Lately I have had a difficult time falling and then
staying asleep.
A group of researchers found that laughing in the
evening causes the body to produce
more melatonin (the hormone released by the brain at
sleep onset)...read on and you'll see what this has
to do with Chloe...
I’m not sure why. It might be my excitement about
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots winning their
4th Super Bowl. Then again, I love what I do so I
might be so excited every night before bed about
going to work the following morning. Or it might be
I’m anxious for baseball season to start. Whatever
the reason, not sleeping is not much fun.
As we all recall from elementary school health
class, sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle,
and can benefit your heart, weight, mind, and more.
Essentially, a good night sleep effects not only the
next day but also our entire well being. This is why
I recently decided to research how I can make
falling asleep come a little easier. So I started to
work on my, what many health professionals call,
sleep hygiene. To put it simply, sleep hygiene is a
variety of different practices that are necessary to
have normal, quality nighttime sleep and full
daytime alertness.
Some healthy sleep hygiene practices are:
• Don’t nap during the day
• Avoid caffeine after 3 pm [which is when Tea @ 2
on Tuesdays ends ]
• Exercise regularly but well before bedtime
• Some say not to look at a computer screen, iPad,
or your phone at least a ˝ hour before bed
• And do yoga to unwind from the day and prepare
your body for a restful night of sleep
Having done yoga in the past, I decided to give it a
whirl before bed to see if it would help.
The first night went something like this… I rolled
my pink mat out on the bedroom floor. The lights
were dimmed, like you’d find at a nice Italian
restaurant. To set the mood perfect for yoga, I shut
the door, making it nice and quiet. Or so I thought.
As the new age music in the background of the
YouTube video began playing, I found myself slowing
down, really paying attention to my breathing, and
the stress I was carrying around began to slip away.
Peace. Something was happening with this yoga stuff
and I liked it.
But then, something else happened. I should have saw
it coming because, well, I heard it coming.
It was loud, with a low but noticeable rumble, like
a herd of Harley motorcycles driving on Keokuk on a
sunny summer day. The mirror on the wall began to
rattle as the noise got closer and my steady beating
heart soon began to race. That’s when I heard it.
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Ssssssss-uuuuuuuunk.
As I was about to move from my sitting position to
child pose, Pete and re-Pete, my 2 golden goons,
threw open the door with their yellow muzzles and
enthusiastically entered with smiles on their faces
and a curiosity that inspired their wagging tails.
Before I could make the transition, Chloe, my sweet,
sweet Chloe, decided she wanted in on the fun and
sat right down on me. There it went, a room full of
serenity and calm to an unintentional bout between a
yogi and a golden, which ended in a scene you’d
likely see at a circus.
Eventually I made it into child’s pose. But as soon
as I went into corpse pose, my yoga time was over.
On my chest, sat a 60 pound Golden dog who wanted to
do a little stretching herself.
Sometimes our plans don’t go as we want. We try our
best to follow the steps but occasionally, we
misstep. I find comfort knowing that in the story of
God, humanity on more than one occasion set out to
accomplish something God called them to, only to
mess up. But rather than giving up, God continued to
pursue humanity, entrusting humanity with the task
of bringing heaven to earth.
Some days we follow our routines to a ‘T’. Other
days it is a struggle. What matters is not to give
up. After all, if we give up, we might miss what we
need. And what we need might not be what we
expected.
Like a Golden dog interrupting yoga to sit a spell
on your lap, causing you to laugh...
[Adam Quinn, pastor at First Presbyterian Church
of Lincoln]
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