Sleep, what is sleep? Why do we sleep? How can we sleep better? The yogis view sleep as something that is almost unnecessary if we are giving the mind and body proper rest throughout the day. Sleep is a mechanism put in place when the body is reaching its limits. We should all try and work up to being able to sleep 4 hours a day maximum. Now don’t cuss me out and slam the computer shut. We know this sounds crazy but it's true. When we are giving the body proper self care it will naturally want to sleep less. For now let's focus on just getting better sleep and the rest will start to come naturally. Here are 3 simple ways to improve your sleep and overall quality of life. This is a fun one to talk about because it's seriously part of our nightly routine & hopefully it will help you develop yours.
1 .Turn off the devices. All of them. The phone, tv, ipad, just start to minimize anything that is stimulating the nervous system. Even reading can be considered too stimulating but we will let that one pass for now. It's definitely an upgrade from your phone. Do this an hour before bed. Don’t worry about what's going on anywhere else in the world. Just bring your awareness to your own inner world and let's focus on that. Don’t worry about work and the drama of the world, it will be there in the morning. You deserve some peace and tranquility. It will do wonders for you!
2. Put on some sleepy time tea, Chamomile, lemon balm, & lavender are all great calming teas. Just the process of making the tea will start to let the body know its time to calm down. We love to pick out our teas from our local tea garden. You can check them out here. They grow and blend most of their teas and are totally amazing people.
3. Now that we have set the mood- devices off, tea is made, time to tune the body for a restful night of sleep. We love dimming the lights and doing a nice mellow yin flow. If you don’t have your own practice yet feel free to try one of our videos. Opening up the hips, and releasing tension from the day sets the mood for the perfect night of sleep. After your flow is done and the tea is drank, crawl into bed and grab what should always be next to your bed on the nightstand, the C & G tuning forks from Biosonics. We love chiming these for several minutes as we lie in bed thinking lovely thoughts about ourselves, each other and the world. The two notes together create a harmonic frequency that almost instantly calms the nervous system and helps you drift away into a peaceful dream land of love and happiness.
We hope you find this helpful and then make it your own. This is a nightly routine for us and we love it. Self care is so important, and we all know how challenging the day can be when we don’t get a good night's sleep. Try it and let us know how it all worked out for you!