Winding down for health

Many of us today find ourselves constantly 'on'.  This is dangerous to your health!

If you are always on edge, find it hard to wind down and get to sleep at night, sleep lightly and are woken easily, have poor digestion, suffer anxiety (and depression if this has been going on for some time), are jumpy (boo!), are sensitive to bright lights (would you consider going outside without your sunnies on?), get angry or aggressive easily (road rage? - never!), have forward head posture with tight muscles on the front of your chest and rounded hunched shoulders or a number of other symptoms, you may be suffering from 

Your nervous system can be broken into 2 parts - the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems.  These parts are both vital to your survival and health but only one part functions well at a time.  In essence, your parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for resting and digestion  When you are in optimal health this is the most 'active' part of the nervous system most of the time, particularly at night.  Your sympathetic nervous system is your fight or flight system.  If is there for protection and is only meant to operate for short periods of time - if you were being chased by a predator for example.  In life today, many people find they can not switch this sympathetic system off and allow their parasympathetic system to take over.

First, you should see your chiropractor and, if depression is a major component of your problem, seek the help of a great psychologist.  Your chiropractor will assess your nervous system to work out how best to help you balance your sympathetic / parasympathetic balance.  There are many things that can be done and many exercises that can be specifically tailored to you by your chiropractor to help you get on top of this problem.  There are also a few things you can do at home to help yourself - these are detailed below.

• First, make it a rule that for a certain amount of time before bed you will turn off all electronic devices (particularly ones that require actual interaction - iPhones, email, SMS, blackberries...) - 90 minutes is ideal but even 30 minutes will make a big difference.  Now use this time wisely.  
• Make the space you will inhabit for this time dull in lighting to reduce the colour stimulation.  
• Keep noise levels to a minimum or wear ear plugs to dull the noise a little.
• Sit or lay down comfortably with your hands on your abdomen and concentrate on taking deep breaths.  Deep breaths will not only help to switch you from your sympathetic nervous system to your parasympathetic nervous system but will also help to alkalise your body.  Even 1-2 minutes of this can help turn down your sympathetic system.
• Try a meditation - I believe http://smilingmind.com.au​ has a great free app with guided meditations from 5 minutes up (I haven't tried it as my phone is not new enough to download the app so I can't give you my personal opinion on that one).
• Try writing down everything that goes through your mind for 5 or 10 minutes or making a list of everything you keep rattling around in that to do list in your head so it is on paper and you can switch it off for the night knowing you can just look at your list tomorrow.
• For people suffering a lot of pain, another great tool can be put on a timer for 10 minutes and for that time only write down every horrible, terrible, nasty, angry, mean thing that comes to your mind unedited.  Once the 10 minutes is up burn it, shred it or tear it up then do the breathing exercise.

These are just a few tips that may help you to keep calm and allow your body to switch into healing mode.  Start a great new habit now so you can cruise through the festive season and in to 2016 calm and energised.