I often get asked why mix career coaching or life coaching with reiki and hypnosis. Corporate and holistic how did you get into that mix?
One of the reasons I have combined my two worlds is that I believe prevention is the best way to treat illness and I watched so many people in my corporate world get sick, stressed and lose their life balance. When I form a working partnership with someone we look at everything and that includes being energised, mental sharpness, happiness and health. A foundation block that support this is sleep.
My inspiration for this blog is sleep and until recently I have never had issues sleeping. So many things can impact our sleep: study, work, new babies, stress, alcohol, partying, living conditions, medical conditions the list goes on. I have often helped clients who were tired, stressed and suffering from lack of energy with hypnosis, meditation and reiki to get them off the cycle of caffeine and chemical sedatives.
In todays world we accept periods of time when anything near 8 hours sleep would be a dream, Its become normal not to get a good nights sleep and we operate in a sleep deprived state sustained by regular caffeine or sugar intakes.
The starting of a major construction project opposite my house has challenged my sleeping patterns and I am now walking the walk and talking the talk and using my own tools in my mission for a good nights sleep.
Here are 6 reasons why you need to get a good nights sleep…. Z Z Z Z Z Z.
1. General Health.
Sleep is essential to revitalise the nervous, skeletal and muscular systems. Its when the body rejuvenates, repairs and rebuilds.
Consistently getting less then 7 hours sleep has been linked with: increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and various cancers.
2. Sex Life.
Have you ever said no to sex because you are tired? A recent survey by the National Sleep Foundation found up to 26% of people surveyed had been too tired to have sex.
There is evidence that impaired sleep can lower testosterone levels and impact other hormones as well.
3. Risk of Injury.
When you are tired your reactions are slower, your senses are dulled and you become more likely to fall, trip or even cut yourself doing simple things like preparing dinner.
We are all familiar with the ” Don’t drive drowsy ” campaign and needing to rest when going on long drives but accidents behind the wheel of a car attributed to slow reflexes, poor attention etc can happen close to home as well.
4. Happiness.
Not getting enough sleep affects your emotional regulation. When you are over tired you are more likely to be snappy, burst into tears, miss communicate and over react.
So getting a good nights sleep increases the likeliness of a better mood.
5. Gaining Weight.
When you are over tired you are less likely to have the energy to exercise or cook healthy.
When you dont get enough sleep the hormone leptin levels drop, this hormone plays a key role in making you feel full.
So people who are tired get hungrier and tend to crave high fat and thus high calorie foods.
6. Clearer Thinking and Better Memory.
Have you ever woken up with that fuzzy feeling, flat and needing a coffee heart starter to get your thoughts together.
Sleep loss impairs your cognitive thought process, your attention and thus decision making. The less sleep you get the worse you become at problem solving, maths and remembering where things are.
When we sleep our brains process the memories of the day, lack of sleep can result in jumbled and even false memories occurring. Everyday thoughts can become confused, making sentences unclear or hard to understand. You might have difficulty concentrating, following a conversation or remembering things.
What do you do when you cannot remove that cause of the problem?
Sometimes the fix is easy: get better blinds, turn off the computer, no coffee after lunch etc but sometimes its not so easy as progress must go on so construction sites happen.
The first thing is to place sleep as a priority which means you want to ensure you get more. I know that 6 days a week the jack hammers start at 7am and truck noise earlier so I brought my bed time forward. To relax I added meditation and reiki so that I am out quickly and time it so anything after 7am is a bonus but I have my 8 hours clocked up.
I looked for the positive that on sunny days that early cupa in the sun was nice. I am excited about the coming winter as rainy days will mean a sleep in and I do love a sleep in.
To be honest my friends with children laughed at my misson for 8 hours sleep and my respect for what mums do with so little sleep has no limits. I now know what the best present I can give them is. Baby sitting so they can sleep in or even a nap.
In conclusion, SLEEP is a gift to be treasured and not taken for granted as once lost playing catch is a hard race.
Wishing everyone SWEET DREAMS and JOY,
Lisa
About the Author.
Lisa Blades is Executive Coach for a boutique agency Phoenix Executive Coaching. She loves helping people manifest their dreams and take control back of their career. To view other blogs by Lisa please visit, Executive ZAP
