Finding balance in your life is not always an easy task.  It's like juggling an apple, a firestick, a flower, and a razor.  Time waits for no man and you never know what awaits the next corner.  In this day and age, due to overwhelming world circumstances that hit us in the face daily with sensory overload, learning to find peace within, is essential. In the face of economic and financial ruin of the nation, many of us have been slapped in the face and are dealing with the same plights in our immediate everyday struggles of survival and existence in this society.  We are trying to just figure out how to get work to put gas in the car, to pay for the car, to get to a job we don’t have, to get food to put on the table, to have a table to put the food onto, to keep a roof over our head, and circling back to put shoes on our feet and clothes on our back to find the job that pays for the roof, and to get the education that leads to the job that doesn’t pay enough to pay for the car or the roof or the table or the shoes or the education that we need to get the job that leaves us no time to get the education to get a better job than the job we have just trying to survive.

          In this circle of chaos, one of my dearest friends has declared what he deems a 'mental health day' to be a part of their lifestyle.  This is defined as a day where when he or his wife, make a conscious decision to stop 'fighting the stress' and give in to a day of mental rest.  This means that they do nothing that puts pressure of productivity on themselves and they do not allow feelings of guilt enter their emotions for doing so.  It could be for example: staying home and cuddling in front of a movie, reading a book, going for a bike ride, exploring a local park with a 3 hour walk, sleeping, going to lunch with a friend, cooking,  whatever it is, to rest the brain of the extremely stressful situations of regular everyday life.  This is a day whereby one may wake up 'on the wrong side of the bed' and is in an immediate funk that one just can’t seem to shake off.  Symptoms are feelings of: Depression, Irritability, Grumpiness, being Moody, Angry, Temperamental, Impatient, Belligerant, Gloomy.  Instead of wallowing in these feelings, they have decided to make lemonade out of their lemons.  I like their adopted lifestyle incorporation. I’ve adopted these days too from time to time.  You see, we all need to find ways to cope with life’s anxieties. We must learn to not drown in stress and hold on to moments of clarity.  When our life force is in a positive vibration, we begin to sing in harmony with the universe and we gain fruitful wisdom.  We sync ourselves to that music by simply participating in activities that make us ‘feel good’.  A healthy habit to form is to allow yourself ‘mental health moments’.  If you are not able to give yourself a full day…give yourself these mental health moments.  They are bits of meditation.  Meditation is good for your soul, body, and mind.  It can help you get out of your funk.  These mediation bits will help you restore balance in your life.  Make room for them in your lifestyle.  Make an effort to share these moments with people you know… bring them into your meditative moments… positive energy grows exponentially quick.

          This has been demonstrated in the fact that they have been more productive lately than they have when they were focused on the stress.  They are physically healthier now too.  They’ve been tapping into their passions and making progress by applying their abilities.  They surround themselves with friends and family on a regular basis and communicate their feelings which helps motivate them to stay focused on their strengths. Although, they still face the chaos of life’s unexpected turns, they’ve learned to place their focus on the positive moments and they deal with struggles in smaller increments instead of by letting a big picture of doom crowd their life.  Remember the law of attraction is always at work!

Cortisol is a hormone which has many functions. It helps the body use sugar (glucose) and fat for energy (metabolism), and it helps the body manage stress. Cortisol regulates the immune system. In normal people, cortisol levels are very low at bedtime and at their highest just after waking.  Have you ever wondered why your cold or flu symptoms get worse at night? It's because cortisol production regulates your immune system on a 24-hour cycle. As cortisol levels drop at night, your immune cells become highly active. The immune cells kill large numbers of bacteria and viruses, causing greater mucous production. As a result, you experience more congestion and coughing as your body attempts to get rid of the mucous.  At daybreak, when cortisol levels rise, the activity of the immune cells tapers off. The immune cells then reset and recondition themselves in preparation for the next nightly cycle.

Growth hormone released during sleep is also important for fat loss

It is not just lack of sleep that negatively affects body fat percentage and the risk of chronic disease—poor sleep quality does as well. Deep sleep is accompanied by an increased secretion of growth hormone necessary for repairing and rebuilding body tissues like muscle and bone. It also helps to negate the bad effects of cortisol. Growth hormone naturally decreases with age and also with increased abdominal fat, leading to a viscious cycle of fatigue, excess stress hormone and increased abdominal fat.
As you can see, sleep is essential for our bodies to repair and maintain optimum immune function.

How do you get a good beauty sleep?

1. Get enough sleep. Seven to nine hours of sleep per night is optimal for adults. For most persons schedules, aim to get to bed before 10 or 11 pm.  Listen to your natural circadian rhythms, as this is the body’s recovery period. Make sleep a priority!

2. Improve the quality of your sleep. Do not exercise too late in the evening—it elevates your stress hormones and raises your body temperature which may make it difficult for you to fall asleep. Be sure to sleep in complete darkness to optimize the release of melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone which is essential to healthy sleep patterns and it also helps reduce the negative effects of cortisol.

3. Reduce your stress and adopt methods to manage your stress more effectively. Massage, exercise, acupuncture, meditation—even kissing—all are effective ways to reduce levels of stress. Some herbs have stress reducing qualities. These include herbs like ashwagandha, Siberian ginseng, relora and plant sterols as well as the supplement phosphatidylserine.

4. Regulate blood sugar levels. Eating regularly will avoid swings in blood sugar levels. Stay away from sugar and excess caffeine and follow a healthy eating plan that balances protein, carbohydrates and fats.