue blocker glasses in front of the TV at night.

http://blog.1000bulbs.com/does-color-temperature-affect-sleep/ http://www.litebook.com/light-therapy/poor-sleep.asp http://www.mhealthtalk.com/2012/04/how-light-affects-melatonin-and-sleep/

Page 30: A journey of daylight discovery

Kids Concentrate Better & Understand More. In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary. ~Aaron Rose

As I write this at the very beginning of 2014, a friend

of mine who does what I do, but in Western Australia, is

looking forward to a very busy year. The Building the

Education Revolution (BER) is in full swing, complete with

a massive upgrade of educational facilities. Brett, my

friend, has been given the task of bringing daylight into the

classrooms of those schools, and with the coming of

daylight, the students will also receive many other

educational benefits. You could say there is a triple bottom-

line benefit: environmental, economic and, most

importantly, the improved health and well being of the

students.

The WA Government is acting with foresight and

innovation, an unusual sight with bureaucracy.

Not very long ago, I was working for a couple near

Mt Tyson who, as part of the creation of their home,

moved an old school house from the bottom of the

property and somehow meccanoed it together with the

main house. It wasn’t a massive room, but when in use

could have held anywhere between 20 to 30 kids (We

called them kids back then, not students.). It had very high

cathedral ceilings and walls that were about 12 ft in height.

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

The interesting part of the design was the windows, as they

started about 5ft from the ground and continued upwards.

The logic for that was that the kids wouldn’t be distracted

by looking out of the windows while studying. Having been

built in the late 1880s, you can understand that, because at

the time the cane was also still in use as a form of

punishment, albeit nothing compared to the hiding kids

would get from their fathers when they got home (For

some reason, they always knew when the kids had been

playing up at school.).

The next century didn’t see any major design

changes in school rooms, and right up to the 1970s,

departments were experimenting with windowless

classrooms, using the same logic as their forebears.

However, studies showed the students to be not only more

hostile, hesitant, maladjusted and less interested in their

work, but they also complained more.

In the early 1990s, research started to show massive

differences in the way many areas of education could be

improved, concluding that kids were much better off in

daylit classrooms.

Better Grades Can you imagine your kids completing maths

tests 20% faster and English exams 26% faster, with a

general progression in those two vital subjects of between

15% and 23%, just because there is more sunlight in the

classroom?

Page 32: A journey of daylight discovery

If that sounds too good to be true, look at the graph

above. It’s a comparison of one school (the bar on the left)

in the state to the county average (right) over five years.

This school is unique because it is a daylit school that was

destroyed by fire in 1988, necessitating the students to

move to temporary classrooms for two years while the new

daylight school was built. Although there are other factors

to be taken into account, the average test scores

plummeted when they were working under fluorescent

light and rebounded with a vengeance when the real full

spectrum light returned. The kids went from 7% above the

average to 10% below the average, and where do

Queensland schools put skylights? In the toilets.

Wagging School Do you remember what you did

when you skipped a class or even a whole day? I spent it

outside, and I always went to school when it rained. Kids in

daylit classrooms go to school an average of 3.5 days more

per year than those in rooms lit by fluorescent lights, and

some daylit schools boast as much as 98% attendance.

Happy Teachers The other day, a woman told me

about her granddaughter not doing so well in a certain

class this year because she isn’t getting on well with the

teacher.

"When I’ve had it with the kids and I can’t answer another question,

I just take a minute, look out the window at the view, and then I’m

OK. I’m calm and ready to go back into the fray." (Heschong

Mahone Group 1999)

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of that particular case,

teachers don’t have it easy, and I am all for doing

Page 33: A journey of daylight discovery

A journey of Daylight Discovery.

everything possible to make their lives as comfortable as

possible.

Healthy Kids and Teachers Too

I’ve talked about vitamin D, less tooth decay, stable

circadian rhythms, better serotonin production and much

more elsewhere in this book, and here are two more

exciting things the sun can do for your kids: enable them to

see far away objects more clearly and grow tall. 88% of

post-graduate students are nearsighted as opposed to 45%

of the rest of the population. They read an awful lot while

studying and usually do so under fluorescent lights. Poor

spectral lights cause stress to the eyes. Persistent eye

strain = eye damage. Stress to the eyes increases stress

levels in the body, which activate the growth inhibiting

hormones corticol and ACTH, with one study showing a 2.1

cm average reduction in growth of children working under

fluorescent lights over a period of two years. And I haven’t

even mentioned kids with ADD remaining calmer with no

humming fluorescent light overhead.

References:

leighton.com

greeneducationfoundation.org

architecture.mit.edu

nrel.gov/docs/fy02osti/30769.pdf

asuamag.com/daylighting

Page 34: A journey of daylight discovery

Slip, slop

we should

be slapped.

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? ~Maurice Freehill

Since 1980, our governments have been actively

demonising the sun. The Slip Slop Slap and Sunsmart

programs have made going out into the daylight seem as

inviting as walking naked into a powerhouse furnace,

telling us that at best the sun will cause wrinkles and

premature ageing, and at worst it will bring skin cancer

and premature death. Australia has the highest incidence

of skin cancer of any country in the world, so our

politicians are patting themselves on the back because of

the behavioural changes brought about in the population

by this mass advertising.

There were 50% less cases of people getting

sunburnt in the last decade of the 20th century, which,

on the face of it, is a very good thing.

However, I would argue that this decrease in the

number of people who like to get a sun tan and feel

healthy with a suntan is a seriously bad thing. Having a

suntan is healthy, and the way in which we have been

told to stop us getting a suntan is very unhealthy.

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

More people seeking shade, using hats and covering

up, and even choosing not to go outside between the

hours of ten in the morning and two in the afternoon are

all worthy outcomes of this persistent Sunsmart

campaign.

"Lathering up with sunscreen, and plenty of it" is a

health recommendation with damming consequences.

To put it simply, slapping on sunscreen may stop the

burning, but not the cancer, and it increases your

chances of any number of afflictions.

Sunscreen's scary side-effects. How can this be

possible?

Lowers Vitamin D

Wearing sunscreen effectively stops your body from

being able to produce Vitamin D, which is supposed to

happen naturally when your skin is exposed to sunlight.

In fact, vitamin D production is reduced by between

97.5% and 99.9%. This has contributed to a widespread

severe vitamin D deficiency, which, in turn, raises the risk

of a plethora of diseases.

When slapping on the sunscreen, you risk 16 types

of cancer in addition to melanoma, heart disease,

diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid

arthritis, multiple sclerosis and osteoporosis.

Does sunscreen protect you from the bad rays?

There are three types of UV rays emitted by the

sun. UVC is burnt up in the atmosphere and so is not a

concern. The two types that do concern us are UVA and

UVB. The latter, UVB, is the one that makes your skin

burn, which you might reasonably suppose makes it the

bad UV light. However, you’d be wrong. UVB is the good

light because it doesn't penetrate very far into your skin

Page 36: A journey of daylight discovery

and helps produce vitamin D. Furthermore, when you’ve

had enough sunlight, it causes a slight reaction telling

you it’s time to find a shady tree. Your skin goes a

mottled pink colour and a slight tingle is felt on your skin.

If you take notice of what your body is telling you and get

out of the sun, there are no after effects. However, if you

stay out in the sun, UVB will burn your skin, but that

ISN’T where cancer starts because 1st degree sunburn is

superficial and repairable.

On the other hand, UVA is a totally different animal,

as it does penetrate into your skin, creating free radical

damage and damaging the DNA. It is there, deep inside

your skin, where the melanoma occurs.

If we take a look at most sunscreens, we find that

they only protect you from UVB. It’s only recently that

more sunscreens have come onto the market that

protect against UVA as well.

Is sunscreen taking things worse?

When you think about it, since the 1970s, most

sunscreens have protected us against UVB and left us

open to UVA radiation. And even more distressing is the

fact that this sunscreen has not only stopped our bodies

from making the vitamin D which can help protect us

against UVA, but also turned off our bodies’ own early-

warning device that tells us to get out of the sun.

Could it be possible that marathon runners

experience a greater incidence of skin cancer than

normal because they’ve been slathering on the

sunscreen while running 50 to 100 kilometres a week,

thinking that as they weren’t burning, they were alright?

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

But they are not alone. It affects all of us. We may

have 50 percent less sunburn, but we still have the

highest rate of skin cancer in the world.

Is the sun causing the cancer?

In 2001, The American Academy of Science

published a review showing that a body’s omega 3 to

omega 6 ratios are the key to preventing skin cancer

development. At the same time that we have been

trying to stop sunlight entering our bodies, there has

been a massive change in our diet. Our omega 3-6 ratios

have altered.

The best ratio is omega 6 : omega3 2:1.

The way we now eat gives us an average ratio of 17:1

which can go as high as 30:1. What it comes down to is

that the sun is now provoking a reaction in our bodies,

but only because the composition of what we put in our

bodies has changed.

Scientists Admit -- Sun Exposure Benefits Outweigh

Risks!

(mercola.com)

Increased sunshine could prevent diseases that claim

nearly 1 million lives throughout the world every year.

References:

mercola.com

sunsmart.com.au

chriskresser.com

news.com.au

naturalnews.com

marksdailyapple.com

Page 38: A journey of daylight discovery

Theresa

Makes up

Songs.

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. Anthony J. D'Angelo

Theresa, sitting at her desk concentrating, is really quite a sight to see, actually..to hear. If I have loaded her up with work she talks her way through her day. “If I do this then that will fit there”, the occasional swear word followed by my name and so on. But if it is a normal day, usually a Wednesday or Thursday and always a Friday she sings and if you can get close enough to hear the words you will be totally mystified. They don’t make any sense. So Chris, Theresa’s husband, a mechanic, is home with his foot up. He dropped an air bag suspension on it. Not sure what an air bag suspension is, but I am guessing it is heavy. Chris, sitting on the couch, foot, (swollen like a balloon) is resting on the poof, doing what all boys do when they are hurt or sick. Sooking. Theresa, sympathetic to her husband’s plight is doing what? Flitting around the house singing. Making up the words as she goes, nonsense words. You really have never seen anything like it. Chris explodes, Theresa shows up for work an hour early, laughing all the way. Want $100 off a Solatube? It is really easy. Just come on in and get Theresa to sing. I don’t think it will be hard but I haven’t told her you are coming. You can visit her at 141 South Station Rd, Silkstone (that’s in Ipswich), open Tues to Fri 12.00 to 5.00 and Saturday mornings from 9.00 To 12.00. While you are here you will be able to see the light. I promise just being around her will make you smile. If you are too far from Ipswich, I am really sorry, but I will try and get her to a Show near you soon. If your friend gave you this page you can use it too.

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

Happy Shoppers

Spending Money I like my money right where I can see it... hanging in my closet. ~Carrie Bradshaw

There’s no law against making money, so I’m often told by

Rod Lowry, a Toowoomba electrician, and I have to say, I agree

wholeheartedly.

If you’re a business owner, this section will just blow you away.

Imagine, if you can, increasing your sales by between 28 and 40%,

improving staff moral, having your customers enjoy their stay in your

shop more, reducing staff absenteesism, and improving your staff’s

ability to not only find things in your store room, but also their ability

to distinguish colours far more easily. And what’s more, you can do

all that in one fell swoop.

Study after study has shown that all those things are possible,

and that’s not to mention the cost savings that result from the power

saved through the reduced use of lighting and air conditioning.

Many retailers in the United States have quite literally opened their

doors to researchers who are looking to find the benefits of natural

daylight over electric lighting in a retail environment. And the results

have been amazing.

One of the studies decided to find out what the customers

thought, and asked them one simple question: Does this store feel

any different to you than other stores like this? The most common

answer (80%) was: This store feels cleaner. The second most

common answer (65%) was: It feels more spacious, more open. In

addition, three people said they specifically went to the store in

question rather than one closer to their home because they liked

how it felt – cleaner and more open. Furthermore, store managers

Page 40: A journey of daylight discovery

and staff were all positive about the skylights. The study’s conclusion

suggested that skylights had 5 main beneficial effects: improved

customer loyalty, more relaxed customers, better visibility, more

attractive products and improved employee morale. Everything

works so much better when your staff are happy.

In 1995, an article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal

business section related the story of WalMarts experience when they

added skylights to an experimental "Eco-Mart". In an attempt to cut

costs, Walmart only installed skylights into half the store. In every

Walmart store, each cash register is connected in real-time back to

the head office. Tom Scay, the company vice president, was

astounded to see that sales were not only significantly higher in the

daylight areas of the store, but that they were also higher than the

same departments at other stores. Employees in the half of the store

without daylight lobbied successfully to have their departments

moved to the daylight side of the store. When the move had been

made, an immediate increase in sales was seen in the relocated

departments, and the departments that were moved away from the

light saw their sales plummet.

Many retailers in the United States have invested heavily in

testing the advantages of daylight for their bottom line.

Unfortunately, although it’s completely understandable, actual

numbers are very hard to come by because each retailer wants to

hold on to any competitive advantage they can. Consequently, they

haven’t published the results. However, some statistics have seeped

out into the public arena, and they are impressive.

Australia has no real competition in the retail sector. The

duopoly operating in this country has no need to search for a

competitive advantage. They have a captive market. Even so, I

understand that Wez Farmers has recently added daylighting to one

of their Bunnings stores in Melbourne.

Page 41: A journey of daylight discovery

A journey of Daylight Discovery.

References

Daylight Harvesting in Retail Stores 2009 (Emerson Climate

Technologies)

Skylighting & Retail Sales

(The Heschong Mahone Group)

bristolite.com

solux.net

Page 42: A journey of daylight discovery

Work

Smart.

What a

Cliché!

Sometimes just looking up and seeing the light is enough. ~Terri Guillemets

Sunshine is my quest. ~Winston Churchill

If what I’ve written in this chapter sounds like a rant, it’s

because that’s exactly what it is. But it isn’t one of those

aimless rants, it has a specific purpose, so humour me,

please, and read on.

No matter where you’re situated now, try to imagine

you’re in Seattle, north-west America. The date is January

18th, 2000, and it’s snowing. You see a news-stand and buy

a copy of the Seattle Times. You then go into a nearby bar,

order a warming drink and open the newspaper, where you

read the following:

"absenteeism dropped 25 percent, productivity increased 13.2

percent and energy costs declined 69 percent. The company's up-

front investment was paid back in just 69 days. The renovated Reno

Post Office gained $400,000 to $500,000 a year in productivity"

You don't have to think too hard to work out the nature of

the Reno Post Office renovations, because it seems

obvious. They introduced daylight.

Three years previously, in 1997, I started my new life as a

business owner. I told myself that I would make millions

Page 43: A journey of daylight discovery

A journey of Daylight Discovery.

and give myself the kind of financially security I needed in

order to return to teaching. Actually, I’m still trying, but

that’s not important. What is important is the advice I was

given "Work Smart Not Hard." In practice, however, those

words of wisdom appear to be more difficult to follow than

they are to hear.

You probably think that it’s just plain common sense to

locate your employees in a place where they can

automatically work smarter, be more productive and

improve morale, but surprisingly it doesn’t seem to be that

simple and obvious to everyone.

Over the past few months, I’ve been working on a project

that will eventually become a big medical centre,

employing in excess of one hundred staff, including

doctors, dentists, pharmacists, administrators, cleaners

and so on. However, I’ve been amazed at the number of

rooms that are windowless; consultation rooms, waiting

rooms and administrative staff rooms are all lit by

fluorescent lighting. Someone else must have felt the same

way as me because, as an afterthought, I was asked to put

three of my daylights in the waiting rooms. I suppose that’s

a start, but what about the staff and their working and rest

areas?

For a moment, let’s ignore the fact that this place is going

to have lots of really sick people coming in and going out,

and look at the doctors, nurses and administration staff.

Should I go to work today?

The staff working in this building will take more time off

work through illness than is necessary because the

environment that they have been given to work in is

conducive to making people want to stay at home.

Page 44: A journey of daylight discovery

(Hewlett-Packard saw absenteeism drop by more than 40%

after adding daylight.)

What should I do next?

Administration workers will take longer than they need to

complete their jobs because of their environment. (The US

Green Building Council SBT Manual reports that worker

productivity can be increased by 15% by implementing

"smart daylighting".)

I just wanna have a whinge

Have you ever worked in one of those places where

everyone seems to complain all the time? Well, this place

may end up just like that, as studies show employees

sitting further from natural light complain more.

Why are we working here?

In other words, how can we be expected to work smarter

when we experience feelings of stuffiness, being cooped

up, isolation, claustrophobia, depression and tension. In

addition, we derive much less job satisfaction and feel

substantially less positive.

Work smart - work in daylight!

References:

nrel.gov/docs/fy02osti/30769.pdf

Human Factors In lighting 2nd ed

Peter Robert Boyce

startupdonut.co.uk/blog/2014/01

Page 45: A journey of daylight discovery

A journey of Daylight Discovery.

It's All to Do

with the Eyes. People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Rebecca worked for me and was learning to install TV

antennas and skylights. I found her through Personal West,

an employment agency that specialises in finding work for

people with disabilities. She has Asperger syndrome,

which in her case translates (in my totally non-medical

opinion) into a severe lack of confidence.

Watching a TED talk by Amy Cuddy (Your Body Language

Shapes Who You Are), I had an epiphany. A number of

college students were asked to sit or stand in either an

open or closed stance for a few minutes, and then their

hormones, testosterone and cortisol were measured. The

ones in the open (high power) stance experienced a

chemical change in their bodies, raising testosterone and

lowering cortisol, which effectively made them feel more

powerful or raised their confidence. Those in the closed

position (low power) stance experienced the opposite

effect, resulting in low self-esteem. And the differences

weren’t small.

I sent the link to Rebecca, and when we next met, I

suggested to her that prior to going to work, she should

Page 46: A journey of daylight discovery

stand in a Wonder Woman stance in order to raise her

confidence when talking to her customers. Although she

refused, she did insist that Sage, her daughter, should

stand in that manner for five minutes before she made a

difficult phone call. Unfortunately, that wasn’t successful

either.

I’m actually writing this book three years after making the

decision to do so. Procrastinating is one of the symptoms

of low serotonin levels. Most of the media/drug

companies will have you believe that serotonin is totally

responsible for your mood, which is true:

Low serotonin = grumpy.

Normal serotonin levels = happy.

However, there is so much more involved. If you keep

your levels right, you’ll have increased confidence and self-

esteem. Furthermore, the happy hormone plays an

important role in sleep, appetite, memory, aggression,

sexual behaviour, cardiovascular activity, respiratory

activity, motor output, sensory function and, most

importantly, perception!

All of this is available free if you just get your serotonin

pumping, And how can you do that? With sunshine.

The first light of dawn stimulates your retina to start

making serotonin. In turn, it sends a message from your

eyes to the pineal gland in the centre of your brain, which

immediately starts producing more.

Just like a light switch being flipped on, it’s telling your

body it's time to get up, to move and to be active.

The more serotonin that goes into our bodies naturally,

the smoother our transition through the day. Not having

sufficient serotonin can cause horrendous problems.

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

So how do you know if you have enough of this particular

hormone in your body? Short of taking a medical test, I

can’t say, but I do know that your body can produce as

much as it needs and won’t make too much. So the more

things you do to naturally increase your serotonin levels,

the happier and healthier you will be.

There are four very easy ways to naturally boost your

serotonin levels.

Sunlight

Massage

Exercise

Remembering happy events

Sunlight

Bright light passing through your eyes and flowing into

your brain increases serotonin production. While this

doesn’t mean looking straight at the sun, it’s true that

sunlight is the correct colour to start the process and it’s

far brighter or intense.

Experiments on rats have shown a direct correlation

between the brightness of the sun and the production of

serotonin; the brighter the sun, the higher the production.

At the same time, an inverse correlation has been noted in

how quickly the serotonin transporter sucks it away when

there is less light in the autumn and winter months. The

transporter is what antidepressant drugs block to keep the

happy hormone around longer.

Massage

Several studies have shown an increase in serotonin levels

after regular massage. After receiving a massage twice a

week, depressed pregnant mothers and the infant children

of depressed new mothers saw increases of 30% or more.

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Ask yourself how many times you’ve found yourself

happier after a massage.

Exercise

The reason most people don't exercise is simply because

they don't want to, which is book in itself, but think about

this: If you find yourself not wanting to get up and move

about, you probably have low serotonin levels, and sitting

down in front of the TV with a bag of chips and a beer isn’t

going to change it.

Remembering happy events

On Boxing Day last year, my little grandson, Sammy, spent

the entire meal sitting in his potty-like chair surrounded

with bits and pieces of food on the chair’s attached tray.

He’s worked out how to get the stuff into his mouth but

biting down is not so easy.

Yes, smiling from ear to ear, that feels like serotonin to

me.

References:

justopenyoureyes-insaneblogger.blogspot.com.au

truestarhealth.com

sciencedaily.com

psychologytoday.com

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

Fixes Bad

Teeth.

Really?

A good morning greeting I am sending your way wrapped up in smiles for a beautiful day. ~Rose Marie Streeter

I think all my teeth are going to fall out, and all because of arrogant

pride. It’s not my dentist’s fault, as she keeps making appointments for

me. First, she sends a letter informing me that my six-monthly check-up is

set for such and such a date and time. Then, when the day before the

appointment arrives, I receive a text reminding me to be there tomorrow.

Finally, the day after the appointment, my wife gets a call telling her that I

didn’t show up. Is there something wrong with me? Perhaps I should just

go and get them checked.

Maybe if I’d had the right type of lighting at school, I wouldn’t be

having this trouble. I’d have fewer cavities and there’d be less reason for

my predatory dentist to continue her pursuit.

Evidence to back up my theory comes from as far back as the

1930s, when studies showed that kids were more prone to dental cavities

in the winter and spring, which is the time when they spent more time

inside the school. Conversely, the studies also showed that the kids were

less prone to dental cavities during the summer, when they spent more

time in the sun. Back then, of course, children did spend more time out in

the sun. A more recent study drew a comparison between classrooms lit

by full spectrum light and those subjected to fluorescent lighting. The

students in the classrooms lit by full spectrum light suffered nine times

LESS dental decay than those under fluorescent lighting.

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And this is where my head begins to spin. Everything I’ve read

about sunlight reducing dental decay is centred on ultraviolet light

increasing the body's Vitamin D. Vitamin D is a miracle worker that

strengthens the teeth and generally makes the body stronger and

healthier.

In order to make Vitamin D, the body needs UVB light to begin a

chemical reaction in the upper layers of the skin, creating an oily

substance which is absorbed into the body over the next 36 hours or so.

UVB light is vital to the process.

Our kids sit in classrooms that are simply not getting the UVB light

from the sun. If they sit by a window or underneath a skylight, the UVB is

filtered out.

The plastic dome on the top of a skylight filters out 97% of both the

UVA and the UVB light, and with good reason. I believe in everything in

moderation, and even though we need far more sunshine than we have

been getting, sitting our kids under the full force of the sun for six hours a

day is fraught with danger. A glass window stops the UVB, but allows the

UVA to pass through. The UVA is the light that penetrates more deeply

into the skin and is believed to be the skin cancer risk. This is vitally

important information if you work beside a window in direct sunlight.

Returning to the students in the most recent study, how was it

possible that they had less tooth decay when the daylight must have

filtered out the very light that was needed to create that situation?

Answer: It was man-made.

Those studies compared normal fluorescent lighting to a man-made

full spectrum light that contained traces of ultraviolet light, which

increased Vitamin D production, giving the kids much nicer smiles. A

bitter pill for me to swallow is that something man-made could possibly

work more effectively than Mother Nature.

References

drbailyskincare.com vitamindcouncil.org

realnatural.org skincancer.org

mercola.com

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.

Conclusion:

I think I have made it pretty clear throughout this book that I have a

considerable bias towards the sunlight that envelops our lives, so to

finish of I would like to borrow the conclusion of a report created by

Edwards & Torcellini titled " A Literature Reviewof the effects of

natural light on building Occupants July 2002". It explains in my

prejudiced view that sunlight in every part of our live is not just

recommended, but an essential staple for a healthy, wealthy and

wise existence.

"When designing buildings, emphasis is placed on construction and

maintenance costs. However, real people will be working in these

buildings, so consideration should be given to their psychological and

physiological well-being. The improved health of building occupants

benefits employers and building owners because of improved

performance.

With properly installed and maintained daylighting systems, natural

light has proved to be beneficial for the health, productivity, and

safety of building occupants. Natural light helps maintain good

health and can cure some medical ailments. The pleasant

environment created by natural light decreases stress levels for office

workers. Productivity increases with the improved health of workers,

and with better productivity comes financial benefits for employers.

Students also perform better with natural light. Across the nation,

studies have shown students in daylit rooms achieve higher test

scores than students in windowless or poorly lit classrooms. Along

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with better test scores, student health also improves from the

increase in vitamin D intake. Students have fewer dental cavities and

grow more under full-spectrum lighting. Daylighting also benefits

retail stores because of more even light that provides better color

rendering. Customers stay in stores longer and employees can

identify items faster with better lighting. In health care facilities,

natural light improves patient recovery rates and allows for proper

vision for the elderly in assisted living facilities. Hospital staff also

benefit from the natural light because of the amiable environment.

Patients will be more at ease when staff is in a better mood,

and the staff will be calmer when patients have improved recovery.

Productivity increases in industrial environments because of

improved color rendering and the better quality of light provided by

natural light. Also, safety is increased with better lighting conditions.

The use of daylighting decreases utility costs and improves the well-

being of building occupants. The effects of natural light on building

occupants should be an important consideration for building design

because studies have shown the strong influence light has on people

in many different environments. Daylighting can provide satisfaction

for both building occupants and owners."

"A Literature Review of the effects of natural light on Building

Occupants"

L Edwards & P Torcellini

National Renewable Energy Labority

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A journey of Daylight Discovery.