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LUMIE BODYCLOCK – wake up and wind down

Want to sleep better, wake up refreshed and get a bit of sunlight in the winter darkness?

If you struggle to wake up in the mornings, hit the snooze alarm a few times and it feels an effort to get up, or if you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), the good news is that thhere are LOTS of things that can HELP YOU.

The Lumie Bodyclock Iris 500 might just be the helping hand you need as a natural, light and aromatherapy alarm clock. Shorter days, darker mornings and a lack of sunlight can directly impact our body’s endocrine glands and result in feeling tired, lacklustre and experiencing a low mood. The endocrine glands are the master glands of your body controlling your hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal & adrenal glands to name a few, essentially they are in charge of sending messages to the brain and controlling our hormone levels and body functions.

Serotonin and melatonin are the ones you will hear of frequently. Serotonin levels affect our mood, sleep and memory as well as impacting on our behaviour, while melatonin relates to the pineal gland the body’s natural circadium rhythm (natural body clock) which helps us distinguish light and dark, day and night and helps us want to sleep at night.

When these are out of balance through stress, mental tension, travelling or anything to upset our natural body clock, we can struggle to fall asleep or indeed to stay awake.

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SPECIAL OFFER 30% off from 25th Jan 2018 while stocks last – SAVE £48!!

As a kinesiologist, I work to help improve the symptoms of SAD, by focussing on balancing the endocrine, nervous and digestive systems (serotonin is also produced in the gut). A treatment plan would cover many areas including structural and cranial balances, nutritional guidance and emotional support.

Alongside this, the Lumie Bodyclock Diffuser might be able to help. It’s a gorgeous little light therapy, aromatherapy diffuser natural alarm clock. Wow! The Lumie is designed to support your natural body clock, allow you to gently wake up through the REM, deep and light sleep cycles, and help you slowly switch off at night. The sunrise and sunset light settings plus two aromatherapy diffuser chambers allow you to control your wake up and relaxation cycles. The Lumie has two separate chambers to make it easy to automatically switch from morning to evening essential oil blends.

I bought one of these for myself in the last 20% off Neal’s Yard Remedies sale and can honestly say I absolutely LOVE it! Those who know me know I’m not exactly a morning person despite trying to lead a healthy lifestyle so I was looking for an extra helping hand in the winter. Using the sunrise light setting you can gently wake up to the light increasing and the subconscious smell of a revitalising essential oil from 15-60 minutes and you’ll find yourself waking up refreshed and raring to go BEFORE the alarm even goes off. It really has made such a difference to my mornings. No more snooze button!

SPECIAL OFFER 30% off from 25th Jan 2018 while stocks last – SAVE £48!!

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EXTRA TIPS AND THINGS TO TRY TO HELP YOU SWITCH OFF AND UNWIND:

Recently, life has been getting busy again and I’ve been leaning on the sunset setting to help me wind down for bed. I try and have a Seaweed & Arnica bath most nights and then pop my NYR Beauty Sleep concentrate & body butter on and settle down next to the Lumie for a 45 minute sunset reading session. I choose 45 mins as I really love reading before bed as it helps take my mind elsewhere and switch off from the day.

By setting the sunset for 45 mins, the light gradually reduces and subconsciously instructs my body to get ready to sleep. With the relaxing oil (lavender, women’s balance or night time are favourites) sending a cloud of relaxation oil into the air, it’s a really effective way of gently unwinding.

Not just for people suffering with SAD, I would recommend this to anyone wanting to stabilise their body clock, boost their energy levels and allow themselves to fully relax in the evenings.

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SPECIAL OFFER 30% off from 25th Jan 2018 while stocks last – SAVE £48!!

Email me [email protected] or message me through my FB page to order your Lumie today.

Essential oil suggestions:

Sunrise: Geranium, lemon, mandarin

Sunset: Night time, de-stress, lavender, calming

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Day 2: Zinc and Beauty Sleep

Day 2 of the 12 days of Christmas/December

Learn about the importance of Zinc for a healthy immune system to keep the bugs away this Winter. Plus hear how Beauty Sleep gift set by Neal’s Yard Remedies Organic can help you (or your lucky friend if you can bear to part with it!) relax and sleep better.

As always, do check out the full details and ingredients list here:

Hope you enjoy the video from day 2. Much warmer than yesterday!

 

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Would you like some help with getting a good nights sleep?

SLEEP & RELAXATION TOP TIPS

Sleep is nature’s way of restoring and recharging both mind and body for a new day. It supports brain function, emotional wellbeing, and it’s not called beauty sleep for nothing; sleep really is the best anti-ageing treatment there is, helping to restore brightness to your skin. When we sleep we release hormones and regulate our metabolism, leading to cell turnover and collagen production.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE!

“You can’t pour from an empty cup”.

We all lead busy lives but it is important for our health both mind sanity and immune system to relax and allow our body to recharge.

Lack of sleep triggers the release of cortisol (a stress hormone) which causes blood sugar to rise, the always on ‘fight or flight’ scenario and inability to switch off.

Make time for relaxation

Use your ‘me time’ certificates to make time to relax. Create a short time block each day for (this could be a 10 min walk in fresh air, having a cup of tea in the garden, night time bath etc.)

Me Time Certificate fb-tile-zen-and-oil

TOP TIPS

  • Create relaxation time every day – switching your mind off
  • Good bedtime routine
    • Warm bath
    • Relaxing candles
    • Caffeine free / night time tea
    • Soothing music
    • Window open in bedroom to cool it down
    • Glass of water before bed with zinc or beauty sleep supplement to restore overnight
    • No technology 30 mins before bedtime
    • Phones off (including vibrate off), switch off standby on tv
    • Scribble pad for any thoughts or worries
  • Hold ESR points on forehand and breathe deeply. Deep belly breaths not shallow chest ones.
  • Gentle stretch before bedtime
  • Increase hydration (and take your omega oils to help your body absorb water into your cells)
  • Use a Zen Soto diffuser to help gently swish releaxin essential oils into the air forcing your body’s limbic system to respond and physically help you relax

PRODUCTS TO HELP

SUPPLEMENTS – remember to get natural, bulking agent & sucrose free supplements for optimum absorption

  • Vitamin B for energy conversion
  • Zinc  to boost immune system and health skin, hair and nails
  • Omega 3,6,9  They’re not called ‘essential’ fatty acids for nothing!

Sleep and relaxation health

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Struggling to sleep?

SLEEP AND RELAXATION WORKSHOP

Do you:

* struggle to switch off at night?

* have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep?

* feel unfreshed when you wake up?

Is your mind constantly whirring away and not letting you switch off?

DON’T WORRY – HELP IS ON HAND!

March sleep poster

Come and explore some natural solutions at my March workshop in Warminster. We will explore kinesiology techniques and look at Neal’s Yard Remedies products to aid a good night’s sleep.

Everyone will leave with a goody bag of products and top 5 techniques guide. Ticket price £4 per person, spaces limited so book up quickly 🙂

BOOK HERE

Tuesday March 15th

7-8pm

Warminster Osteopathic Clinic, Station Road, Warminster, Wiltshire, BA12 8BR

 

 

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TAKE A BREAK

So on Tuesday night I fractured a finger on my right hand playing netball. Not just any finger, my little finger thus rendering the break even more comedic.

It was freezing cold, we were in the final quarter of a nail bitingly close netball match and I got a tad aggressive determined to get the ball to shoot and score a much needed goal. My GK and I collided as we both went to grab the ball, with the ball somehow smacking my fingers head on.  Netball 1 Sarah 0 – but hey at least we won the match!

I spent yesterday in pain, feeling tired and sorry for myself. I’m right handed and all the simple tasks such as brushing my teeth and washing my hair were suddenly a lot more complicated. Amongst this was the feeling of embarrassment that such a small injury could render me feeling so useless. I spent half the day trying to push through the (legal) drug-induced sleepiness before giving in to a night on the settee catching up on Dickensian.

I was fast asleep by 10pm with the lavender Lumie diffuser going and woke up feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed. Today really is a new day and I’m full of beans, blog posts and determination 🙂

time out image

So what did I learn from a ‘woe is me’ day?

  • That it’s OK to take a break
  • Everyone needs a duvet day now and then
  • If you’re pushing and pushing and not getting anywhere, take a step back, take a break and rethink it
  • Allow yourself time to breathe deeply, stretch, rest, hydrate and smile

The nagging thoughts of ‘but I SHOULD be doing xyz’ reminded me of how I used to feel on the corporate treadwheel of constantly fighting to wake up at 6am, leave the house at 7am, commute for over an hour, be in desperate need of caffeine at 9am, need a chocolate fix at 10.30am, feel guilty about eating chocolate before 11am and eat some fruit (even though i wasn’t hungry), deny myself a lunchbreak until I had completed half my to do list, feel guilty about a grumbling tummy and wolf down a sandwich at my desk whilst ‘taking a break’ surfing the net, push through the blood sugar yoyo until I fell asleep on the train home, threw an instant meal into the microwave, collapsed in front of the tv and then felt frustrated as my mind wouldn’t switch off until it eventually succumbed to sleep around 1am. Tired just reading that? I know I am.

My life was a constant pressure cooker as I rushed to and from feeling guilty for what I wasn’t doing rather than ever enjoying what I was doing. I never allowed myself a moment to rest. My poor adrenal glands were so overworked I swear you could see smoke coming off them. Guilt, responsibilities, commands, imperatives and commuting were just part of life I reckoned.

How many of you feel like this? That your boss will think poorly of you if you take a lunchbreak? That you’re letting your children down if they aren’t perfectly prepared for school with correct gym kit in the mornings? That you’d love to take some time just for you, to go to the gym, flick through a magazine or cook a meal from scratch? How many of you think you’d love to do but  there is just no time?

WRONG! It is completely acceptable to take time out for yourself, to put YOU first, to SAY NO* and for goodness sake –  take a lunchbreak! The world isn’t going to collapse if you leave your desk for 30 minutes (minimum!). Trust me, you really will feel better for it, more productive and awake. You don’t have to be Superwoman, nobody is perfect so stop trying to be.

So… I’m sorry I didn’t write a blog post yesterday or clean the house like I was supposed to, but I feel so much better for resting. I’ve already been more productive in 3 hours this morning than I was all of yesterday.

Today I challenge you: do something just for you – and enjoy it while you do 🙂

Right, time for a cup of tea…..Sx

 

* Say no – try acknowledging the needs of others and then push back so it fits into your agenda when YOU want to do it.

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