Can We Think and Be Better During the Day’s First Light?
Morning light can bring out our best selves
I once knew someone in my middle school in India, who said that her father made her wake up at the crack of dawn and practice math. He was a well-regarded scientist in the city who wanted his only child to follow in his STEM footsteps.
She was woken up around 5:30 am every morning, Monday to Friday, to solve math problems before she had to get ready for school. She lived on the 31st floor of a tall apartment block, facing east.
She told us how she did her daily problems in the soft glow of the rising sun. Needless to say, she excelled at the subject and is now a scientist herself.
Her father’s rationale was that the early sunlight activated the neurons and created connections that were optimal for logical problem-solving.
Later, my parents encouraged me to always practice yoga in the soft glow of the first light, especially if I was practicing the ‘Sun Salutation’ pose (Sanskrit: Suryasana). In fact, they practiced what they preached and I often found my Dad in the garden or sun room, meditating or exercising in silence, at dawn.
Fast-forward about 30 years to Wales. We were on a family vacation and had moved into a heavenly bed-and-breakfast the…
