Live Whole Health #80: Relaxation practice

Did you ever think that relaxation would take practice? When we were young it was easy to relax: We simply rested our bodies and minds when we were tired. How did our adult minds get so busy and filled with thoughts that make taking those important breaks so hard to do? This relaxation practice can help.

As adults, we have so much going on that it can be difficult to quiet our minds enough to truly get to a place of total relaxation or sleep. In this 10 minute iRest® yoga nidra practice, Marcy Newman, DACM, RN, MPH Employee Whole Health program manager from the Phoenix VA Medical Center will guide you through a gentle practice that will help you to relax and let go of life’s concerns.

Pausing to relax is good for our health. In order to tune in to what is happening within us, we need to stop every so often to take a “breather.” What do our senses tell us is going on around us? Is our body in pain? What is our mood like? Are there any symptoms calling for our attention?

If we notice these sorts of things, we can do something about them. It can help us catch health issues at the early stages. Other benefits of pausing to relax include:

• Increasing focus
• Boosting awareness to make healthy choices
• Reducing stress
• Helping to maintain interest and energy level
• Making it possible to do better work after the pause
• Decreasing risk of the types of injuries that can happen when we lose focus, like overuse injuries

We set goals for our nutrition, exercise, career and many other areas in our lives, but do we think to set goals for rest and recharge? If relaxation is a challenge for you, think about ways that you can set some goals to give yourself more down-time.

If you want to get started on your Whole Health journey, check out the new Whole Health mobile app. The app allows you to complete a Personal Health Inventory, set goals, track your progress and more.  Check out a brief video on the app: Live Whole Health Mobile App – YouTube.