Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Women Living Well Blog: The 25 Day Praise Plan - Marriage Challenge

Women Living Well Blog: The 25 Day Praise Plan - Marriage Challenge: "There are 25 days until Valentine's Day so it's time to implement the 25 Day Praise Plan. Each week the challenge will be the same - to p..."

I wanted to share this because it encouraged me.  I hope it encourages you too!

Blessings!
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Monday, January 10, 2011

Need Help Rising Early?

     Because of our recent move, I haven't spent much time posting lately but the reason I decided to post this information is because I wanted to share with others what I've discovered about rising early. 

     Let me back up a minute.  I'm not an early riser nor have I ever been.  Yet I have desired to be that person who is able to get out of bed, without much trouble, at a time that most would consider early (or at least a reasonable time to wake up) in the morning.  I have always been a night owl as is my entire family.  Once I go to sleep, I sleep like a baby.  Staying up late, however, usually doesn't produce an early riser, which is my goal.  Obviously, staying up late and sleeping late isn't always a good thing when it comes to living a productive life.  I seem to be learning this the hard way. 

henry varnum poor: sleeping babyImage by freeparking via Flickr

     At any rate, I began in December looking for online help about sleep patterns, rising early, etc.  Although I can't recommend the website as a whole (because I don't know much about this person and his beliefs), what I found here has truly helped me - http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser/.  Steve Pavlina also has additional links, including Part 2 of that particular post, listed below each post.  I read several of his articles on sleep but these two were the most helpful to me.

     Many of you may be saying, "What's the big deal?  Why do you have such a problem waking up in the morning?  Just do it."  Well, I began to ponder the same thing myself which is why I began searching for answers.  It's not the easiest task for some of us to wake up early, especially if you're a late night person and just can't seem to make yourself (due to a lack of self-discipline) go to bed at a reasonable hour.  It's easier said than done!  Since I'm one of those people, I needed help.  Most articles you find on sleep will tell you to go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time every day.  While that may sound easy to some of you, it's not easy for me to go to sleep if I'm not sleepy.  So I would stay up until I was sleepy and sleep until I had to get out of bed. 

     Incredibly eye-opening for me, the information in the article linked above stated this - get up at the same time every day (yes, even on Saturdays and Sundays) but only go to bed when you're sleepy.   I had never tried that before so I decided to see how it would work for me.  So far, so good.  For me, this appears to be working.  Steve mentions that if you can stick to this pattern for 30 days, you'll have a good habit formed.  Your body will get used to waking up at that set time every day and your internal clock will begin to awaken you at that time each morning.  

     The proof's in the pudding.  For me, I had been doing this for only 4 days and on the fifth day, I woke up 2 minutes before my alarm clock went off.  I was in shock!  This morning, 22 minutes before the alarm sounded, my internal clock sent me a message that it's time to wake up.  I haven't even been doing this for 30 days yet but I can say that it's working for me.  

     If you're in the same boat as I am regarding sleep, I'd encourage you to read the article as there's quite a bit more helpful information there plus all the other articles Steve has written regarding sleep.  Having tried out this theory, it seems to be the best information I've read about good sleep habits so far.  Since I've benefited from Steve's wisdom, I wanted to share it with you so you might also. 

Continuing to notice God's little kisses each day!

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Artwork by John Bell copyright 1998-2007 used with permission