With the pace of life today, people are just far too busy. What with working the 9-5 job, keeping up with children’s activities, and trying to juggle everything all at once, it is amazing that anyone gets any sleep at all. Lack of sleep is so prevalent, that studies show that over 80 percent of Americans are not getting enough rest. It is essential to get enough sleep each night so that your body is able to to heal itself. Whether your illnesses are physical and affecting your body, or of your mind, and playing havoc with your emotions, or if they are spiritual and holding back your spiritual growth, it is very important that you take the time to rest every night.

Children and teenagers are also not getting adequate sleep every night. Because of the high demands placed on school children these days, finding the time to get the sleep and rest they need is falling down the list of priorities.

Not getting enough sleep is damaging to everyone and its effects on you personally need to be taken seriously. Apart from being grumpy, moody, and agitated, not getting sufficient sleep can lower body functions and bring about sickness. Your immune system may become slow or sluggish and hence its not working at its optimum level, thereby allowing various colds and flu to come and infect the body.

Your performance at work and school also suffer when you’re not getting a good amount of sleep. Some studies have shown that inadequate sleep will alter the body’s natural hormones and speed up the aging process. Along with those factors, when your body feels tired, you don’t often have the energy to exercise. Therefore as your lifestyle becomes more sedentary, and you suffer from lack of sleep, your metabolism eventually slows down and and this causes weight gain.

There are various reasons why people sometimes find it difficult to fall asleep. Some of the reasons include fear, stress, anxiety, too much caffeine, medications, depression or physical pain. When you suffer from any of these conditions, you can often feel trapped in a never-ending cycle. First, you need to go to work or school, yet you don’t have the energy to keep awake and focused. If you’re not getting the proper rest required then you’re not able to function at your optimum level. You spend your days feeling exhausted, just waiting for night to come. Then, when nighttime come, you can’t fall asleep, so the cycle continues. Breaking this cycle is essential so that you have sufficient energy to not only get through your day but also to enjoy the things you want to do.

One way of breaking this cycle is to use some aromatherapy oils. You take these to help stimulate your mind and increase your energy levels throughout the day. Initially, you can make your own inhaling oil from Juniper, Peppermint, and Geranium. This herbal formula can be mixed and placed on the end of an inhalant tube. It will stimulate the mind and body by increasing blood flow and promoting self-awareness.

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If you’re someone who loves to meditate (or wants to start) and has loads of meditation CD’s why not try something novel? Record your voice using meditation scripts. Imagine this, each visually guided session personalised through using your voice. You now have the power to adjust your rhythm, volume, tone, and pitch to exactly how you like! When you want to change the way your meditation sounds, you can easily do this by re-recording the script! All the more power to you!

Setting the Mood

Before you begin your recording session check out the next 10 points first:

1. Choose the quietest room you can work from. Will there be background noise? Close off doors and windows and shut down (where possible) anything that will create background noise.

2. Pencil in some recording time in your diary and let people know you’re going to be off-line for an hour or so.

3. When you’re ready to start your session switch on the answering machine (if you have one) and reduce the ring tone volume. If possible also decrease the number of times the telephone rings before going to the answering machine.

4. Put some relaxing essential oils in an aromatherapy oil burner such as lavender, geranium or bergamot - you probably have your personal favourites - go with what you prefer. Get the full benefit of relaxation before you even begin meditating!

5. Prepare audio equipment of your choice (see - So what do you actually use to record your voice?).

6. If you’d like to, have your favourite relaxation music playing quietly in the background.

7. Read each script aloud and thoroughly prior to recording your voice. When you read aloud you’ll pick up more easily where your pauses should be and if you’re happy with the speed, modulation etc.

8. Finally - before you press the record button, take a few deep breaths - relax and continue to relax until you have a sense that you’re totally present and centred.

9. When you’re ready and you’ve practised your rhythm, speed, volume and pitch to a stage where you’re happy with it, record the first script. When you’re done, replay it and assess if you’re happy with it. You’ll soon hear whether you’re going to be happy with it. The great thing is you can always re-record the scripts.

10. If you’re unhappy with the sound of your recorded voice (some of us are) maybe your partner or a close friend (who is willing) will loan you theirs.

So what do you actually use to record your voice?

You can record these scripts easily by using a blank cassette and a cassette recorder. Alternatively you might prefer to record them using a voice recorder such as the Windows Sound Recorder - you’ll find this on every installation of Windows. When you’ve completed your recording, you can burn it to a CD using a commercial CD copying program. Not only that, there are many free audio editor, software programs available for downloading on the internet - why not check out a few?

Michaela is a Transformational Coach, certified practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), writer and Metaphysician who is totally committed to helping others create positive and action oriented changes to their lives.

Michaela is the author of several e-books including Book of 10 Colour Meditation Scripts, and publisher of a monthly newsletter called From My Desk (see http://www.michaelascherr.com/Newsletters.htm).

Married to David, Michaela has two children and a grandchild and currently lives in Brisbane Australia.

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The demands of life today leave people everywhere plagued by stress. From hectic work schedules, a lack of sleep, reduced nutrients in diets, not drinking enough water, and the pressures of juggling family, life, and work, stress and stress related disorders are widespread.

Research proves just how serious stress is to the human body and how it’s the cause of numerous diseases. Stress is one of the main causes of heart ailments and those who have suffered heart attacks, the recommendation is to remove stress from their lives and embrace a “relaxed and more peaceful” existence.

Although this advice sounds simple, for the majority of people, this guidance is often harder to obtain than it seems. Removing stress sometimes requires hard work, which often induces stress in itself. Life doesn’t always offer us the advantages of removing all stress factors. If for example, it’s your boss or co-worker that is causing stress, one solution would be to change jobs, but not everyone has the option to change jobs at whim.

It could be a hard knock such as divorce that triggers the deep-rooted stress. This can’t be removed easily and requires going through the process of grief, and emotional and spiritual healing. The good news is we don’t have to put up with these causes of stress and its effects, there is a way out. There are lots of steps open to you that can decrease the effects of stress in your life and help regain your sense of control and strength while bringing calm and tranquility.

A well balanced diet and reducing the amount of heavily processed and highly sweetened foods is one of the basic ways to reduce stress. These “Comfort Foods” such as chocolate, candy, and fried greasy meals may bring temporary relief, but fill the body with waste which stresses your body internally. Now your stress is both inside your body and from the outside world. Now is the time to cleanse your body, and be nourished with plenty of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, along with drinking plenty of water. By enhancing your immune system you’ll have the health and vitality needed to deal with the stress and its root case, and avoid illness, which is often the result of an overly stressed system.

Dealing with stress is helped by bringing peace to your mind, body and spirit with the use of meditation and prayer. Using aromatherapy candles during peaceful times, whether meditating, praying, or simply reading a favorite book can do wonders for your sense of well-being. Some herbal scents that are known for reducing stress and anxiety include Lavender, Lemon, Rose, Chamomile, Black Cohosh, Hops, Passionflower, and Valerian. Set aside 15 minutes a day, light your aromatherapy candles and enjoy the moment.

These same herbal scents are available as essential oils and you can appreciate the aromatherapy benefits by adding a few drops of the oil to a hot bath, then lay back, relax and soak the moment.

Take the first step today towards dealing with your stress and get yourself some aromatherpay candles and oils, but most importantly, take the time to use and benefit from them.

Sally is the owner of Guide2Aromatherapy.com where she shares information about using aromatherapy
and resources for aromatherapy candles.

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