Are You Sleeping?

I adore my kids - they are my everything but…they have seriously ruined my good night’s sleep. Between the early years of nursing during the evening, their early rising & frequent night-time visits to my room - my days of 8 (or even 7 :) hours of uninterrupted sleep are long gone. It’s honestly a real struggle for me. And, when I don’t get good sleep - I am tired, cranky, impatient and definitely not able to show up in my best ways. And I know that am not alone with my sleep issues. Kids or no kids, more than 25% of us are having trouble getting good rest for a huge range of reasons from stress, anxiety, depression to technology affecting our circadian rhythms with all the extra doses of blue light, changing hormones, special conditions and even the blurry lines between work/home life balance.

The number of us getting poor sleep has increased over the past years. The National Institutes of Health predicts that America’s sleep debt is on the rise and that by the middle of the 21st century more than 100 million Americans will have difficulty falling asleep.

Sleep deprivation can noticeably affect people's performance, including their ability to think clearly, react quickly, and form memories. Sleep deprivation also affects mood, leading to irritability; problems with relationships, especially for children and teenagers; and depression.2 Sleep deprivation can also increase anxiety.3

Sleep is important for overall health, and inadequate sleep is associated with numerous health problems. Research shows that not getting enough sleep, or getting poor-quality sleep, increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.2,4,5,6

The good news is that there’s a lot of promising support if you need help getting a more restful nights sleep — including yoga. I’ve tried many of them on myself and my kids and have had great some great outcomes and I’m here to share my favorites.

My absolute best sleep tip is to practice Yoga Nidra. I’ll typically practice for 20 minutes in bed at night to help me get to sleep but have also found that doing it anytime in the day (including when I wake!!) will contribute to a sounder sleep. I love Rod Stryker’s guided meditations and there are also tons of practices you can find on youtube - including ones for kids.

Other things I swear by…..

1. I adjust my screens to a pm setting at sunset and use flux to help me cut down on blue light.

2. I try (try!!) to stop using any screen an hour before bed -even though I love watching Don Lemon ;).

3. I always use a weighted eye pillow - I have perfected keeping the lavender infused pressure on my eyes, even when I sleep on my side. I hear folks love using weighted blankets too!

4. Right now in the colder season, I keep my covers super warm but always leave the window open a bit - including when it’s really chilly outside.

5. You’ll always find me diffusing essential oils - I have a favorite blend I call “liquid sleep” near my bedside. I massage it on my feet too! I can make you a sample if you’d like!

6. I don’t pull the shades…I like waking up with the sun and read somewhere it is good for balance in your circadian rhythm. So is going to bed at sunset, but I haven’t gotten there yet ;).

7. My husband loves using a white noise app…the soft sounds of water or crickets are his faves. I really dislike the crickets….so he has to make it super low when it’s cricket night ;). My son loves listening to crystal bowls and a crackling fire - some white noise apps let you choose 2 at once!!

8. There are so many great yoga sequences out there help you relax before sleep. Many of our evening classes are designed to encourage a good night’s rest- including yoga nidra, lunar flow, deep stretch and yin! I’ll often do a short practice before bed to unwind, usually with the lights out or the soft glow of a candle to add to the chill factor mood.

9. My son loves doing an A-Z gratitude practice before bed. It’s super simple and let’s the mind release some anxiety and stress. You start with A…and think of an A word that you are grateful for, like sweet honeycrisp apples. Then B (usually this one goes to his friend Bodhi) and so on. X can be a challenge but he usually doses off before we get there and lately he has been doing it on his own!

10. Finally I try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time…this is aspirational for the bedtime but I get up at 6am no matter what!

I hope some of these are helpful to you! Let me know if you have any favorites - like warm drink concoctions, journaling prompts, a warm shower….. I’d love to hear from you!

warm regards,

Debra

ps. drop me a line - you can always reach me at debra@flowyogacenter.com or follow me on instagram!

Savasana– Take Rest!

Relax deeply in savasana at Flow.

 

Shava (शव, Śava) = corpse
Asana (आसन, Āsana) = posture, seat
Shavasana (शवासन, Śavāsana) = corpse posture

You enter the room, roll out your mat, move and breathe for an hour or more and then, bam, lay down and stop moving. For some it’s a welcome relief, for others a dreaded waste of time and for many it can be quite challenging. I see these reactions — and varying states in between — every day. So, wherever you fall on this spectrum, you’re not alone. Regardless your reaction, it happens, and so I’m hoping it will prove meaningful to explore….

Why do we do it?

Śavāsana is a time to balance out the energy and benefits from all the effort you’ve expended on the mat. When the asana practice that precedes it is done with thoughtful, purposeful movement and alignment we are giving ourselves the opportunity to undo patterns of thought and being that are not beneficial and replace them with ones that are. At the end of this time of right effort, our body and mind need and thrive from the opportunity to assimilate the healthy aspects and let go of the unnecessary parts.

This takes on greater meaning when we consider that we are working with five bodies (koshas), not just one. Typically we may just be thinking that we have one body — the physical body, which in yoga speak is called annamaya kosha meaning “food body”. In addition to that we have an energetic body (pranamaya kosha), emotional body (manamaya kosha), intellectual body (ajñamaya kosha) and a spiritual body (anandamaya kosha). Each of these is effected by every experience we have. The asana practice is a time wherein we are given the opportunity to set-up the conditions to take only those actions that support the health and wellbeing of all five bodies. This is part of the reason why it is so important to thoughtfully select the environment in which you practice to eliminate distractions and preoccupations of the body and mind and facilitate focus.

By turning our awareness inward we can increase our ability to perceive what’s going on within us and develop something called interoception. Interoception is insight on the physiological condition of the body and is associated with the autonomic nervous system and autonomic motor control. The autonomic nervous system is in control of the normally unconscious and automatic bodily functions like breathing, the heartbeat, and the digestive processes. With repetition, a cornerstone of yoga practice, we can then become better at tapping into what is going on within us and better deal with the stresses of life. It’s a rewiring of the nervous system that supports steady engagement in the world.

How do we do it?

We get into the posture by lying flat on our back, taking the legs apart about the width of the mat (wider of shorter depending on your body size), allowing the legs to relax, externally rotate and the feet roll out, laying the arms out to the side about eight to ten inches from the body with the palms facing up and the hands open. (Side note, a way to maintain alertness is to actively outstretch the fingers since we tend to keep our hands somewhat closed in a protective way similar to the way we tend to close in around our hearts). The shoulders should be dropped down and away from the ears and the head resting flat with a slight tilt toward the chest. Lie face up with eyes closed and breath on automatic.

You may find it beneficial to purposefully bring tension to the muscles and then release into the resting state. Those of you familiar with Ashtanga know that at the end of the practice we take three seated postures, the first two of which are in a fairly relaxed state and then the very last one we lift up (utplithi) and contract most all the muscles of the body as a means of drawing our energy inward and upward in a focused, conscious manner. We do this in preparation to then let go and relax into a resting state.

Remain in this still state until your breath and heart rate become relaxed, ideally for ten minutes or more (some say five minutes for every 30 minutes of practice). Now, due to the impatience of Westerners and the accelerated pace at which we’re living our lives, classes keep getting shorter leaving limited time for this resting element of the practice. So, we try and get at least five minutes, more when possible.

While in śavāsana we remain relaxed but awake maintaining a level of mindful awareness and detachment — observing the thoughts, feelings and sensations of the mind and body without attaching to them and turning them into something more. It is a conscious asana where you are fully awake and deeply relaxed at the same time, which is not always an easy balance to attain.

Upon conclusion of śavāsana it’s important not to just jump up and go, but rather take a few breaths to begin moving the body and making one’s way off the mat.

Do you want to learn about what happens on a spiritual and energetic level when you take savasana rest? Head on over to Cory's blog for more!  

And of course....below check out his latest workshops & special learning opportunities:

• Yoga Studies Program:  Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Round 2 - Breath and Bandhas August 25, 12:45-2:45pm  
• Yoga Fundamentals - Four Week Series on Wednesday nights Starts Sept 12, 7:45-9:00pm
• Intro to Mysore - Stepping into the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Primary SeriesSept 29 & 30, 8:30-10:00am and Oct 1, 6:30-8:30am