Goodnight Moon

Yoga is both the movement toward and the arrival at a point. There are three main components of your yoga practice that you may or may not be aware of, they are: tapas, svadhyaya and isvarapranidhana. Don't even worry about pronouncing those what is important is what they mean and how they incorporate our practice to our daily lives. Tapas is what we do in order to keep up our physical and mental health, a process of inner cleansing that will always show forth in our outer body as well. Svadhyaya is the process of finding out where we are, who we are and what we are. It is in this step that we slowly start to learn that we are constantly changing and so is the world around us. The last component of our practice is isvarapranidhana literally translates "to yield humbly to God," you all have the freewill to decide what you believe in, in yoga this translates more on placing value on the quality of your actions rather than on the fruits that can develop out of it.

From all that, I want to take you to something that is a little more simple yet for some of you so hard to do, and that is sleep. As the winter rolls our way it is so easy to stay in bed just 10 more minutes. I want to focus on the isvarapranidhana of our sleep. Making the quality of our sleep better not so much the quantity. Do you really need 8 hours? NOPE! What you need is the deep, deep rest that can only come when you literally turn everything OFF. I know you have all read studies and books on how to improve your sleep such as stop eating before 8 pm and yes that all helps but here are two things that many of you have never heard.

The key is to keep all electronics OFF and AWAY from you. Here is why--your body is a source of energy, that energy depletes during the day. It will take about a week of no sleep before the body starts to shut down. However, many of us suffer from lack of sleep causing our work to suffer, attention spans to shorten and craving caffeine all the more. When you are not getting enough sleep or not entering REM that healing process is not occurring, thus making you more susceptible to disease and sickness. When you get sick it is because your body is sending you a signal, you need to rest, you need more sleep because the it is not just about laying your head down for 8 hours it is about getting to that place where you can shut everything off.

"Sickness is the vengence of nature for the violation of her laws." --Charles Simmons    

I have learned that phones should not be allowed at dinner or in bed- EVER! I hate when you have your phone out at dinner but for the first time, in a long time, I started leaving my cell phone in the other room at night. It reduced my stress probably 50% because I would not be focused on work--rule of thumb, put your phone out of sight after 8 pm! Electronics (cell phone, computer, alarm clocks and televisions) should be turned off when you are sleeping or at least out of your bedroom. Electronics are not natural, they are not supposed to be near us while we sleep. They, like us, have an energy source, when we are around them our bodies are not allowed to heal, just like a radio interference when your body is near your phone, computer or television it is not getting the best quality that it can. Think of it like you want to enjoy that 4G speed but until those electronics are off you are a CAR PHONE (with the bag and all!) Enjoy the detachment from them, turn them off and put them in the other room!

Lastly, sleep NAKED!! Clothing produces static electricity-think pulling clothes out of the dryer. That static electricity is just like having your phone in bed with you---not good. So turn your phone off, take your clothes off and be HAPPY!