EPISODE DESCRIPTION: We live in a world of over-stimulation and stressors at every turn. I was taught a seemingly Jedi-like mind trick years ago that offers me a fresh take on the day if I'm willing to fit it into the chaos (or the calm).

Episode theme song ‘Ride or Die’ by Yarin Primak

TRANSCRIPT

Monday, Monday. 🎶

I like Fridays better. 

But happy Monday on a week that feels like we are sliding into home base when it comes to the holidays at the end of this year.  

I don't know what it is, but it feels to me like Christmas and Hanukkah are just next week. So you can imagine what that does for—it makes it a little interesting.

But herein lies why I'm bringing up today's topic. I'm bringing up a lighter topic today to start our week off rather than the heavy note I left us on Friday. 
 
So today, I want to talk about yet another amazingly effective thing that Coach Tom Bates brought into my life as a high school cross-country runner, and that is power naps.

Now, if you've never taken a power nap or if you are the many people I talk to who say, “Oh, I can't power nap. I can't do naps at all. If I lie down in the middle of the day, I'm ruined.” Or “I sleep all day, and then I can't sleep at night.” 
 
But here's the thing, you're not doing a power nap correctly if this is the case.

Now, I know this sounds very big sister of me, kind of bossy, and I've got the right way to do things, but stick with me because I believe that if you could authentically embrace and do a power nap, your life would change for the better. 

Sounds trite, sounds ridiculous, but I really, really believe this. 

So I know for a fact for myself and for many people in my life, this is the case. And for my brother, Jerrod and I, we share a common, just ask his wife, my sister-in-law, Carrie, she will attest to the fact that Jerrod has, as do I, the uncanny ability to fall asleep on a dime.

We can fall asleep, as I've said before, in seven seconds or less. We both go into a very deep sleep and go anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes. This is the power nap. 

Now, believe it or not, today, I can do it in about 10 minutes. Literally go to sleep, power nap, deep sleep for 10 minutes, and then bounce up as if I've slept an entire eight-hour night's sleep.

I haven't checked in with Jerrod on this yet, but my suspicion is that this is probably the case for him. 
 
Here's actually how Coach Bates taught us to do it. My memory is that he taught us in a van on our way out of town to a cross-country meet. I don't know why. We were all tired. I have no idea why he taught us this at this moment.

He was like, “Lie down, completely clear your mind, and just go to sleep for 20 minutes, and I'll wake you when 20 minutes is over. I guarantee you're gonna feel better. You're gonna feel ready for your race.” 

Right? So we do this. 
 
Now my memory, if you know, again, my memory is my memory—one of the reasons I'm doing this podcast, my memory is that my friend Mary, she woke up and, from that point on, had a chronic hip injury.

So that's not funny, but the takeaway is don't do this in a van. 
 
What I want to do now is flash forward, and we're here in 2022. We've all come off of a two-year hiatus or a two-year period where the old normal was something we had to kind of shed, and now we're in this new normal.
 
Corporations have sleeping rooms, now they have napping rooms; and I bought a standup UPLIFT desk, and it actually has the capacity to have a hammock fastened below it so that I could raise my uplift desk and go underneath it and take.

Now, I don't need to do that because I primarily work from home in an office in my house, so I can go down the hall and go to my bed. But how cool is that? 
 
Okay, so the world is catching up on power naps, people, so I want you to as well. I want to help you learn how to embrace this because, again, as I've said in episodes before, what was real for us in the past doesn't necessarily mean is real for us in the now.

So try this. Try a power nap, and all you have to do is this. I'm going to run through it with you. 

You have to lie down, close your eyes, and get comfortable, right? Don't lie down on the hardwood floor or rug on the ground. Lie on a sofa, a nice palette you create or go to your bed. So lie down, get comfortable, and close your eyes.

Don't think of anything. Don't think of how hard this is gonna be or how you've tried this before, and this never works. Now, this is an important piece, okay? You have to tell yourself, and this concludes the whole part of yourself, the entire, you know, mind, body, and spirit. Tell your whole self that you are lying down and you wanna wake up in 20 minutes.

Okay? Again, the four steps are:

1. Lie down.

2. Get comfortable

3. Close your eyes.

4. And tell yourself that you want to wake up in 20 minutes.

Somebody like my dad would say, “Tell your guardian angel that you want to wake up in 20 minutes,” which I think is adorable. 
 So tell your guardian angel, you want to wake up in 20 minutes, so do this.

 Try it.

Now my suspicion is that some of you will sleep for 30 minutes. I used to do the same thing. That's okay. It's still a power nap. It's still 30 minutes out of your day—not very much time—and you will feel refreshed. Okay? 

I have a few people in my life whom I can use as a case study that this is actually the truth.

My dad is one of them, and what's interesting is that he did it way back when I was a little kid. I didn't know they were called power naps at the. He'd go to the sofa on the weekend after a long week of work, and he would lie on the sofa, but he would actually place his hands on his chest, one over the other, kind of like what you see a corpse does in a coffin.

And I hated that. I hated walking into the living room and seeing him on his back, stretched out on the sofa with his two hands on his chest because he looked like he was dead. So I had to go like mine the situation and make sure that his chest was rising and falling, and that's here nor there. That's just a little side. 

So I want you to try this. It works. It's going to change your life. It really is. 
 
And remember, anything we try is a mindset. So if you think you cannot power nap, you are not going to be able to power nap. If you think you can power nap and you have a strong enough desire, you will.

The best thing about it is that when you wake up, you are going to feel better. You're gonna feel like you have a second wind. You may even feel like you slept an entire night, and you'll go on with your day, and you will be a changed individual. Haha. That might not exactly happen, but…
 
 Okay, so here's to a power nap.

And again, thank you, Coach Bates, your influence on me and obviously more people than me now is infinite. 

Power naps. 

Okay. Go take one. 

I'll see you tomorrow.

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The podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jenée Arthur.
Cover art by Jenée Arthur
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