Jean Edelman’s Word of the Week: Sleep
Quality Sleep is Vital for our Emotional and Physical Health
Jean Edelman: Wonderful to be with you today. I hope you're having a great summer. This is the month of August and I think at the month of August should be our self-care month. If we can develop good habits during this month, when we hit the Fall, we'll be ready to take care of ourselves and hopefully not overcommit and just be in a good place. So, this week's segment I want to talk about sleep and our sleep habits.
Sleep is so important. It's important for our emotional and physical health. So many of us just jump out of bed in the morning and just wake up surprised and just, you know, that's how the whole day goes. So, what I want to do for this week is just suggest some ways to kind of ease into the morning and ease into the night and to develop good sleep habits. So, it's probably better if we give ourselves maybe a minute or two before we need to get out of bed to kind of wake up, maybe take some breaths, maybe stretch a little while we're laying there, maybe set a nice intention for the day, take some nice, deep breaths. It's a great opportunity to practice our big deep belly breaths and then get up, and then maybe before we jump into our routine, maybe we do some light yoga stretches and we can put something up on the website to show you some nice little yoga stretches.
Think about this. We're just developing a morning routine. We're waking up, we're breathing, we're setting an intention. We're stretching, giving our body some love and an opportunity to get some oxygen. We've been unconscious for four or five, six, seven, 8 hours, however long your sleep is, and we need to be nice to ourselves as we begin our day. So, tune in and start our day a better way.
And then our night routine. I've talked about this many times, so important to our self-care. Do we collapse into bed at the end of the day? Just exhausted. So many of us do that. But what about starting a nice evening routine? What if you turn off the electronics, make sure the bedroom is cool and clutter free? No to-do lists. No piles sitting near us, no TV. Maybe we take a shower and kind of physically wash the day away. And then before we get into bed, maybe some light stretches, maybe some nice massages of our feet or our hands. Just something to relax ourselves from our very busy day. Our sleep habit in the evening is so important, and so I encourage you this week. Look at your sleep habits. Try to fit in something different in the morning and the evening. Just notice for a week. If you try them for a week, see how different you will feel.
And then when the Fall hits, we will have our routines down pat and we're going to be in so much better shape. And so, my word of the week, can you guess it? It's SLEEP.
The S is for serene and calm
This is what we need at night before we hit the pillow. Fine tune our routine so that we can restore and replenish while we are at sleep. It will help us to restore and refresh our bodies and the other pieces. When we start our day, if we can start it a little slower and a little more tuned in that's going to give us a better day.
The L is for vitality
This is what good sleep gives us. We wake up and we are ready for the day.
The E is to enhance
To improve, protect our morning and night routines. These belong to us. We don't get to share them with anybody else because this is our self-care.
The E is to endeavor
To effort, that is all we can ask is to try, because these small changes over time will create a significant impact on our health.
And the P is for peace
A state of calm. Our bodies need a break. Good sleep is the key. And practice our routine. Practice our self-care. That is the goal. Have a great week, everyone.