Sleep, rest, recover, play!

Hi everyone! I have had a lot of clients over the years come to me with sleep issues including parents, babies and children. When we don’t get adequate rest our bodies don’t get an opportunity to reboot. It is almost like leaving our computer running for days, weeks or months without updating the programs, after a while the computer says no, I am not going to work for you until you give me what I need.

The body needs adequate and appropriate rest as well as adequate movement. If we don’t move our body the muscles get lazy. I hear people say, ‘I didn’t exercise today, I am just lazy’. This may or may not be true. Think about your life and the time you devote to what you do in the world. Are you lazy???

When you are busy and do not allocate enough time for movement and appropriate rest and then your self talk is ‘I am lazy’ you are actually being critical and cruel towards yourself. I have certainly been guilty of critical self-talk and I continue to be a work in progress, as are we all.

Being compassionate towards ourselves looks different for all of us. Being compassionate towards ourselves needs to bring balance and harmony to our health and our life. In my experience looking at the 5 dimensions of health is a good place to start. This includes physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social health. An imbalance in any one of these can disrupt our overall health and wellbeing.

When we use screen time to rest we disassociate from the body and although this may sometimes assist us, and can also be used as entertainment, if we use it too much it can and does cause imbalance.

The health industry will attempt to tell us what is good and bad for us but at the end of the day only you truly know if this is true for you. Our needs and how things affect us can also vary from day to day. Something can be ok for us to eat, drink or do one day and the next it is too much. Spend some time this week contemplating how you are managing your life, the choices you are making and if this is working for you to feel healthy, happy & contributing towards enjoying life. If not what do I need to do to create balance?

Take gentle care of yourself!