Water.

Water. 8 quarts of it a day to be exact. Also known as 2 gallons or 32 glasses. However you do the math it translates roughly to 18 - 20 trips to the loo between waking and sleeping and then another somewhat harried midnight scramble. Not my usual intake, it's a big change for me in fact and comes at the direction of a shiny new naturopath. Because I go to one of those now.

I should probably take a few steps back and introduce myself... and this. I'm Aurora, Hello! 

Ok. Good. Glad we got that out of the way. It has recently been brought to my attention that there's a fair amount of perspective in my brain on the pursuit of well-being, self-care and generally how to take steps that help folks cope with their human bodies, their human brain and their very human hearts. I read a lot about all of it and have had a brief career in behavioral health support, but I'm not a therapist. Or a professional anything as it pertains to health and wellness for that matter. I'm just another human with another perspective.

Which might actually be to the good if you think about it. I don't assume that my opinion is anything more than opinion based on my experience. But it works for me, and for other people. Your opinion & experience are welcome here too.

And here I am, one more human throwing my opinion out into the electronic ethers. If nothing else, I will have all of my habits and interests catalogued and organized for my own reference and enjoyment.

Right, back to water. 

The last 2 years have been a doozy (actually so were the 7 before that but for very different reasons). My current theory is that the stress of the last two specifically finally caught up with me and my immune system took a hit. It's taken several of those over the course of the last decade and is no doubt why and how I've come to some of the opinions I've come to. The most recent hit resulted in walking bacterial pneumonia and nice little virus friend in my lungs after one very rude head cold crashed my body and invited drunken friends.  

After two weeks in bed I decided to gang up on the gang and went to both my MD (whom I LOVE and go almost entirely for the entertainment) and found a fancy new naturopath and resolved to do whatever they both told me to do. At once. So water. 8 quarts of water a day and antibiotics!

I started the water 3 days before the antibiotics and I have to say I'm pretty certain it made an immediate difference. 

Like many people, I take clear, clean, potable water for granted, to the point where I'm actually happily justifying coffee and beer because both are made with water. It's not that I sit around refusing to drink water. I keep a metal water bottle at my desk and everything. I just don't drink it. Well, didn't drink it. It turns out these last weeks when I was beginning to suspect I was struggling with depression as well as illness I was just really flipping dehydrated.   

I don't need my 2 pm black tea anymore and I'm perfectly content with a 2/3 reduction in my coffee in take to a single mug in the morning. Can't say it's reduced my love of beer equally. Plus I'm pretty sure I'm losing weight, but that might be all the running to the bathroom. And my ordinarily fussy complexion is clearing right up.

Water snuck up on me. It's one of those basic physiological needs. Some day I'll do a whole piece on Maslow's Hierarchy of needs and my thoughts there but for now, let me just say, water is foundational. Access to it and intake of it. 

And candidly I'm a little embarrassed that I was trying to get anything done for myself physically, emotionally or mentally while chronically denying myself water for weeks on end if not longer. I was running fevers every week because I was dehydrated. I was struggling with sleep. I was cranky. I had a short fuse and was not entirely rational. My blood pressure was low and blah blah blah. Water. WATER PEOPLE! I'm starting to suspect that most of us walk around mildly dehydrated constantly and the more you adjust to it the more severe it can become. Especially if you're one of those folk who just LOVE to deny their own needs and bodies in favor of making other stuff happen. Like groceries. Or work deadlines.

If you want to learn more about dehydration, I'm a fan of Mayo and Livestrong for accessible information of the medical variety. 

Dr. P. (yup, that's the initial and yes it's funny) says I get to keep this up indefinitely. I'm a week in and not that upset about that prospect.

Ok, that's all for now. Welcome to my brain.