Paul Emery is a Mental and Physical Health Therapist who specialises in trauma treatment, including PTSD, fears, and phobias. His clients include royalty, rock and pop stars and he’s highly experienced in helping people with general stress, anxiety, depression, grief, sadness, anger, worry, and stress related physical issues. His clients include royalty, rock and pop stars and he’s highly experienced in helping people with general stress, anxiety, depression, grief, sadness, anger, worry, and stress related physical issues. Today he’s showing us some easy techniques to reduce stress and sleep better…

“Everyone gets stressed and has problems sleeping sometimes. Some people seek relief through meditation, exercise, nutrition or yoga. Some resort to medication, even alcohol or drugs.

However, nowadays there are fast and effective, but little known ways to help you relax and sleep better.

How can you manage stress and sleep better?

In this article I’m not going to talk about what you should and shouldn’t be doing to relax and unwind before bed and about sleep hygiene, this is common knowledge. Instead, I will briefly outline four different but very powerful ways to help you relax and enable you to sleep better, how to quieten the mind, increase slow, calming, sleep inducing delta waves, raise your ‘feel good’ serotonin, lower your cortisol, increase your anti-aging hormone DHEA, and more!

How to manage stress and quieten the mind 

Sometimes, when we lay in bed, it can be difficult to switch off overthinking, that voice in our head constantly chattering. Of course, it can be useful sometimes to mull over or plan things. But, if it’s not useful late at night and its preventing you from sleeping, then it’s time to take control of your own brain. So, with an open, nothing to lose, experimental mind, give the following a try and practice it!

• Momentarily focus on your internal chatter and notice the location of where it’s coming from. Is it coming from the front of your head? The back? The left or right side? Also notice, is it a loud voice? Is it fast talking? A hard tone?
• Now imagine that you can move the location of that chatter. So, if it was coming from the front, imagine moving it to the back. If it was coming from the left, imagine moving it to the right. In other words, move the location of your internal voice to a different location in your head. How does it feel? Does it feel better? Good keep it there! Worse? Move it back to its original location or better still to another, better location.

For many, by simply moving the location, worry reduces instantly. So, let’s take it a step further and see if we can improve on this even more:

Wherever it’s now located, imagine you can now also control the volume, speed and tone of that internal voice.

• Imagine that voice is quiet, a very quiet, slow, sleepy, yawny voice. How does that make you feel? More relaxed, sleepier? If not, make it even more sleepy, quiet, and yawny.

How to be less reactive, calmer and raise anti-aging DHEA

This simple breathing, heart focused, affirmative technique allows you to become calmer, both emotionally and physically. It will enable you to sleep better, become generally less reactive, bringing your heart and autonomic nervous system into balance and raising your anti-aging DHEA. Who doesn’t need a bit more of that!

• Focus your attention around the area of your heart and imagine breathing through this area. You could even place a hand or two there if that helps you focus better.
• Now, as you focus on this area, breathe in for a count of 5 seconds (without pause, then out for a count of 5 seconds. So, 6 breaths per minute)
• As you maintain this breathing pattern, focus on a positive thought, perhaps someone or something you love, someone or something that makes you feel grateful or thankful. If you can’t immediately think of anything, just imagine what it would feel like to feel love, to be grateful or thankful for someone or something. It could be even something like a beautiful flower, the sunset, an animal or a dear friend.
• Keep doing this for a minimum of 5 – 10 minutes, longer if you can.

Practice this daily and you should feel a difference in your mental and physical wellbeing.

Figure 8 infinity and beyond that stress away!

This technique will quickly reduce any stress, lower cortisol, raise serotonin, balance both hemispheres of your brain, and make you feel more relaxed.

• Take two fingers of your dominant hand
• Place them on your third eye area, just above the center of your eyebrows
• From there gently trace a side-ways figure 8
• Continue for approximately 30 seconds

Increase your delta waves and sleep better

This is based on the very latest neuro-science and, although there is a lot more to it than the small part outlined below, this is one of my main ‘go-to’ therapeutic techniques. It increases your ‘feel-good’ serotonin, lowers cortisol and stress, and induces sleepiness. You could perform this in bed, but if you don’t want to disturb anyone, best to do this throughout the day thinking ahead of having a great nights’ sleep or do it just before you retire to bed.

• Focus on a feeling of being calm, peaceful, relaxed. Imagine sleeping well throughout the night
• As you continue to do so place both hands gently top of each opposite shoulder
• Stroke comfortingly down your arms to your elbows
• Lift your hands off and repeat the process
• Do this for 5 minutes or more

I hope you found at least one of these techniques useful in helping reduce your stress and enabling you to sleep better. Good night zzzzzzzzzz.”

You’ll find Paul traversing the globe, offering his healing techniques at luxury health resorts. If you’d like to arrange a session with Paul, in person or over Skype, then get in contact below and please do share the love!

email : info@soul-sanctuaries.com

Paul Emery: http://quantumepr.com/