Take Your Power Back Thursday
Welcome to your first edition of Take Your Power Back Thursday!
If you're at all like me or the hundreds of people with autoimmunity I've worked with, there is one thing that you absolutely hate about your diagnosis.
And that is the feeling of powerlessness that comes with learning about it.
It seems like everywhere you turn, you're met with the same gloomy prognosis: "there's nothing that can be done about it. You'll live the rest of your life with it. We'll do our best to "manage" it (whatever that means…)"
After more than a decade of powerlessness, I learned that was a bunch of nonsense!
I didn't have to live with those symptoms forever!
And neither do you!
My goal with these emails is to show you how I, and several others, have taken our power back and have begun healing.
Take Your Power Back Thursday is a short, weekly email, based on my five-pillar framework:
- Eat
- Think
- Sleep
- Move
- Detox
Each week I will be sharing with you a single actionable step, from a single pillar, for you to Take Your Power Back from autoimmunity.
As always, you're in control of the messages you receive from me. If you don't want to receive these emails, just opt out of my email list using the link at the bottom of any of the emails you get.
But that's enough for an introduction, let's get on to today's topic:
Optimize Your Sleep Environment
There are simple steps we can take that will optimize our sleep. Quality is just as important as quantity.
Did you know that even when we are sleeping, light can send signals to our brain?
This is why a completely dark room is essential for quality sleep! Taking a few minutes to address any light in your room will pay off in spades!
Take Action
We start by assessing the light in your room.
So tonight, once it's dark outside, go into the room where you sleep and turn off the lights.
Simulate the condition with which you'd sleep.
If you sleep with your bedroom door open, open it. If it's normally closed, close it.
Same with your bathroom and walk-in closet doors.
Now sit on your bed and look around. You should not be able to see anything. Especially for the first few seconds while your eyes adapt to total darkness.
After these first few seconds, lift up your hand and try to make it out in the darkness? Can you see it?
If you can, then there's too much light coming in.
This might be from a window, from under the door, and even from the LEDs of a phone charger or alarm clock.
Depending on what you find, see if you can make adjustments to your environment.
Cover LEDs with red or black "junk light dots" like these ones. Or simply use black tape.
Make plans to buy blackout shades or curtains.
If you have to get up at night, make sure to use red lights so as to not affect your melatonin (more on that in a later TYPBT!).
That's it for this week's edition.
Please don't rule out these (or any of the future action steps) thinking that they're too small or simple to make a difference.
As Jim Rohn used to say: "the reason people don't get better is that they don't do the simple things. What's easy to do, is easy not to do."
Don't let that be you! Take a few minutes tonight to improve your sleep quality!
As always, if you have any questions or if there's anything you wish to share with me, you just need to reply to this message.
Last updated: February 25, 2022 10:50 am MST
Welcome to your first edition of Take Your Power Back Thursday!
If you're at all like me or the hundreds of people with autoimmunity I've worked with, there is one thing that you absolutely hate about your diagnosis.
And that is the feeling of powerlessness that comes with learning about it.
It seems like everywhere you turn, you're met with the same gloomy prognosis: "there's nothing that can be done about it. You'll live the rest of your life with it. We'll do our best to "manage" it (whatever that means…)"
After more than a decade of powerlessness, I learned that was a bunch of nonsense!
I didn't have to live with those symptoms forever!
And neither do you!
My goal with these emails is to show you how I, and several others, have taken our power back and have begun healing.
Take Your Power Back Thursday is a short, weekly email, based on my five-pillar framework:
- Eat
- Think
- Sleep
- Move
- Detox
Each week I will be sharing with you a single actionable step, from a single pillar, for you to Take Your Power Back from autoimmunity.
As always, you're in control of the messages you receive from me. If you don't want to receive these emails, just opt out of my email list using the link at the bottom of any of the emails you get.
But that's enough for an introduction, let's get on to today's topic:
Optimize Your Sleep Environment
There are simple steps we can take that will optimize our sleep. Quality is just as important as quantity.
Did you know that even when we are sleeping, light can send signals to our brain?
This is why a completely dark room is essential for quality sleep! Taking a few minutes to address any light in your room will pay off in spades!
Take Action
We start by assessing the light in your room.
So tonight, once it's dark outside, go into the room where you sleep and turn off the lights.
Simulate the condition with which you'd sleep.
If you sleep with your bedroom door open, open it. If it's normally closed, close it.
Same with your bathroom and walk-in closet doors.
Now sit on your bed and look around. You should not be able to see anything. Especially for the first few seconds while your eyes adapt to total darkness.
After these first few seconds, lift up your hand and try to make it out in the darkness? Can you see it?
If you can, then there's too much light coming in.
This might be from a window, from under the door, and even from the LEDs of a phone charger or alarm clock.
Depending on what you find, see if you can make adjustments to your environment.
Cover LEDs with red or black "junk light dots" like these ones. Or simply use black tape.
Make plans to buy blackout shades or curtains.
If you have to get up at night, make sure to use red lights so as to not affect your melatonin (more on that in a later TYPBT!).
That's it for this week's edition.
Please don't rule out these (or any of the future action steps) thinking that they're too small or simple to make a difference.
As Jim Rohn used to say: "the reason people don't get better is that they don't do the simple things. What's easy to do, is easy not to do."
Don't let that be you! Take a few minutes tonight to improve your sleep quality!
As always, if you have any questions or if there's anything you wish to share with me, you just need to reply to this message.
Last updated: February 25, 2022 10:50 am
