With this past month seeing the release of the new IPhone 6, my daughter obtaining her school mandated 7th grade laptop, the launch of the Chinese internet company Alibaba on the stock market; I decided to do something different recently and get back to the basics. In central Virginia there is a 3 day event called Field Days of The Past. It features items and customs back to early America. There are many exhibits and demonstrations of hand furniture making, old tractors and horse drawn carriages, Model T Ford cars and even an old restored Stage coach. There were plenty of farm animals, a rodeo, and I even learned that linen is actually made from the Flax plant. The same flax that gives us flax seeds which as most know has been found to contain so many nutritional properties.

The only rule that I had for the day with my daughter was no electronics, including cell phones, (except to be kept for safety) but they had to remain in our pockets. We spent most of the day there and the family had a great time. I then recalled a term I read about several years ago, ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’. This was discussed in a great book called Spontaneous Happiness by Dr. Andrew Weil, a well known Integrative Medical Practitioner. While I do not believe that this is an actual psychiatric disorder, it does draw attention to how little time most people simply spend outdoors anymore.

When was the last time you took a short walk just for the sake of getting some fresh air, or just looked at the changing leaves as fall is here? When did you last look at the stars at night or the clouds during the day with your kids and laugh about what shapes you thought they looked like?

So, in the course of your journey to become more Fit, Fearless and Fabulous, don’t forget to get reconnect with some of the simple things in life. These simple things can help you feel more connected, more peaceful , more energetic and maybe most importantly, more real.

And, by the way, we all had a great time and my 12 y.o. daughter survived the day with no cell phone.

– Dr. V