Sleep
Lately I have
had a difficult time falling and then staying asleep.
 |
|
A group of researchers
found that laughing
in the evening
causes the body to produce
more melatonin
(the hormone released by
the brain at
sleep onset)...read on and
you'll see what this has to do with Chloe...
|
I’m not sure
why. It might be my excitement about Tom Brady and the New England Patriots winning their 4th Super Bowl. Then again, I love what
I do so I might be so excited every night before bed about going to work the
following morning. Or it might be I’m anxious for baseball season to start.
Whatever the
reason, not sleeping is not much fun.
As we all
recall from elementary school health class, sleep is a key part of a
healthy lifestyle, and can benefit your heart, weight, mind, and more.
Essentially, a good night sleep effects not only the next day but also our
entire well being.
This is why I
recently decided to research how I can make falling asleep come a little
easier. So I started to work on my, what many health professionals call, sleep
hygiene. To put it simply, sleep hygiene is a variety of different practices
that are necessary to have normal, quality nighttime sleep and full daytime
alertness.
Some healthy
sleep hygiene practices are:
·
Don’t
nap during the day
·
Avoid
caffeine after 3 pm [which is when Tea @ 2 on Tuesdays ends J ]
·
Exercise
regularly but well before bedtime
·
Some
say not to look at a computer screen, iPad, or your phone at least a ½ hour
before bed
·
And
do yoga to unwind from the day and prepare your body for a restful night of
sleep
Having done
yoga in the past, I decided to give it a whirl before bed to see if it would
help.
The first night
went something like this…
I rolled my
pink mat out on the bedroom floor. The lights were dimmed, like you’d find at a
nice Italian restaurant. To set the mood perfect for yoga, I shut the door,
making it nice and quiet. Or so I thought.
As the new age
music in the background of the YouTube video began playing, I found myself
slowing down, really paying attention to my breathing, and the stress I was
carrying around began to slip away.
Peace.
Something was
happening with this yoga stuff and I liked it.
But then,
something else happened.
I should have
saw it coming because, well, I heard it coming.
It was loud,
with a low but noticeable rumble, like a herd of Harley motorcycles driving on
Keokuk on a sunny summer day. The mirror on the wall began to rattle as the
noise got closer and my steady beating heart soon began to race.
That’s when I
heard it.
Ssssssss-uuuuuuuunk.
As I was about
to move from my sitting position to child pose, Pete and re-Pete, my 2 golden
goons, threw open the door with their yellow muzzles and enthusiastically
entered with smiles on their faces and a curiosity that inspired their wagging
tails.
Before I could
make the transition, Chloe, my sweet, sweet Chloe, decided she wanted in on the
fun and sat right down on me. There it went, a room full of serenity and calm
to an unintentional bout between a yogi and a golden, which ended in a scene
you’d likely see at a circus.
Eventually I
made it into child’s pose. But as soon as I went into corpse pose, my yoga time
was over. On my chest, sat a 60 pound Golden dog who wanted to do a little
stretching herself.
Sometimes our
plans don’t go as we want. We try our best to follow the steps but
occasionally, we misstep. I find comfort knowing that in the story of God,
humanity on more than one occasion set out to accomplish something God called
them to, only to mess up.
But rather than
giving up, God continued to pursue humanity, entrusting humanity with the task
of bringing heaven to earth.
Some days we
follow our routines to a ‘T’. Other days it is a struggle.
What matters is
not to give up.
After all, if
we give up, we might miss what we need.
And what we
need might not be what we expected.
Like a Golden
dog interrupting yoga to sit a spell on your lap, causing you to laugh...
Here is a video I hope makes you laugh.
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