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Simple position/pose really helps! (and a few other things)


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I’ve found a couple of things which are calming my system down, and they are free and easy and no bad side effects.  They are a position or pose you do for 20-30 minutes, once or twice a day, plus some breathing exercises.  You can see the position in this article about Stephen Stiteler, naturopath and Oreiental medicine doctor.  The breathing exercises I’ve been doing are from Dr. Weil (the 2nd one in this article, called (4, 7, 8.  I often do the breathing exercises at the same time as the position on the floor.

http://www.lasplash.com/publish/Hawaii_Health_and_Beauty_Review/dr-stephen-stiteler-naturpath.php

https://www.drweil.com/health-wellness/body-mind-spirit/stress-anxiety/breathing-three-exercises/

 

For the floor position, I put a mat in front of my couch or an armchair and lay my upper body on it; then put my thighs at a 90 degree angle to my body and rest my legs on the couch or chair.  I also have started putting a pillow under my butt - it makes a difference! : D

 

I’ve been doing both of these for a little over 3 weeks now, once or twice a day and it is definitely helping.  After doing the position for about 10 days I began to notice my brain calming down while doing it.  I also read that it’s important to have your head lower than the rest of your body, it increases the relaxation.  To get your head lower, you can put a pillow under your butt.  A few times I’ve fallen asleep while doing it, and I never sleep during the day!

 

I actually saw Dr. Stiteler the week before last to get help with sleep and he recommended I do it 2 x a day (I’d started doing it before I saw him).  He also gave me a homeopathic remedy and Bach flower remedy - I don’t know if these are helping but they’re not hurting.  He also gave me the little magnets describe in the article for a self-acupuncture treatmnet.  So I’m doing all of it.

 

I also take several supplements at night, and I’ve gotten 6 - 6.5 hours of sleep (one night even 7!) 3 out of the 4 previous nights. Though each night I’m a little nervous when I go to bed.  I never know what to expect but this relaxation exercise is helping, no doubt.  Dr. Stiteler says it will help calm or balance the autonomic nervous system when done daily for 2 weeks.

 

I had posted several weeks ago about using calcium pyruvate and resveratrol to scavenge glutamate.  They helped initially but then stopped, so I don’t take them any more. What I do take is niacin, l-theanine, relora, 5-htp, melatonin and inositol before bed, and then more of everything (except 5-htp, which I only take before bed) in the middle of the night.

 

I also took a low dose of generic Unisom (which someone on this board recommended) for close to 2 weeks shortly after first starting this pose.  The Unisom was VERY strong.  I started with ½ a tablet and it left me drugged and tired the entire next day, though I did sleep.  I cut it to 1/4 and managed to sleep halfway ok with that.  It did stop working after 2 weeks but that was ok.  I didn’t want to increase my dose of Unisom so I just stopped it and by that time the effects of doing the pose were starting to kick in.  So the Unisom was very helpful in the short term - it let me pretty much feel like a human being while I worked on doing the pose.

 

Edited to add:  have just discovered that doing this pose after dinner may actually contribute to insomnia.  I did an additional post below on this.  I think the time of day doing it may be important.  I've generally done it in the morning and afternoon with no problem, but evening may be a different matter - you'll have to do your own experiment, but it's something important to be aware of.

 

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Thanks for sharing this.  I'm willing to try anything that can help.  I'm having a bad week and a half of worse sleep.  I'm doing so many things at this point I won't know which worked but it won't matter if I get improved sleep. I'm glad to hear you are sleeping better that gives hope!
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Buddie, I hope this helps!  Like I said, it took maybe 10 days before I really started to feel the relaxation, although I didn't know initially that it was important to have my head lower than the rest of my body.  So it might have helped more sooner, if I had got my head lowered, put a pillow underneath to raise my butt or something else that worked.
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Great articles and insights! Thank you for posting. I do believe in homeopathic medicine. In fact I go to a holistic Pdoc, and she has helped me a great deal. The breathing exercises are truly wonderful and are part of my routine in conjunction with guided meditations, affirmations, and oms. It is a total change of lifestyle and practice makes perfect. Much healing your way  :smitten:
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I have just discovered something.  It's quite possible that when this pose is done after dinner, it may actually contribute to insomnia.  I had had 3 good nights out of 4 and then last night was awake every hour, it wasn't good.  And I couldn't figure it out.  And then remembered someone telling me that when she and her husband had done this exercise before bed, he had trouble sleeping.  And last night I did it maybe at 7:30 p.m., whereas I think most days I had just done it morning and maybe afternoon.

 

So it's something to watch out for.  The time of day may be very important.  Dang - it's always something!  I hate the thought of recommending something to people which makes things worse!  :-[

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:oops: That is not good that you didn't sleep. Sorry! Don't worry about your recommendation. We all are trying different things to help us until what works best for us. I do a similar pose in a lower back decompression machine which actually relaxes me a lot. I have been sleeping better. It is called: https://www.getback2life.com/ I have been doing this gadget three times a week and my pain is a less in my lower back. How are you taking the Back treatment? Does it work for you? Just curious
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Tinka,

 

This is really interesting about the pose - I think this will help to get more blood to the brain which will feed the brain and as i have low blood pressure i am going to try this.  Your sleep time supplements are similar to mine and they all help to lower cortisol except you have to be careful with 5htp as i think that can raise cortisol and can cause aggitation in some.  I have VERY high cortisol and working on supplements to reduce it.

 

Again thanks for you tip :thumbsup:

 

ceejay

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Hi: 5htp can raise cortisol levels for people who have high cortisol issues like me. I switched to Seriphos and now my cortisol levels are normal. I am sleeping so much better. This supplement has been a miracle for me.
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Solyluna,

 

Did you do a cortsiol spit test to check your cortisol levels.?  What dose of seriphos did you take.  Did the seriphos reduce your cortisol after taking a dose or did you have to wait a few weeks for it to build in your system.

 

My cortisol is thu the roof from late afternoon right up to bedtime and I currently take kava, niacin, mag, relora and a few other herbals for sleep.  Just waiting for Holy basil to arrive. It is also high, but not as high, in the morning - hence waking early, and the severe high at nite causing insomnia - not to mention the the bad anxiety and thumping heart it causes.  :tickedoff:

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:oops: That is not good that you didn't sleep. Sorry! Don't worry about your recommendation. We all are trying different things to help us until what works best for us. I do a similar pose in a lower back decompression machine which actually relaxes me a lot. I have been sleeping better. It is called: https://www.getback2life.com/ I have been doing this gadget three times a week and my pain is a less in my lower back. How are you taking the Back treatment? Does it work for you? Just curious

 

Your gadget looks very interesting!  The position is the exact same pose I am doing without a gadget, except I am lowering my head below my body.  It makes sense it would help you sleep too.  You might try lowering your head and see what happens.

 

The sleeping problem only happened when I did the pose in the evening. I don't know the chemistry and don't really care (though it would be interesting to know!)  All I care about is that when done during the morning or afternoon, it is helping me sleep. 

 

Whether or not it is helping my back, I don't really know.  I had been having some stiffness in my back first thing in the morning for a couple of months which does seem to be getting better, though it could be due to other factors, impossible to tell right now.

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Ceejay -

 

Interesting - I never knew that 5-htp could raise cortisol.  I first started taking 5-htp 13 years ago and it helped almost immediately with sleep.

 

I also had issues with high cortisol in the middle of the night many years ago and took Seriphos for quite awhile.  It worked like magic; I felt calmer, and slept much better.  I had to take a rather high dose initially, 8 capsules in 2 divided doses (4 capsules each time).  I found it worked best when taken in the morning on an empty stomach, taken at night it caused weird bad insomnia.

 

I actually tried Seriphos again when this crazy lorazepam-taper insomnia hit, but it did not do much at all for me.  I think my cortisol levels are pretty good overall.  But this pose and my other supplements are doing a lot to help with sleep.

 

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Hi Ceejay:

 

About the high cortisol levels, I took a spit test. The first time, my levels came up high at night while sleeping. So my holistic Pdoc suggested I started a protocol of Calm CP by Neuroscience. The product is good, a bit pricey; it helped me regulate my onset fallen asleep circadian rhythm, meaning helped to fall asleep faster; but I would still wake up in the middle of the night. She recommended to take two more of those. I did that, but it didn't really resolve the problem. So I started reading about The Mood Cure from Julia Ross, and I learned about Seriphos. I told my Pdoc that I wanted to try this instead. So for two months I took 3 pills at bedtime and completely slept like a log. No fogginess the next day; in fact, my memory felt better. So I took a second spit test, and it came back normal. My Pdoc wants me to continue taking it until I finish my taper. But I only take 2 Seriphos at bedtime and 2.5 mg of melatonin and I sleep more than 5 1/2 hrs straight, sometimes 8 hrs. So this combo really is helping me a lot. This is really repairing my sleep cycle because now around 9:00 pm I feel sleepy like it should be. Here is the link: https://www.moodcure.com/correcting_cortisol_levels.html

The other thing that I feel is helping me is that before going to bed I do some gentle yoga on the floor with a heat pad that I put on my lower back and on m abdomen sometimes; this sort of helps the muscles relax better. I do this also next to my infuser with lavanda listening to guided meditations from "The reach approach" on You Tube for about 45 minutes. I think the smell of the lavanda and the mantras also help me to sleep so much better. I don't take anything. I am kind of scare to mess my brain receptors with mixing too many things. Fortunately, I can say that I am healing while I am tapering. I am half way, and sleeping definitely helps the healing process. Hope you find this helpful. Ah, for anxiety my Pdoc had me taken a combo of L-theanine/taurine twice a day. It worked great for me. I don't take it anymore; my anxiety is not nearly as bad anymore. Much healing your way my friend  :smitten:

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I slept 8 hours last night - awake maybe 30-45 minutes middle of the night, which is nothing, then awake at 4:50 to pee but right back to sleep, amazingly enough.  Feels too good to be true!  Though I had 3 rather bad nights right before this - one because I ate something that had xanthan gum (related to msg), one because I did this pose at night (which I will not do again!) and one because I did not eat enough for dinner. 

 

Crossing my fingers!  (still taking all my supplements)

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I am glad you are getting some sleep! Eating some carbs also help. I am now researching essential oils. At first I was skeptical about them; but then my neighbor invited me to one of her workshops; and I am hooked now. I am trying lavender in the diffuser I bought, and I can say that it truly helps me fall asleep. I believe we undermine our olfactory system and don't stimulate it enough. I will buy some frankincense which has sedative, calming properties. It also helps for other issues. They say it crosses the brain barrier that helps with all kind of mood imbalances/sleep/anxiety. No wonder The Three Wise Men gave it as a present to baby Jesus. I was watching a documentary on Arabia the other day, and people 'smell' it daily to relax, especially the desert people. I am so intrigued now by these oils that I even bought a book that comes with all kinds of recipes for different ailments; in other words 'aromatherapy' can definitely help while tapering and for the rest of our lives.
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:( I hate having to post this, but apparently after doing this pose for several weeks, my thyroid (for which I've taken medication for many years) has become hyperactive, and my sleep is worse than ever.  :tickedoff:  I'm assuming that the increased blood flow to my thyroid from doing the pose is what is at work here.  My chiropractor (who does muscle testing) told me that the thyroid is regulated by blood flow, so it would make sense that this pose would perk it up.

 

I wanted to alert anyone who is doing this to be aware of this possibility.  It's crazy.  It helped me so much for awhile.  I'm playing with my thyroid dose plus started lemon balm to calm it down.  Hopefully this is temporary (has been going on 6 days now).

 

I guess on the bright side I have more energy, so if someone wanted to boost their thyroid, this might be a good way to do it.  It's possible that it will cut my need for a thyroid med.  But mentally I'm rather whacked out from lack of sleep.  It's an odd combination. 

 

I hope this doesn't happen to anyone here - I'd hate to be the agent of worse insomnia!  :-[

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so sorry to hear that Tinka. hope you can get your sleep back soon. i tried the simple pose. the first time it felt good and relaxing. the second time, it made me feel sick and nauseated for some reason. so after the second time i stopped. anyway, thanks for always trying to share things that might help others.
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Thanks for your kind words, teegirl - it's just crazy.  This is the last thing I expected .....

 

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you either!

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