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This is a bounus article--not in the book!
Sleep Easy by Lisa Sarasohn
Okay, I really need to fall asleep now so I can be rested when I wake up tomorrow at 4 am in time to catch my plane out of town.
Of course, the more I fret about falling asleep, the wider awake I am.
Have you ever been in this situation – craving the sleep that seems ever more elusive? Whether we're stressing about an early flight, tomorrow's meeting with the boss, or how to pay the bills, worry can keep us up at night.
Actually, insomnia is epidemic. At least one in ten Americans frequently have problems falling asleep or staying asleep through the night.
Insomnia is also big business. In 2005, drug makers spent more than $298 million to advertise their sleep aids. In the same period, Americans filled about 42 million prescriptions for sleeping pills. One drug company reported that consumers had used their product for 12 billion nights of “patient therapy.”
If you've tussled with insomnia yourself, you know what a discouraging cycle it can be. Your mind is restless, your thoughts race and chase each other in circles. All this mental activity increases your fatigue, which only aggravates your anxiety. Sleep seems like a distant possibility and the path to slumberland has disappeared.
Yet restful sleep is key to your health and healing. Sleep gives your body time to cleanse and rejuvenate. It allows your mind to resolve worry through dreaming. Sleeping well restores and renews you both physically and mentally.
When we're feeling anxious and overwhelmed we desperately need to release the stress that has been accumulating in our lives. Unfortunately, it's exactly at these times that falling and staying asleep can become so difficult.
Thankfully, there's a doorway to slumberland hidden within our bodies. It's within our body's center—what the Japanese call hara . This single word refers to the belly both as the central region of our bodies and as the site of our soul power. The hara , the belly, shelters the source of our vitality, the energy that animates us in body, mind, and spirit.
The English word “gutsy” is something like hara in referring to our bellies—our guts—in terms of our inner strength. To be “gutsy” is to be daring, confident, earthy, sensuous. To “go with your gut” and follow your “gut instincts” is to attune to your belly-centered intuition and honor your inner guidance.
Imagine that! The belly – so often cast as shameful – is actually the wellspring of our deep wisdom and spiritual power. Totally intrigued, for more than two decades I've studied and practiced hara -energizing movement and breathing exercises drawn from a Japanese style of yoga. I've learned that the belly, the hara , stores our instincts for self-preservation. It's home to a dimension of our intelligence that's deeper than thinking, deeper than feeling. When I bring my attention to my body's center, my mind releases its restlessness. Worry and tension drain away.
In the course of my research, I found a belly-centered, hara -powered path to restful sleep. Frankly, the first time I tried the following practice – during a long spell of tossing around in my bed – I was skeptical. I completed the five repetitions and grumbled, “Well, this doesn't seem to be working.” The next thing I knew, it was morning and I felt refreshed.
Pardon me while …( yawn) … I catch some zzzzz's ….
The Method:
This exercise adapts a technique Seigen Yamaoka describes in The Art and the Way of Hara (Heian International, 1992). Please note: With its abdominal contractions and breath retention, this exercise is not suitable for you if you're pregnant.
Step 1: Acknowledge the importance of the problems or projects you've been thinking about. Acknowledge, too, that you'll be able to address these situations all the more successfully with a mind that's rested and refreshed by sleep. Invite your mind to consider that going to sleep now is in its own best interests.
Step 2: Lie on your back with your legs fully extended. .Place a pillow under your knees to ease your lower back.
Step 3: Keeping your mouth closed, inhale slowly through your nose. Expand your belly to draw the breath in.
Step 4: As you hold the breath in, contract your belly and pull it down toward your spine.
Step 5: Holding the breath, tense the muscles in your legs, arms, face, chest, back, and buttocks. Contract every muscle from the outer edges of your body toward the center.
Step 6: Now, still holding the breath in and keeping every muscle tight, push your belly out and hold it out for a slow count of five.
Step 7: Open your mouth and exhale slowly. At the same time, totally relax all your muscles.
Step 8: Repeat as many as five times. Notice how restlessness gives way to repose. Allow s lumberland to call you across its threshold.
Lisa Sarasohn delights in showing women how to develop and direct the Source Energy concentrated in the body's center, reclaiming the belly as sacred, not shameful. A seasoned yoga instructor and bodywork therapist, she's the author of The Woman's Belly Book: Finding Your True Center for More Energy, Confidence, and Pleasure (New World Library, 2006). This article is adapted from chapter 6 of The Woman's Belly Book . For additional excerpts, visit www.loveyourbelly.com
Stephanie Saul, “Record Sales of Sleeping Pills Are Causing Worries,” New York Times (February 7, 2006).
Original Art by Ana Grillo
copyright 2004 by Joanna Brandt