It’s interesting isn’t it… well, maybe more frustrating… how the mind decides to be most active when you least want, or need it to be?
I’m having some surgery tomorrow, so I’ve been trying to ensure a good sleep routine in preparation.
I need my body up to speed, fully charged and ready to heal.
Or as my fitness app describes it – my ‘daily readiness score’, which “…ranges from 1-100 and helps you understand how ready you are to work out”.
But wouldn’t you know it as soon as my head touched the pillow Monday night *bing* wide awake.
I decided not to fight it, so just lay there for while observing whatever thoughts came through.
Wow, doesn’t your mind go to interesting places?
After a while I felt tired so closed my eyes and just rested.
I didn’t try to force myself to sleep.
As I lay there I became increasingly aware of my breathing, so just focused on that for a while.
The gentle movement within my body.
Then I found myself saying to myself ‘rising’ as I took a breath in and ‘falling‘ as I exhaled.
It came from a short practice I experienced as part of a mindfulness webinar I attended last week.
It was quite relaxing so I also tried it with my regular meditation group.
They seemed to quite enjoy it too.
After that I pretty much forgot about it until that moment in bed.
Following my breath… rising… falling.
I’m guessing soon after that I fell asleep.
But with surgery on my mind it was a bit of a restless night.
Each time I woke up, I allowed myself to settle again and then follow my breath… rising… falling.
I’ve practised it every night this week and to my delight this morning my daily readiness score was 100!
High readiness means you were rested, recovered, and primed to work out.
The app measures your score by looking at key indicators of recovery including:
* heart rate variability (more variation means you can better adapt to exercise)
* past week of sleep (more sleep consistently tends to support recovery and improve readiness)
* resting heart rate (a lower resting heart rate suggests a more efficient cardiovascular system and can be a sign you’re ready to perform)
Looking back over the past couple of weeks my average readiness score has been 62 and 87, so this is quite an improvement.
Obviously an app is just a guide and not real evidence, but it still showed that by using a simple breathing technique I had made a difference.
Despite being anxious about surgery and waking often because of that, my body is actually quite well prepared for action.
Just one more night to go, then bring it on… (and please wish me luck)!
Ann🙏