SheSue Experience

1. Simple Yoga – in a study led by neuroscientist Sat Bir Khalsa, PhD., it was found that doing this simple exercise created deeper and longer sleep. Before bed, sit on the floor with your legs crossed, pressing your palms together against the middle of the chest. Inhale deeply through your abdomen so that you feel your belly expand, then exhale and allow it to relax. Breath as slowly as you can focusing on your breath. The longer you go, the more relaxed and ready for sleep you will be.

2. Walking – Ahh, my favorite. In a study at University of Arizona, those who walked at least 6 brisk blocks daily slept longer and did not wake up during the night. The best time to walk is after work or early evening. Your body temperature rises during exercise, then falls about 1 1/2 hours later, helping you feel relaxed and drowsy.

3. Carbohydrates – Eating a snack that is rich in carbohydrates, but low in fat and protein helps make insulin levels rise. This decreases the levels of amino acids that prevent the brain from making serotonin, a chemical that helps you feel drowsy and relaxed. Eat foods such as a whole grain cracker at least 1/2 hour before bed. Any closer to bed time and your digestive system will react and keep you awake.

4. Stay away from caffeine – That means avoid coffee, tea and soda. Also watch out for chocolate, cold medicines and diet pills. Caffeine causes insomnia and restlessness.

5. Progressive muscle relaxation – A big cause of sleeplessness is the stress you bring to bed. Muscle relaxation will allow your body to relax and bring sleep. As you lie in bed, lie on your back in a comfortable position. Begin by tensing the muscles in your face for about 8 seconds, then relax. Feel the relaxation. Move to your neck and shoulders; tense the muscles, then relax. Continue to move down your body with each muscle group. Your arms, your chest, your back, your stomach, etc., right down to your toes. You may find that you all asleep before you get all the way through.

6. Visualization – Think of a scenario where you know you would be relaxed and stress free. Perhaps on a tropical beach or out in the woods. Imagine how your scene looks, imagine the sounds, and the smells. Hear the waves or the gurgle of a creek. Hear the birds, smell the flowers. The more vivid your imagination, the better to help you relax.

7. Reduce stimulation – If you love watching TV before bed, choose programming that does not have a lot of action. If you don’t, the action will become a part of your dreams keeping you awake. If you’ve been out to a party, you will be full of energy. Before going to bed, find something relaxing to do to unwind. Any of the techniques here would work.

8. Lavender – The essential oil distilled from lavender has been used widely for a natural sleep aid. Dab a drop on your pillow or put a sachet under your pillow. You can even apply some directly to tight muscles to help them relax, but watch for out allergic reactions.

Imagine if you will a park 24″ by 24″. This tiny park exists in downtown Portland, Oregon. It’s quite famous to Portlander’s, but if you don’t pay attention, you’ll easily miss it. Located at Naito Parkway and Taylor street, this tiny park is right next door to Tom McCall Waterfront Park that lines the Willamette River.

The park was dedicated on St. Patrick’s Day in 1948 by Dick Fagan, an Irishman and a journalist. When he returned from the war, Fagan return to his journalistic career with the Oregon Journal. His office as was located on Front Street (now Naito Parkway). He overlooked the busy traffic and the waterfront. A hole was dug in the street for a light pole, but the pole never went in. Fagan grew tired of seeing weeds grow in the hole and decided to plant some flowers.

Fagan kept up his park and wrote a column about it, often referring to the leprechauns that lived there. He continued to write about the activities in the park until he died in 1969. In 1976, the tiny park became an official city park, named Mills End Park after the column Fagan wrote. Over time, people have donated various things to the park including statues, a tiny swimming pool and a miniature ferris wheel.

Not only can you find one, but they are making their way back to popularity, primarily as being good for the environment. According to Oregonian article Push Mowers Make the Cut, a typical gas powered mower emits as much pollution as 11 cars for every hour in use. A riding lawn mower emits as much as 34 cars.

Just as I got a good work out many years ago, push mowers are also finding their way into calorie burning charts these days. Mow for an hour and burn 373 calories. You will also build strong arms, shoulders, abs and legs. Who needs the gym!

It seems that those wonderful poppy seeds come from the opium poppy. Even baked into a muffin or topping a bagel can cause the drug to show up on your drug test. For that reason, the federal government raised the threshold for opiates in testing done for work. It used to only take 300 nanograms per milliliter to fail the test. Now it takes 2,000 nanograms. You’d have to eat about a dozen poppy seed pastries to fail the test now.

Now there is an entire community who works toward passing it forward. It’s called We, the World. Through their website, you can set up a program that is designed to assist people in some way. They will hook you up with 99 other people to assist you with your project and help you put your program into existence.

Not sure what you want to do? That’s what the mentor program is for. You can sign up for a 30 minute private mentor chat. You will be asked to answer some questions beforehand so that the mentor will have a better idea of what you want to accomplish and what skills you want to use.

Are you an artist? Perhaps you can teach art classes or create works of art to donate. Just think of how much beauty you could spread around if 99 other artists also gave their time or work. No idea what to do, no worries. They have lots of ideas and stories from those who have developed successful programs. The program doesn’t have to be some huge Red Cross program. The whole pass it forward idea stemmed from one person doing one kind act.

Once you have a program under your belt, you can mentor others to do the same; passing it forward once again. Not only do you help the less fortunate, but you pass on your ideas to someone else to develop yet another program.