Description
Sleep is a natural need, but sometimes, especially during treatment, it seems unattainable. This book is filled with tools and techniques, like guided imagery, to help your mind re-learn how to let go and find comfort again. In doing so, you will not only sleep more deeply and peacefully, but you will also enhance the quality of your sleep so you can wake up feeling refreshed and energized.
To ensure success, be realistic and give yourself time to learn and assimilate what you learned. Research has indicated that restful sleep is necessary for healing and recovery. Therefore by giving yourself the gift of sleep, you support your own body and improve your health.
In short, this book is designed to help you:
- Learn how to relax and drift naturally into sleep
- Feel calm and clear away intrusive or racing thoughts
- Release negative emotions such as fear and anxiety
- Empower yourself to heal and recover faster
- Develop healthy sleep patterns for a high quality of life
As the Dalai Lama himself said, “Sleep Is The Best Meditation.”
“Sleep is a quiescent period where the cells do a lot of repairs. Your hormones act differently when you’re asleep, and your immune system as well,” says Lisa Shives, MD, DABSM, founder of Northshore Sleep Medicine in Chicago. “If your immune system is out of whack, you can’t fight off illness — and I would venture to say that you can’t repair your cells very well, either.”
More About Guided Imagery
Guided Imagery involves closing your eyes and imagining a scene that involves each of your senses – sight, hearing, smelling, tasting – and thinking, feeling, and visualizing yourself within that scene.
Engaging the mind this way helps put you into a deeply relaxed state where you can imagine your body as you wish it would be. Imagine any scene that makes you feel happy, calm, healthy, and fully recovered.
You can visualize yourself sitting on the beach, walking in a forest, trekking a mountain, swimming in the pool, or in any scenario that uplifts your spirit—involved and immersed in the sights of the place you imagine, the sounds, smells, and energy of your surroundings.
In your mind’s eye, you can see yourself doing anything you love to do and imagine that you’re doing any of those things already healthy and fully recovered. The idea is that you will immerse yourself in that scene so successfully that your mind will believe you can accomplish it, and the process will increase confidence, reduce stress, and even boost the functioning of your immune system.
Guided Imagery for Cancer Benefits
Studies have shown that Imagery can help the mind and body relax. It can also help:
- Manage anxiety, stress, and depression
- Help reduce pain
- Lower blood pressure
- Lessen nausea
- Give you a better sense of control and well-being
