Ahhh… shavasana – the corpse pose. Who doesn’t love a good Shavasana after a powerful workout? How about a nice meditative Shavasana after a good energy class? I’ve even seen people take Shavasana on the couch in the middle of the day. 😀 That’s for us advanced yogis, right?
Shavasana, in practice, gives your body a chance to cool down from a hard practice. It gives the mind the opportunity to rest. It gives the soul peace. All in all, Shavasana is practiced at the end of class to incorporate the practice into the body, mind, and soul. It allows our entire being a chance to digest, absorb, and assimilate with the teachings.
If only there was a way to do that for your whole life. Oh yeah…
Sleep
Sleep is the Shavasana of life. In the Yin/Yang balance of the universe, sleep is the Yin to our daily Yang. The benefits are long and varied, yes, but the importance in our journey is seldom discussed.
Sleep is the way our body, mind, and soul digest, absorb, and assimilate with what the day taught us. Letting go of our body and shutting off our conscious thoughts opens a direct road to the Universe’s wisdom.
The road runs two ways.
We connect in sleep and allow the wisdom of the universe to fall into us. Our dreams plug in to a place where time is not linear, exposing the virtually limitless possibilities of ourselves.
We also report back all of the days events to be logged into the universe’s database, allowing our experience to be part of the universal experience.
These are big deals! We could allow ourselves a bit more time to do it, yeah?
Enough Already
What is enough sleep? They say eight hours, but often in our busy, busy world, there’s only time for six. That’s enough, right? Or maybe four. Is that enough?
Enough sleep is when the body wakes itself up on it’s own accord.
We always hear how important sleep is. We’ve been ingrained to think eight hours is perfect and yet we don’t get it. Many of us don’t even try.
I did. I tried it.
For an entire month, I scheduled out eight hours of sleep. Sometimes, this meant going to bed ridiculously early. Sometimes is meant starting work a little late. But, for thirty days, I consistently got eight hours. It wasn’t always good sleep. It wasn’t always straight through. But, it was a consistent eight hours of laying in bed.
…and it was AWESOME!
The biggest takeaways:
- After week two, I began waking up feeling refreshed after seven and sometimes six hours. That continued.
- I did feel more motivated to get things started. This is a big one for me. I’m good at finishing things, but the getting started is so tough! Much easier with a full night’s sleep.
- I didn’t feel like I needed coffee. I still drank it because I like the taste, but for a time, I was actually put off by the thought of a cup. Coffee gives us an up-and-down feeling. Sleep gives us a constantly “up” feeling.
- By the time bed-time came, I didn’t feel exhausted. I went to bed without pushing more into my day and fell asleep easier (by the end) – waking up before the eight hours for another day.
I’m sold on getting enough sleep, now. More energy. More productivity. Less $$$ on coffee. Less needed sleep after I caught up = more valuable time.
I know this is scarcely possible in the lives we lead. But, you can come close – and close is way better than “not enough.”
Challenge
Find out how much you need:
Option 1: Pick a weekend – a three-day if you can – and don’t schedule anything in the morning. Go to bed by eight or nine at night. Just allow yourself the time to lay in bed and wake up when you’re naturally inclined to. By night number three, see how long you actually sleep before you naturally wake up.
Option 2: Take a week off of work. Ha ha ha! I know. I know. However, you could plan getting sleep into your next vacation. Rather than cramming everything you can into every day, commit to resetting your sleep cycle. Take all seven or eight days and to sleep until you wake up.
Option 3: Minimize your evening schedule. It’s tough to begin trimming your current schedule, but pick a month a couple months from now and make an appointment to be in bed by 10p every night. Now, as you begin scheduling things, you can decline anything that interferes. In by 10p and up by 6a is eight hours. Sound crazy? Imagine a couple weeks in when you’re waking up early with enough time to enjoy that coffee and sunrise, or start that book, or finish that project.
Lack of sleep is a downward spiral that can intensify depression, stunt performance growth, and naturally reduce productivity. Of all the “experiments” I’ve done with life, the most rewarding was making sure I was getting “enough” rest.
You’re getting sleepy,
Lucky for me I’m gong on vacation this week! And with no kiddo 🙂 I am so in need of sleep too. Enough sleep also helps with your focus and memory.