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

Stress, Anxiety, and Tension Control

Hello Everyone,

All is well I hope, if not let us further discuss how to take back control of over our stress, anxiety, and tension…and again please remember what I put forward comes from my own experience. Each individual is an individual and may find that things that worked well for me do not work for them. I will try to remember to discuss calming and relaxation techniques I have tried but resulted in only minimal success. If you feel I am focusing too much on one thing, or would care to suggest some ideas / experiences of your own send in your comments I would love this to become “group therapy” where people with sleep problems can come for a wide prospective from their peers. Continuation from last week…

The first step in my journey, came with the recognition that self-awareness is key to having any degree of control over my life, and therefore sleep. Regular check-ins are of great benefit to me and really don’t take a great deal of time. Once I found a cause for stress, anxiety, or tension I had to find a solution.

Dealing with tension was quite easy and straightforward for me. Once I realized where in the body my tension was building up I mobilized the area. For me tension builds because I am keeping a muscle or muscle group contracted for an extended period of time so simply moving and stretching helps eliminate the tension. A few slow deep breathes and a yawn then relaxes the rest of my body.

Stress and anxiety are not so easy for me to address. This called more for external rather than internal change and this is where the resources found on the Sound Sleeping site really started to be of benefit. I had already begun to use the mp3 downloads at night to help me wind down. When I realized that the severity of my nightly stress and anxiety clearly reflected my day’s stress and anxiety I started to use the mp3 materials on my breaks a work. This tended to help momentarily but the job usually took over again after a break as did the stress. I decided I needed to bring this tool into my work environment but for practical reasons I could not use audio materials at my workstation. So I got this idea: Ya know how every once in a while a song gets caught in your head and drives you crazy until it decides to leave? Well I decided to try and reverse that process. I would listen to my mp3s and then try to recreate them in my head. My recreations were not exact, but the sounds I found calming and relaxing, have over time, become very vivid in my imagination. In this way, I can carry this helpful tool with me into any situation or environment. A few minutes at routine check-ins recalling these sound has helped me to continuously relieve stress throughout my day. Listen to the examples, identify sounds that enhance calm and just try to hear them in your head, once they’re in your head, you can take them anywhere. It takes a little time and practice, but I really think it’s worth a try.

That’s all for now,
Sound Sleeping!

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

Sleep Disorders

 My name is Karen, I’m 45 years old, and have suffered with a chronic sleep disorder for as long as I can remember. I have expended a great deal of time, energy, and study in an attempt to, if not overcome, at least to minimize the occurrences of those long, sleepless nights. I’ve done a great deal of research and with the help and advice from medical professionals, therapists, friends, and family, I have come to better understand my disorder, and develop strategies that help me. I’ve found this site quite helpful and in return I thought I might share some of my experiences with those of you that also come to visit and learn in hopes of a good nights sleep.

As with many disorders, the causes and cures for insomnia vary with each individual, but I do believe that the two most common causes of sleeplessness are stress and anxiety. In my experience it is those busy periods, times of uncertainty, occasions when things of concern are out of my own control that my sleep deprivation is at its most severe, all those times when I need my brain and body working at its best. Life runs at such a fast pace that I often get caught up in it, rather than setting my own course. The key to setting my own course is slowing down, taking time to step back, clear my mind, and breathe; in short, RELAX. What I have discovered is that by taking this time I see ways to increase my productivity and enhance my quality of life. I have found that sound greatly affects my mood and through avoidance of negative sound stimuli, and seeking out positive sound stimuli, I have a control over my stress and anxiety. This sight has provided me with information and resources that have helped me achieve this control. I can’t say that my sleeping disorder has been alleviated, but it has certainly become less severe.

I encourage anyone who is new to SoundSleeping to take some time and investigate it fully. It can really help, and it sure can’t hurt. And please, those of you that have had similar experiences with sleep problems, share with me your thoughts, experiences and strategies. Knowledge is power and I would like to learn to better achieve a “Sound Sleep”.

More later,
Karen