HEALING HANDS FOR THE HEART

By Jenna Nel

Have you ever had a baby? Would you characterise your bundle of joy as a particularly sound sleeper? The phrase “sleep like a baby” is commonly misused to refer to someone who enjoys deep and uninterrupted sleep, whereas in truth we all know that few blessed parents experience this to be the case with their little ones!

Where once we were able to pull all-nighters, there are some sleepless souls amongst us who can’t even pull off all-dayers. Hopefully, this article will have the power to lull you into the sweet dreams you’ve been missing - not because it’s boring (fingers crossed), but by empowering you with a few simple tweaks that can make a big difference.

By paying attention to sleep hygiene, we can tailor our sleep patterns to suit our unique needs. This, in turn, builds healthy habits and restful routines that culminate in peaceful sleep. The importance of these quiet hours cannot be understated as a time for the body to rest and heal both mentally and physically. From children to adults, our productivity and overall quality of life hinge on our ability to get a successful night’s sleep.

Before humans confused their sleep patterns with electronics and light pollution, we used to rise and set with the sun. Our internal clocks, referred to as our circadian rhythms, control our natural sleepwake cycles, and light is the most important external factor signalling to this biological countdown that it’s time to get sleepy.

In response to darkness, our physical processes are triggered to start preparing the body for sleep. For example, as the lights dim, the pineal gland begins to produce the ‘sleepy’ hormone, melatonin. When we are subjected to light before or during sleep, the exposure blocks these natural processes - resulting in a disrupted sleep-wake cycle.

The nutrients in our food provide our brains with the chemical environment in which to facilitate sleep. While research into the effects that various nutrients have on our sleep is still in its infancy, the fact that they play a vital role is virtually undisputed. Our diets help to regulate our 24-hour sleep-wake cycles which, in turn, are responsible for keeping our bodily functions in check, including when and how deeply we fall asleep.

Similarly, in a vicious cycle, a link has been made between the adverse effects of poor sleep and bad food choices. Psychological fatigue leads us to make poor dietary choices, leading to higher rates of obesity and metabolic diseases.

Our bodies all work differently, allowing some to consume large amounts of caffeine, while others dare not reach for more than their morning coffee. But for most people, caffeine fuels our adrenaline levels and blocks the processes that ease our bodies into sleep. If you’re looking to improve your beauty sleep, keep in mind that caffeine can stay in your bloodstream for up to six hours, making the time at which you crack that Coca-Cola a factor to consider!

There are few things more frustrating than when you’re finally drifting off to sleep and you’re confronted with the need to use the bathroom or drink a glass of water. You just know that if you get up now, falling asleep again is going to be a nightmare! A simple and effective solution is to install motion-sensor night lights. These dim lights limit the glaring brightness while still safely illuminating your pathway. By limiting the amount of light you’re exposed to when getting up to grab that glass of water or run to the loo, you ensure that your physiological process isn’t disrupted, effectively putting sleep back on the cards.

Regular exercise has proven to facilitate better sleep. Moderate aerobic physical activity increases the amount of slow wave (deep) sleep we get, allowing us to heal and refresh physically and mentally. It can also aid the transition to sleep, as it acts as an opportunity to shed the day’s hardships and stabilise our moods. The best news is that people who engage in 30 minutes of moderate aerobic physical activity may experience an elevated standard of sleep that very night!

LESSEN THE LIGHT • Consider blackout curtains if your curtains/blinds are not doing the trick. • Turn off your hallway lights or roll up a towel and push it against the gap between your door and the floor. • Wear an eye mask. • Put all electronics away 30 minutes before you’d like to fall asleep. • Switch to dim ambient lighting in your house leading up to sleep time. • Install motion-sensor night lights. SUSTENANCE TO SLEEP • Stop skipping and shifting meals. • Lay off the booze. It’ll have you drowsy and dreaming in no time, but then your body spends more time in the deep sleep stage earlier than it otherwise might. Drink in moderation long before bedtime. • Avoid heavy, spicy or fatty foods at night. They take longer for the stomach to digest, making it difficult for your body to relax. • Eat smaller portions at night so that your body doesn’t have to work as hard.

CAP THE CAFFEINE • As a stimulant, caffeine will keep you wired even when you want your body to start slowing down, so experiment with limiting your intake to earlier in the day. • Limit the amount of overall caffeine you consume. Consuming cuppa after cuppa of caffeine due to a lack of sleep is a less than ideal solution, as it will only perpetuate the problem. GET MOVIN’ TO GET SNOOZIN’ • While physical exercise can certainly help sleep, don’t raise your adrenaline levels close to bedtime. • Exercising outside in nature may work its magic to calm your mind.

Being a sleepy person in this busy life can be very hard… But in the end, that blissful night of undisturbed sleep is worth the measures you may need to take. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

Churning deep within our hearts is the tension between who we were born to be and what our various decisions and experiences have turned us into. Our bodies call out in complaint at the disconnect as they try to reconcile what they are with what they ‘should’ be. Craniosacral therapist and coach Penelope van Maasdyk has learnt the art of using what is exterior to heal what is on the inside.

Our minds hold a complicated world of emotions and encounters that we carry with us until we actively visit and reframe them. We learn to journey back to the dark outlines of events to splash them with colour in order to resolve what was left unsettled. These extraordinary organs have the innate ability to mend themselves, but there are times when our painful experiences and broken dreams are forced to fade so far into the recesses of our memory that we could use a little bit of help coaxing them back to the fore.

As the subconscious mind is restored, it gives the nervous system permission to relax. The erratic signals it once sent to set the endocrine system into fight or flight mode cease, slowing the cortisol and adrenaline pumping through our bodies. Having been soothed to a state of rest, the body is less susceptible to inflammation and disease.

Penelope Van Maasdyk is a lifelong student of multiple disciplines. After studying developmental psychology in her twenties, she went on to explore craniosacral therapy in her forties. In between, she worked in investment banking, human resources, consulting, grief counselling, social development, social entrepreneurship, mentoring, writing… the list goes on! All through these decades of academic study and learning through life experience, she learned to tune into the tundra of her inner world.

This ever-seeking soul landed on the desire to facilitate health. In a fusion of multiple disciplines including nutrition, personal development, mythology, pathology, psychology, quantum physics and anatomy, Van Maasdyk brings a holistic approach to the healing journey. She uses her 50 years of life experience, academia, travel, career changes, pain and healing to guide her clients along similar landscapes of trauma and wellbeing.

Your journey is your own, but Van Maasdyk creates a safe space free of judgement to wander into the gloom that burdens you until you see the light on the other side of it. With mutual respect and trust, you will find the courage and freedom to express the deepest states of your being, and in doing so, find yourself again.

Without further adieu - the ‘what’. Craniosacral therapy works with your body and mind in combination with your heart and sense of self to reach a state of emotional and physical release. This lighttouch, anatomically-based healing modality uses your central nervous system as a guide to get a sense of where the congestion lies so as to encourage the body out of its state of injury. By retraining your body to embrace a parasympathetic state, it settles and relaxes - allowing its natural processes to take place.

The anatomical process of lighttouch palpation and perception techniques allow the therapist to get a sense of the subtle rhythms and patterns of the body in order to guide it out of any state of unease. These conditions may be the product of your past, wounds, or even your lifestyle, and this therapy seeks to re-establish the communication between your body and its inherent health. You may not be able to change what inflicted the wound, but you have it within your power to carry its load differently.

Furthermore, Craniosacral Therapy, also known as CST, is a powerful preventive therapy. It can be applied from as young as infancy through to adulthood as a treatment for underlying imbalances of which one is not even aware to improve the body’s vitality and resilience at the threat of an ailment.

That said, we need to remember that we do not exist in isolation. We form part of a collective that is shaping us as individuals as much as we are shaping others. Together, we culminate into what is broadly known as humanity. Our unresolved pain has the ability to impact the people around us just as much as our strength and healing do. In order for us to operate more wholesomely as a collective, we need to learn to deal with what lies in our subconscious as individuals.

We no longer need to crack, twist, manipulate and tweak to achieve fleeting relief from an underlying problem that will soon rear its ugly head again. Craniosacral therapy is the gentle and non-invasive healing practice that works from the inside out to bring our minds, bodies and emotions back into balance and provide lasting and holistic healing.

For more information or to get in touch, visit www.wellworthbeing.com or email vanmaasdyk@gmail.com.