tendency to overestimate your importance at work. Paradoxically, people who take breaks and recharge are often more productive at work.
Experiment with putting some rest and pleasure into your life and taking away some of the time currently allotted to work. For example, if you are working more than eight hours a day, commit to leaving work at an earlier time this week. Spend that extra time doing something enjoyable.
Shorten your to-do list this week to essentials only.
In your own personal currency (i.e., in your mind), consider increasing the value of moments of pleasure and decreasing the value of accomplishments.
Summary
Like any other human being, you need time for rest and relaxation. This chapter explained how having a Buffer Zone can help your mind prepare for sleep by putting the day’s activities and worries behind you. It is easy to create a Buffer Zone: about an hour before getting ready for bed, begin to transition away from your “active self” by restricting your activities to those that are relaxing and enjoyable to you. Taking this time for yourself and leaving behind work or personal responsibilities at the end of the day will help you get a better night’s sleep so that you can be at your best tomorrow. Far from being wasted time, a Buffer Zone will help you be more productive in your “on” hours.
Chapter 6
Relax Your Body to Quiet Your Mind
T he previous chapter provided strategies for winding down so that you can leave the day’s excitement and tension behind. Although setting time aside to unwind is essential, sometimes setting time aside is not enough to produce relaxation and you may need a deliberate strategy; that is, an active relaxation practice. If you find yourself tense or anxious, starting a formal relaxation practice may be just the solution for you. There is reason to think that a relaxation practice alone may help those with sleep problems, but if you combine a relaxation practice with the other strategies in this book you will see a more thorough improvement in your sleep.
“Just Relax”?
Are you particularly tense and anxious at night? Are you frustrated by your seeming inability to relax? Just as difficulty sleeping makes many people anxious, difficulty relaxing can produce anxiety. Perhaps you have already tried relaxation for your sleep problems and felt more anxious because you were unable to relax. Even if relaxation did not seem to work for you in the past, it does not mean a relaxation practice cannot benefit you at all. You simply need to keep the following keys to success in mind.
Practice, Practice, Practice
The ability to relax is a skill and, like any other skill, it requires practice to attain. Learning to relax is like learning to play the piano: you will not be a virtuoso after one lesson. Similarly, you cannot expect to sleep soundly on the first few nights you practice relaxation. You are retraining your body and building a skill. Setting unrealistic expectations will lead you to quit prematurely.
In his book Full Catastrophe Living , Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, a renowned expert in stress management, suggested that starting a practice, such as a relaxation practice, is like weaving a parachute (1990). You would never choose to start weaving your parachute when you are already falling—you would want it done in advance. In other words, relaxation strategies must be learned and practiced ahead of time, so that when you are in an anxious state, you are able to simply pull the rip cord of your relaxation parachute and begin to relax. So commit to practicing a relaxation strategy daily for several weeks, and you will be amazed by the result.
You may be worried that your body cannot relax, but this is exactly why you need to practice. Even if you believe that your body is incapable of relaxing, you can notice subtle changes in your sensation of muscle tension if you pay close attention. Your body’s relaxation system is not “broken”; it just needs a tune-up.
Experiment with putting some rest and pleasure into your life and taking away some of the time currently allotted to work. For example, if you are working more than eight hours a day, commit to leaving work at an earlier time this week. Spend that extra time doing something enjoyable.
Shorten your to-do list this week to essentials only.
In your own personal currency (i.e., in your mind), consider increasing the value of moments of pleasure and decreasing the value of accomplishments.
Summary
Like any other human being, you need time for rest and relaxation. This chapter explained how having a Buffer Zone can help your mind prepare for sleep by putting the day’s activities and worries behind you. It is easy to create a Buffer Zone: about an hour before getting ready for bed, begin to transition away from your “active self” by restricting your activities to those that are relaxing and enjoyable to you. Taking this time for yourself and leaving behind work or personal responsibilities at the end of the day will help you get a better night’s sleep so that you can be at your best tomorrow. Far from being wasted time, a Buffer Zone will help you be more productive in your “on” hours.
Chapter 6
Relax Your Body to Quiet Your Mind
T he previous chapter provided strategies for winding down so that you can leave the day’s excitement and tension behind. Although setting time aside to unwind is essential, sometimes setting time aside is not enough to produce relaxation and you may need a deliberate strategy; that is, an active relaxation practice. If you find yourself tense or anxious, starting a formal relaxation practice may be just the solution for you. There is reason to think that a relaxation practice alone may help those with sleep problems, but if you combine a relaxation practice with the other strategies in this book you will see a more thorough improvement in your sleep.
“Just Relax”?
Are you particularly tense and anxious at night? Are you frustrated by your seeming inability to relax? Just as difficulty sleeping makes many people anxious, difficulty relaxing can produce anxiety. Perhaps you have already tried relaxation for your sleep problems and felt more anxious because you were unable to relax. Even if relaxation did not seem to work for you in the past, it does not mean a relaxation practice cannot benefit you at all. You simply need to keep the following keys to success in mind.
Practice, Practice, Practice
The ability to relax is a skill and, like any other skill, it requires practice to attain. Learning to relax is like learning to play the piano: you will not be a virtuoso after one lesson. Similarly, you cannot expect to sleep soundly on the first few nights you practice relaxation. You are retraining your body and building a skill. Setting unrealistic expectations will lead you to quit prematurely.
In his book Full Catastrophe Living , Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, a renowned expert in stress management, suggested that starting a practice, such as a relaxation practice, is like weaving a parachute (1990). You would never choose to start weaving your parachute when you are already falling—you would want it done in advance. In other words, relaxation strategies must be learned and practiced ahead of time, so that when you are in an anxious state, you are able to simply pull the rip cord of your relaxation parachute and begin to relax. So commit to practicing a relaxation strategy daily for several weeks, and you will be amazed by the result.
You may be worried that your body cannot relax, but this is exactly why you need to practice. Even if you believe that your body is incapable of relaxing, you can notice subtle changes in your sensation of muscle tension if you pay close attention. Your body’s relaxation system is not “broken”; it just needs a tune-up.
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