Energetic Sleep Aid

Become masterful at living your best life by sleeping when you are tired. 

A busy, stressful life is the perfect excuse to rest your body when it’s tired. Napping, and allowing for 6-8+ hours of rest each night has many benefits: clearer thinking, boosted immunity, more productivity, helping maintain a healthy weight, lowering blood pressure, and making us feel happier. 

Energetic Sleeping Aid

What if you are ready to go to sleep, but your hamster wheeling mind decides it wants to run nowhere very fast? One sleep strategy we reliably use to calm our overactive mind and harmonize our body so we can fall asleep more easily is with a Jin Shin Jyutsu, a self-acupressure practice. 

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the five elements correspond with the five fingers and by contacting them with the following mindful approach, we can relax and restore the free flow of circulation throughout our entire mind and body.

While laying down, rest both palms on your belly as you hold one finger with your opposite hand. Hold each of your fingers and thumb for one to three minutes each or until you feel a pulsing sensation shift in the finger being held (if you sense a pulsation in your finger, hang out with it until you notice it begin to steady and become calm). Hold as much of the finger as possible without squeezing it with the opposite hand, and use gentle contact. It doesn’t matter what hand or finger you start or end on, but you do want to move through each finger one at a time using your breath to help follow your body’s sensations. Often times, we fall asleep holding a finger without ever making it to all ten fingers, and this is no problem. This is success! You fell asleep!! If you do complete all ten fingers, you can seal the first round by placing the fingertips of each hand into the center of the opposite palm, so your palms are cupped facing one another. Maintain this circuit for a couple minutes and then switch which hand is on top and on the bottom. If you make it through one full round, repeat again until you fall asleep.

Simple and sacred acts of self awareness leads to a masterful practice of self care that provides far reaching benefits for yourself and for all those you help and care for.