You’ve heard the old saying, “Once a nurse , always a nurse.” It’s true you know. I still observe how people walk, and if it is present in their gait I can detect a “hitch in their get along”. I still can tell you if a person smokes by the sound of their voice, and I still assess the veins in the person’s arms in front of me in the grocery store, wondering how easy or difficult it would be to place a butterfly needle to draw blood, or insert an IV catheter for fluids. So I am giving you fair warning, my post may be written by Joan the Nurse.

We are a package deal, aren’t we? Mind, body , and spirit. And I know there is so much going on in our world at times it is a challenge not to let it all drag our mind and spirit down. But one of the best ways to help keep our energy high is taking good care of our bodies. And I think if we take care of ourselves, it helps everyone else no matter what situations arise. If our bodies are feeling good we all have a much better chance at producing normal levels of “feel good” hormones. The following are pleasure hormones with a simple definition of how they relate to our lives:

Serotonin: Think about feelings of happiness, positive moods and emotions.

Dopamine: A positive reward, when something feels good our brain releases this hormone, and of course we are motivated to repeat what has made us feel good or gives us pleasure.

Endorphins: I used to tell my patients to think of “happy endorphins”, because these hormones are naturally produced to aid with physical pain.

Oxytocin: Think of it as more of a “relationship” hormone because one of the ways it increases in our bodies is being touched, hugged, or kissed.

Exercise is one of the best ways to regulate our pleasure hormones. For some of us exercising in the winter can be more of a challenge but I want to really encourage you to find a way to help stay in shape, even if it is simply lifting can goods as small weights or engaging in a yoga class on YouTube. And remember, all of us start off as a beginner no matter what type of exercise we choose to practice.

I have been a member of the YMCA, or the Y, for twenty-six years. Twenty-five years ago I decided I wanted to learn to swim, really swim, not just float around and swim under water. I began to go to the pool two or three times a week and watched the other swimmers. Everyone was very friendly and gave me great tips, and they all could swim like a fish. My friend Tom had been a swimmer for decades, and he took me under his wing, (maybe I should say fin! LOL!). He taught me to swim first with the kick board, teaching me to use the big thigh muscles in my legs, not just my lower legs and feet to kick with, and also to rotate to each side. Fish, he said, do not swim straight ahead, but use more of a side angle, which helps them move through the water. I learned to do that also, graduating to a free style stroke, using my abdominal muscles for core strength, and understanding that all my main muscles in my body were getting a work out. I fell in love with swimming. The hardest thing was, and still is, getting out of bed at 5:00 am in the morning. But it is so worth it, and a great way to build “feel good” hormones in the morning.

About a year after I began swim lessons from my friends I traveled to Nags Head, North Carolina, on vacation with my two girls, Beth and Jan, and my brother Mark and his wife Wilma. We all loved the ocean and looked forward to a fun and relaxing time. But on the second day I was caught up in a riptide, and within seconds from standing in very shallow salt water, I was pulled fairly far out into the ocean. I could see people lining up on the shoreline looking out at me, but I could not see their faces. I was out there. Water was above me, below me, on each side of me, and waves were crashing down upon me. It was nothing but water, no floor, no ceiling. And let me tell you, I have felt lonely before, lonely as a single gal, lonely married, too, but never as lonely as the feeling of loneliness that came over me out there in the Atlantic Ocean. I was sure I was going to die, that I was going to drown. Then I heard Tom’s voice, as clear as if he were swimming right beside me.

“Kick, Joanie, kick!”.

And I did, adrenaline, the fight or flight hormone, shooting through my body as if someone had turned a water hose on full force. Obviously I made it back to shore, with the help of a life guard and a buoy life saver. I did not know at the time if one is caught up in a riptide to swim with the current to the shoreline. I am very cautious now about swimming in the ocean, a little fearful. Me, who as a sixteen year young adventuress teenager would swim with friends at night in the ocean! I prefer what I call “controlled” water, like the picture above, the pool at the Y. It is twenty-five meters long and you can see the swimmers’ lanes. The black line helps one swim straight, the flags help you know when you swim on your back that the concrete wall is fairly close, and the red, donut shaped rings on the rope can be moved if you want to count your laps. I rarely count my laps because swimming just takes me there, that wonderful “zone” where somehow I can do some of my best thinking, some of my best praying, too. Up and down, back and forth, over and over.

I did count my laps this morning. For the very first time I swam a half-mile, sixteen laps up and back down the pool, in thirty-five minutes. For those of you that do not swim I can tell you I impressed myself. A half-mile is a lot when you are swimming. Though I am not a fast swimmer, I will become a little faster in the future. My body is asking me to swim a little longer, a little faster, because I can. I am also considering a full year challenge for 2025 that the Y is talking about, but doing it on my own: 250 miles of cycling, 50 miles of swimming, and 50 miles of walking. The walking and cycling I know I can do, more than what is required. The swimming will challenge me, but in a good way.

When I stepped out of that pool this morning my “feel good ” hormones were at full throttle. I felt as if I could conquer the world! Oh! What a feeling as we say! So go for it, whatever you are thinking about this year of 2025 to care well for yourself. You are so worth it!

c   Love, Joan