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Jun
09
2015

SLEEPING: How to Sleep Your Way to the Top

wake up happy“Is it you snooze you lose, or you snooze you win?” ~ Bev Pugh

We all have restless nights. If I am overwhelmed, overstimulated, or have a lot on my mind my sleeping can be off. How do we cultivate good sleeping patterns? It’s important for our immune system, our nervous system, and our strength and power.

So many people are using sleeping pills. The difficulty with sleeping pills is that they can be psychologically and physically addictive. They interfere with our brain wave patterns. We don’t learn and practice the relaxation response.

If sleeping is an issue for you and you want to improve your sleeping patterns, this is what I would recommend.

We sleep in five phases which repeat themselves every 90 minutes. Five cycles equate to 7and a half hours of sleep. This is pretty good.

Your Pre-Sleep Ritual

This is pivotal. We prepare for many things in life…why not sleep?

  • 90 minutes before bed start turning off televisions, mobile phones and other electrical devices.
  • Have a shower prior to sleeping. When you come out of the shower, your body temperature will cool down. This will help you ease into a state of sleep.
  • Turn your heat down. A cool 16-18 C is ideal.
  • There is truth to the belief that a glass of warm milk before bed helps with sleeping. Dairy products are rich in tryptophan, which aids the production of the sleep-inducing chemicals serotonin and melatonin.
  • Watch what you eat and drink in the evening. Caffeine and liquids high in sugar, as well as fat laden meals take longer to digest. They raise our body temperatures. This slows the process of falling to sleep.
  • Do some slow stretching and deep abdominal slow breathing to release the stress of the day, and help your body feel relaxed. Our breath signals the body that there is no reason for fight or flight and it is safe to relax. Sometimes I listen to very relaxing music while belly breathe.

Your Sleep Environment

Is your bedroom cluttered or inviting? Of course as I write this I realize I have to clean up my room! Look around your bedroom. Do you like it? I love mine!! Do you like your bed? Your mattress? Your sheets? Your duvet? Your pillows? I love buying good sheets and a duvet that is very inviting.

Take time to create a sleep environment that welcomes relaxation

I remember when we moved into our house the master bedroom had a very busy wallpaper. It was way too stimulating. It was one of the first things to go.

When you go to bed

  • Read a gentle book. My husband often read thrillers, and he is up into the wee hours because he has to find out what happens next. I deliberately choose a slow moving book.
  • Reflect on your day and everything you are grateful for.
  • Belly breathe.
  • Sink into your bed and really enjoy the feel of it.

I recommend that you go to bed and wake up ant regular times. It is very helpful.

Our bodies have two built in nap times when energy levels dip. The first is between 1 and 3pm and the second is between 5 and 7pm. It’s okay to have a snooze or siesta. Listen to your body.

Sleeping is so important for all of us to regenerate. I know I am grumpy if I miss a lot of sleep. My creativity falls, and I am more in survival mode than really being present in life.

Play with your sleep rituals and notice what works for you.

What lulls you to sleep? Be aware that having some practices around good sleep habits is very important, rather than just hoping for the best. A delightful woman I worked with said she always read the wall street journal in bed and was asleep in minutes!

Happy Dreams!

Tags: Beverley Pugh, breathe, energy, music, nap, relaxation, release, ritual, sleep, stiulating, stress, wake up
Posted in awareness, Gentleness, Health and Happiness, Health and Wellness, Meditation and Relaxation | No Comments »

Mar
19
2015

Initiating Silence

“We all need to detach, and this can begin by initiating silence.” – Bev Pugh

So many people I see come in feeling lost or overwhelmed. They are looking for direction – a direction that makes sense and will help them resolve worries or fears or negativity.

A great deal of self-growth is about moving to a place of perspective. They say that 90% of our thinking is repetitive thoughts. Finding the bigger picture is essential, as it begins to shed some light on anything that is entrapping us.

So how do we move to the bigger picture?

Initiating silence is one way. I do this at least once a day. I find it calming and grounding, and I feel lighter afterwards. As I feel more grounded, I go more into my body and experience more relaxation. It calms the nervous system and slows down my mind.

What do I mean by initiating silence? I mean withdrawing from what’s going on around you; consciously deciding to detach; turning your attention inwards; and listening for the silence. It’s there. First you’ll hear thoughts (lots of them), outside noises, and sensations in your body. It is important to just acknowledge them rather than dialogue with them (or have an opinion about them), and keep your focus on hearing silence. Silence is there for all of us.

Start by doing this for 2 or 3 minutes once a day. You’ll be amazed at how you become used to finding the silence. Slowly, over time, you’ll be able to zero in on it more quickly.

This is the analogy I use. I love sports – in particular racquet sports. It became very obvious to me over time that if I didn’t watch the ball, I would lose. I would miss hitting it. If I was distracted by thoughts or other people, I’d take my eye off the ball. The only way to move forward was to increase the power of my focus – regardless of the noise in my head.

Finding the silence within is very much the same thing. It may be difficult to find it at the beginning, but it is there. Over time I found it got easier: Withdraw, Detach, Focus, and Listen.

In connecting to silence you are transcending, controlling influence that the outside world has on you – like stress, money, peer pressure. You are simply being still.

I welcome you to pursue this. Nurture it so it becomes a conscious part of who you are. It will help you feel calm and move forward with greater perspective.

Tags: Amazed, attention, big picture, focus, Greater Perspective, ground, relaxation, repetitive, Still, thoughts
Posted in Happiness, Health and Happiness, Health and Wellness, Inspirational, managing emotions, Meditation and Relaxation, Self Growth | No Comments »

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Beverley Pugh

Beverley Pugh

Beverley Pugh has international experience in Individual, Marital and Family Therapist services. Areas of practice include counselling in: individual, couples, family, anxiety, addictions, grief, depression, pain management, multicultural, workplace and others.

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Mastery Practice Tool

This is one of my favourites. I find it very rich.

 

Take a few moments to be quiet. Invite yourself to take a few big breaths, and release any tension. Now imagine someone or something that you love. I often imagine part of nature that moves me deeply. Feel the sensations start to move inside you; flowing inside you. You may feel warmth, or an inner smile, or an opening in your chest. You may feel expansive.

 

Allow the sensations and nuances to grow, and just silently observe and feel. Willingly invite these nuances to flow all through you as if they are filling you up. This is WHO YOU ARE. Stay in this beautiful place of self-expansion. This is self-love. This is unconditional love – freedom from the thinking mind stating the conditions upon which we are lovable. This place of beauty and appreciation is our natural state. Stay in this place for as long as you wish. You are feeding yourself, and remembering a deeper aspect of yourself that is not dependent on conditions. I practice this regularly. It is a very peaceful place to be.

Testimonial

My daughter, Trinity, attended her first Children’s Empowerment Workshop and she loved it! It has helped her deal with some of the real anxieties that all children go through - from the not so nice kid at school, to the imagination that runs away with her at night time, when we are getting ready for bed.

She practices her rooting and the different breathing techniques that she has learned, and has become stronger and more confident in dealing with different situations.

Pauline M.

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About Beverley

Beverley Pugh has international experience in Individual, Marital and Family Therapist services. Areas of practice include counselling in: individual, couples, family, anxiety, addictions, grief, depression, pain management, multicultural, workplace and others.

Contact

Telephone:
604-925-1513
Email:
bev@beverleypugh.com
Location:
120-1451 Marine Drive
West Vancouver, BC
V7T 1B8
Canada

Disclaimer: The information presented on this site about various psychological conditions, is of a general nature and is not a substitute for an assessment by a competent therapist and/or medical professional. If you believe that you or an important person in your life is in need of an intervention please seek qualified help as soon as possible.

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