Calm your mind

Manasanthi is peace of mind. Manas means mind and santhi means peace or tranquility. Just as the name suggest this form of Ayurvedic therapy is aimed at pacifying mind.

Mind, body and soul are equally important to Ayurveda. Manasanthi (also can be spelt manassanthi, manasanti, manashanti or 50 other variations) is a comprehensive mind-body-soul treatment.

Manasathy is a combination of Ayurveda, yoga, meditation, aromatherapy. The stress is on holistic approach towards better health for body as well as mind. There will be oil massage, sirovasti, dhara etc in the therapy. Rejuvenation massage, steam bath etc are other facets of this therapy.

Fully body massage on a daily basis, with sesame oil (or coconut oil) 30 minutes before bathing has several physical advantages as well as psychological advantages.

This is effective stress management therapy. A person practicing this regularly will have the benefits of better emotional control and relaxed mind.

People with excessive mental turbulences are also given vegetarian, calming food. Spicy, hot tasting and salty food items are not helpful in relaxation, while sweet tasting food items are helpful. Easy to digest food items, mostly in liquid or semi solid form ensures faster digestion, which is helpful in managing mental worries too.

Prompting the persons to read religious texts is also an effective way of pacifying human minds. Listening to soothing music with slow beats also pacifies mind.

Another important thing is to keep company of pleasant people, visit religious places and locations with a little sunshine, clean water and greenery.

Mind is the sum total of the personal life, personality and everything a person experiences in his or her life. To care for the mind, you need special attention.

Holiday Stress 2

Hi guys,

More about how I deal with Holiday stress.

The most important tool for a calm, relaxed Christmas Season is retaining my routine. Each morning I get up at a set time, put on the coffee, turn on my computer and play nature sounds I discovered through Sound Sleeping. I do some easy body stretching, locate where tension might have built up over night, address these areas of tension through a series of contraction / relaxation. To most effectively relax tension in a muscle or muscle group one should breath in slowly while contracting said muscle, hold in contraction for a slow count to ten still inhaling, and then let the muscle suddenly relax with a nice energetic exhalation of breath. I eat breakfast, have a cup of coffee, write about three lighthearted pages in my journal, go for a 20 min. to 1 hr. walk through my local park or river bank trail, put on some relaxing music, shower, “prettify”, and leave for work. By the way, I’m an early riser.

Mornings are of major importance to me. If I can begin my day in a laid back and routine way, I am way more likely to achieve relaxation and calm throughout my day. Stress and tension breed further stress and tension so avoidance is the best remedy. It was a few years ago at around Christmas I started to regiment my mornings. I couldn’t believe how much it benefited my entire day and night. I then began to implement the regiment into my daily routine throughout the year. Last year, when I discovered Sound Sleeping, I found yet another tool to aid in creating a calm and relaxing environment to complement my routine. In the morning I listen to peaceful environmental sounds, and in the evening I play around with the Drum Sleep Aid, I can often loose myself in this “play” for an hour or more. The interesting reality is that it provides enjoyment without heightened stimulation. I find excess stimulation during the evening hours greatly reduces my chances of falling asleep later on. I then choose my mp3 selection for the next morning. I listen to a few each night to make my selection. This procedure again aids in my evening relaxation routine.

I suggested a couple of weeks ago, that you listen through some of the selections and play with the Drum Aid. If you have done so, why not try incorporating them into your daily routine. I would really appreciate some feedback on how these tools work, or have been working for you. Let’s make this a dialogue instead of a blog.

I wish you, if not a stress free week, at least a stress reduced week.

Sleep well

Holiday Stress

Hi Folks,

Hope you’ve had a restful week, ya right! Here comes Xmas.

I don’t know about you, but for me, the Christmas holiday season is the most stressful time of the year. And the season seems to become longer and longer as the years role by. I’m a musician and music enthusiast. Concerts abound, Christmas parties become more and more frequent, and unfortunately, these social commitments come at my busiest time of year professionally. I’m constantly bombarded with choices and decisions, and each seems to come with a sense of guilt because I always feel I’m choosing him over her, these guys over those guys. So for the few weeks I’m going to travel off my former path and discuss how I deal with Holiday Stress.

I haven’t found any profound answers to the “choice” dilemma, that’s just the nature of the season. What I find I do have control over is my response to having to make these choices and the environment in which these choices are made. Personally, I need to stick to my routines even more strictly. Routine provides both my body and my mind with a structure from which to achieve relaxation and calm. If I keep my “cool” at work and due regular check-ins, it is much easier to deal with the choices I must make for my weekends and evenings. I’ve learned to list and prioritize my choices, balancing family, friends, and concerts. One the choice is made I write it in my day timer in ink. This is a visual reminder that once the decision is made, it should not be second-guessed. Key to the success of this strategy is to complete the task in one fell swoop. I choose an early evening, create as relaxed stress free environment as possible, Make my list, “check it twice”, delete the “naughty”, highlight the “nice”, and make my decisions. If new social opportunities come up I check with my day planner. If I’m free, I choose whether I want to attend or take the evening off. If the evening has been previously book I simply say, “I’m sorry, but I already have plans”. I sometimes miss a great event, but I retain my sanity.

I wish you a Merry Christmas Season and will check in again next week

Sound Sleeping,
Karen

Relaxation Terminology

 FYI – For now, I’ve decides to blog once a week, see how that goes, and inform you if I decide to make any changes.

I’d like to discuss some general terminology as I understand it. I realized that some of the words I will be using with a great deal of regularity, may in fact mean different things to different people. It is important that you understand what I’m referring to when I use these terms. I often lack consistency with my terminology but I will try very hard to stick to the descriptions I will now lay out. If anyone is unsure of what I mean when I am discussing one of my ideas please let me know, I want to be clear, but I realize that often I’m not.

1. Calm and Relaxation: From this point on when I discuss calm I am referring to a state of mind, when I discuss relaxation I will be referring to a physical state of the body.
2. Anxiety, Stress, and Tension: Anxiety and stress are states of mind, while tension is a physical state of the body.

So let’s look at how these terms interrelate and how they factor into the discussion of sleep. When the mind is calm, our bodies will be more relaxed. When our bodies are more relaxed, our mind is more capable of achieving calm. When the mind is anxious and / or stressed, it in turn causes tension in the body. Conversely, tension in the body can greatly increase levels of anxiety and stress. It’s all interconnected. My nightly goal is to go to bed at night having achieved at least a reasonable degree of calm and relaxation. In order to realize my goal, I have learned to take “time out” throughout the day to check in with my mind and my body. I know that might sound a little NUTS, but it’s important to know when your body’s becoming tense, and correct the problem before it increases stress and anxiety, just as it is necessary to realize when anxiety or stress are causing body tension. It’s a vicious cycle and you have to know whether the body is negatively effecting the mind, or vice-versa.

I’d like everyone to try a little experiment. Set a clock or watch alarm for one hour intervals and do a physical and mental “check in”, determine whether you are experiencing higher levels of anxiety, stress, or tension, if you are, think back on the hours activities and try to determine what the source was and whether physical tension effected your anxiety and stress levels or was it the opposite. I always say “knowledge is power” and have found that by keeping track of my own personal observations, I can now recognize when my body or my mind might be creating a problem that could effect my coming night’s sleep. Once I’m aware of the potential problem, I can try to correct it before it gets beyond my control.

Sorry, I know I’ve been going on too long. General concepts are often vast, but I want to cover the basics before I deal with specifics.

Have a good night, and I hope 6 more follow.
Karen

Flickr Slideshow

 Hello everyone! Many visitors have written to me saying they love the Flickr Slideshow on the site. There was, however, one very popular suggestion, and that was to implement a fullscreen option. I've now added that option, and also managed to embed the nature sounds mixing board in a more efficient and less obtrusive way.

So please check out the new Relaxing Nature Sounds Mixing board with Flickr Slideshow. I haven't tested in all operating systems and browsers, so please let me know if you find any bugs.

I also want to give a big Thank You to all the Flickr contributors for sharing their wonderful nature photos.

Sleep Tips

  I hope everyone has slept well! If not, I have a few ideas that might make tonight a little easier for you. I’m going to share my experiences as I experienced them. I would like to address issues at all stages of my battle with insomnia, so the thoughts and ideas will be sharing at first will be very basic. I realize they will seem obvious to some, but I figure… “best to start at the beginning”

As I said last time, I feel that relaxation is key to achieving a good night sleep. The challenge is in learning how to relax in a fast paced world. I find it difficult to not carrying the pace of my day, into my nights. I just can’t slow my brain down. I worry about dead lines, I carefully scrutinize the day’s events, I critically analyze how I dealt with situations. These are character traits I must strive to overcome if I am to ever relax. It is important to recognize the source of your stress or anxiety if you wish to gain control over it. If I go to bed with my brain still in high gear, I can guarantee that I will lie awake obsessing about some current concern. Each time I look at the clock my frustration increases and I begin to obsess not only about what I was previously obsessing about, but about how that obsession is keeping me from going to sleep. This becomes a vicious cycle, and once it begins, I have little or no control to stop it. I often compare my brain, on nights like this, to a hamster feverously racing on an exercise wheel, running to the point of total exhaustion and getting absolutely nowhere. I now know, if I go to bed stressed or preoccupied, I will not sleep. Nightly I struggled to prepare myself for that trip to my dreaded bed until I found the relaxation strategies that best work for me. I started putting on music in the early evening that I knew I found soothing, I took a hot bath, and spent time identifying and considering my accomplishments that day. It took a while to learn not to think about the things I hadn’t accomplished, but with time and practice, I’ve now become quite good at it. I’m aware this is not an instant fix,

Search this site and listen to some of the offerings, they’re really good. And as you listen, don’t try to force yourself to relax. Just allow yourself to experience sounds and take notice of how they make you feel.

For tonight I would encourage you to put on a favorite recording, not loud, and not stimulating, something that just makes you happy when you hear it. See if this helps.

Sound Sleeping,
Karen