Natural Health and Alternative Medicine Newsletter
Issue #666, March 22-23, 2012
Publisher: David Riklan - http://www.naturalhealthweb.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
*** Natural Health Tip of the Week ***
-------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a great stretch that can be done right at your office desk!
Step 1: Push your chair back from your desk for the time of stretching.
Step 2: Uncross your legs and sit with your legs slightly open, which is chair or hip width. Put your feet solidly on the ground. Your hands can rest on the tops of your thighs for now. During the stretching please breathe in and out through your nose only.
Step 3: Take your LEFT hand and cross it to your right knee. Now take your right hand and hold firmly to the back of the chair. Push your left hand against your right knee, and twist your body. You will look over your right shoulder. Hold for approximately 5-15 seconds. Breathe in and out only through your nose. Release and put your hands back on your legs.
Step 4: Switch Sides
You can repeat for as long as you need to.
-------------------------------------------------------------
*** Article of the Week: Sleep is the New Black: 3 Steps to Get What You Need and Want - By Dr. Steven Y. Park ***
-------------------------------------------------------------
For most of us, getting a good night's sleep is the holy grail of modern society. We all want it, but it remains as elusive as ever. So the question is: how can we get more of what we all want and need? The answer is simple: Change your mindset.
Can You Get Instant Sleep?
Although it would be easier to pop a pill to get some sleep, the results wouldn't last too long. In fact, many of the short term solutions out there that promise better sleep fast only deliver just that: speed without substance. Also, if clinical studies are any indication, taking a sleeping pill isn't proven to help you get to sleep faster than a sugar pill will.
If you're willing to shift your mindset for the benefit of getting more sleep, here are some steps you can take to help you on your quest.
Step 1: Learn From Sleep
It's good practice to observe your sleep quality and habits, being mindful of which activities, foods, or habits give you a good night's sleep versus a bad night's sleep. Write down these observations in a daily sleep log, including times you went to bed and woke up, and how you felt in the morning. Once you're able to observe, reflect on and document your sleep qualities and characteristics, it's time to either fine-tune your sleep or even undergo a complete sleep makeover.
Before you begin to make any changes to your sleep patterns, it's important to get yourself in the right frame of mind. Rather than say to yourself, "I just want to sleep better," write down why good sleep is important to you. Clarifying the end result in this way, rather than setting sleep up as the ultimate desired goal, can help you leverage more of what you want in the long run. After all, it's not the sleep itself that you probably want, but the results that good, quality rest can yield, like your health and vitality.
So ask yourself the following clarification questions:
• If you are able to achieve better quality sleep, what will it enable you to do, feel, or accomplish?
• Will it allow you to enjoy more of what life has to offer? Like more time to enjoy spending with friends and family without having to struggle with fatigue and exhaustion
• Will you look forward to getting up in the mornings and not dreading it like you do now?
• Would losing weight and feeling healthy be important for you?
Next, write down your answers to these questions and rank them as goals in order of importance. Then picture in your mind what you ranked as being the most important aspect of getting better sleep. It may be that you could play with your children without feeling a sense of overwhelming fatigue or being able to look and feel well rested and refreshed at work and throughout the day. Picture them until these visual images evoke the emotions you desire. Anchor these feelings to the specific goals you want to achieve.
Finally, think about the consequences of not doing anything at all. Will you continue to feel too exhausted to do anything? Without changing the way you think about sleep, as a means and not an end itself, nothing will change even after you get the sleep.
Step #2: Change The Way You Think About Sleep
Earl Nightingale, a self-improvement guru from the 50's in his classic recording, The Strangest Secret, states, "We become what we think about." If you are constantly thinking about your ultimate goal, then your actions will reflect your ultimate goal. Just like every important habit in life, you have to take small consistent steps. Always keep in mind your ultimate goal. Then give yourself a reasonable timeframe in which to accomplish your goal and to set small manageable initial tasks for yourself.
How will you know when you've succeeded? Again, Nightingale states, "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal." Stated another way, making gradual progress toward your goal is considered success. But this takes effort that you must ingrain into a daily habit.
What I want to focus on here is the mindset that's necessary to progress towards your worthy ideal, rather than specific steps.
Eating late close to bedtime prevents quality sleep because juices from your stomach can be actively suctioned up into your throat, especially if you stop breathing once in a while (for most modern humans). This not only wakes you up (before you turn over), but also inflames your throat with stomach juices, causing post-nasal drip, throat clearing, chronic cough, and a lump sensation in your throat. (I explain in much more detail why this happens in my book, Sleep, Interrupted.) Drinking alcohol before bedtime is even worse--by relaxing your muscles, it aggravates the obstructed breathing episodes.
There are some of you who absolutely can't or even refuse to change, for various reasons. Excuses include: I get home too late from work, I have to exercise, or I'm not going to stop going out with my friends. Some insist on a pill for the throat pain, hoarseness, lump or cough, despite the fact that changing your eating and alcohol habits alone may be enough to help. Even if a medication is given, there's a very low chance that you'll feel any better in the long run. It's like giving a cough medication when you continue to smoke 2 packs per day.
Step #3: Don't Fixate on Sleep
Another mindset change that's necessary to achieve the goals you desire is to simply become more flexible. The demands of modern society pose many challenges for sleep and rest. Although it may be true working late is an inevitable part of your job, you'd be amazed how well you can work around these challenges once you make sleep a priority.
Yes, we all have certain limitations with our schedules, our jobs and other commitments, but what I'm describing is the limitation of your mind. If your main priority is to sleep better, and you have obvious nighttime habits that are clearly detrimental to your sleep quality, you'll have to first change your mindset. Only by changing your values and priorities can any real change begin to happen.
If you can't change your work schedule, you can order out and eat while at work. You can exercise in the morning rather than in the evenings. You can have a large lunch and eat a small snack early after coming home from work. You also have a choice in whether or not to go out late drinking with your friends 2 times per week. Once you decide to make changes you'll see that there are always options available.
Simply by being consistent with and not resisting the natural biorhythms of our nature, many people have found that not only can they work better, they can enjoy the fruits of their labor that much more. Isn't that, after all, the ultimate benefits of sleep and work?
** To comment on this article or read comments about this article, go here.
About the Author:
Steven Y. Park, MD is a surgeon and author of the book, Sleep, Interrupted: A physician reveals the #1 reason why so many of us are sick and tired. Endorsed by New York Times best-selling authors Christiane Northrup, M.D., Dean Ornish, M.D., Mark Liponis, M.D., Mary Shomon, and many others. http://doctorstevenpark.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
*** Healthy Recipe: High Energy Breakfast Shake ***
-------------------------------------------------------------
This delicious and nutrient-packed shake is a great way to start the day!
To read the full recipe, go here. |
0 comments:
Post a Comment