The 3 Minute
Energizing
Technique…
to feel good after
a bad sleep:
So it’s 3 am and you’re awake. Nothing has worked.
You’ve tossed and turned. A million thoughts that don’t seem helpful are running through your
mind: …I’m going to be exhausted at work tomorrow… it’ll be terrible… why can’t I sleep?… is there
something wrong with my body?… Normal people can sleep just fine, I lie here forever… maybe
I should get up and try one of those techniques… yeah, but if I stay here just a bit longer maybe
I’ll sleep… ah, 3:10, it’s only been 10 minutes… this is torture… is this making me sick?… they
say people can die from lack of sleep… I don’t want to take a pill but maybe I have no choice…
this has to stop…
…and on and on it goes…
Your body feels worked up and just can’t relax into sleep.
Finally somewhere you find rest… and then the alarm goes off.
Snooze. Snooze. Snooze. PANIC!
…And so the day starts, tired and rushed…
Sound familiar? Nearly 90% of people have experienced insomnia at some time
in their lives and 4 out of every 10 North Americans experience
sleeplessness weekly.
You’re not alone.
And there is help.
I’m a sleep coach and a yoga teacher, I also had insomnia for 11
years before learning to heal the root cause of my
sleeplessness.
Want to know the root cause that once healed allowed myself and hundreds of people I’ve
worked with to sleep deeply again? We don’t sleep because we’ve trained our bodies to be in stress far more than is natural.
This leads to an over-active stress response & a weakened relaxation response. This leads to insomnia and never feeling rested.
Our nervous system is like a teeter-totter… on
one end is relaxation, the other is action. They
call these the parasympathetic and
sympathetic nervous systems also known as
Rest & Digest and Fight or Flight.
These two systems are both needed for a
healthy body. The action (stress) response
arises to wake us up in the morning, and to
respond to short-term stimulus in our
environments. It makes us vigilant when
possible danger is around… like a tiger in the
jungle. But once that danger passes our nature
is to return to the relaxation response allowing
us to feel at ease during the day, and sleep
soundly at night.
Like a teeter totter, a healthy nervous system will naturally transition between these two states
as required. No problem. We wake with energy, and we rest deeply. Easy and natural!
However, in our modern lives there are generally no tigers, instead we have ever-present low
grade stress… jobs, kids, bills, mortgages, taxes, parents, relationships, busy minds… this kind
of stress can keep our nervous systems “stuck” in the stress response. Over time, like a muscle
that isn’t used, the relaxation response weakens. When this happens even when we try to relax
our relaxation muscle is weak and it’s very difficult for to lift ourselves out of stress and back into
relaxation.
A weak relaxation response means our bodies can’t transition from stress back into its natural
state of ease… it means at night we can’t “shut off”…
Luckily the relaxation response is like a muscle, and
like a muscle we can strengthen it, we can retrain our
relaxation response to be able to transition easily
from stress to relaxation, and from waking to sleep. This is natural, and isn’t hard when you know how…
The combination of sleep science and ancient yoga
relaxation is the key.
Ancient yoga relaxation shows us how to strengthen the relaxation muscle. When we stop doing
what’s keeping us stuck in stress and restless sleep, and start doing the simple things that
strengthen our ability to relax our sleep naturally rebalances. We become like ‘normal’ people
who lie down and fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling deeply rested. With a strong relaxation response we get our sleep back, we get our lives back. It’s not enough to just know we should relax, we need to know how…
Here’s a 3 minute exercise that will
stimulate the relaxation response and help
you to have more energy after a poor
night’s sleep:
1. Pause, right now, close your eyes and feel
your body take three deep breaths deep down
into your belly… feel your belly expand as you
inhale, and come in as you exhale…
2. Now smile and feel three more…
3. Now relax your shoulders and feel three
more…
4. Now bring got mind someone you love and
feel three more belly breaths…
5. Now think of something you’re grateful for
and feel three more…
6. Now feel your body just as it is and take
three more… Better, yes? More relaxed and open than you felt just 3minutes ago? Great!
Now this technique will definitely go a long way toward strengthening the relaxation response
and helping your body to let go of stress so you can sleep at night… but like going to the gym
the results are much faster when you have a trainer who can show you the best techniques for
the fastest results. That’s what I do, I’m a sleep coach and a yoga teacher, and I hep retrain people’s relaxation
responses using sleep science & ancient yoga wisdom. Ever been to the gym, looked around at all the machines and not known where to start? Ever looked online or read books on sleep and seen all the techniques and not known which will
really help? Yup, me too. But I did years of research for myself and have worked with hundreds of people like you over
the last 10 years to find out what really works. I’ve combined the knowledge of sleep science
from schools like Harvard and Stanford’s sleep research centres with the deep relaxation
techniques from ancient yoga wisdom to create a program that will help you to strengthen your
relaxation response and re-set your sleep response quickly and effectively.
There are lots of sleep tips, and lots of relaxation techniques out there, but knowing how to put
them together in a simple yet comprehensive plan is the key to healing the root causes of
sleeplessness quickly and easily. I can’t show you these techniques in a paragraph, but I can show you in person in just a few
hours.
If you’re interested in learning the simple but rarely taught Do’s and Don’ts to retrain your body
for deep sleep and leave sleep worries behind consider coming to the “Yoga for Sleep”
workshop coming up right here at home…
Yoga for Sleep Workshop
Suffering over sleep?
Having a hard time falling asleep? Waking in the middle of the night? Not waking rested?
You were born knowing how to sleep deeply. Over time stress and life pulls us off balance...
and if you’re like over 20million North Americans, negatively impacts our sleep at night
and our joy during the day. Luckily there’s hope: sleep-science + yoga-wisdom.
The steps are easy:
1. RE-TRAIN your body to sleep easily every night with a sleep trigger!
(A conditioned response that tells your body it's time to sleep now)
OmTown Yoga Studio
Sunday, March 13th
9am - 3pm
2. RE-PROGRAM your body’s sleep-waking rhythm so you wake up energized.
3. RELEASE anxiety about sleep (& know what to do if you don’t sleep).
4. REMEMBER the sleep do’s & don’ts so you keep your sleep response strong,
no matter what’s happening in life.
43 Commercial St, Nanaimo
Reprogram your Sleep: $97+tax
Using sleep science, this workshop includes a personal sleep-assessment so you know
what’s helping and what’s harming your sleep, plus learn the full deep relaxation practice that
is essential to re-programming your body for deep sleep.
No prior yoga experience required.
This workshop will teach you to reprogram your sleep with yoga
& sleep-science so you can return to joyful mornings & sweet restful nights.
Please register 1 week+ prior to have time for
your sleep self-assessment.
With Sleep Coach & 500E-RYT
Sarah Harrison
As featured on My Yoga Online
& InnerTruthYoga.com
Register in Studio
Or Online at: www.OmTown.ca
Or Call: (250) 591-0101
I hope to see you soon and look forward to helping you regain your health and enjoy easy deep
sleep each night. From my heart to yours,
To register email:
[email protected]