How Yoga Works (part two) Two Situations

Ideal situation

You wake with gentle zen chimes (this really makes a difference for me, available on itunes yet they also sell Zen alarm clocks) from a good night sleep where you were predominantly resting in theta and delta waves. You wake up with sufficient time to prepare for work. You get out of bed and are not rushing so you are calmly moving about your day and are now in alpha waves. If you drink caffeine you have a small dose of just one cup which will bring you into beta waves.

You move throughout your morning and enjoy a tempered drive to work listening to something that promotes relaxing. Throughout your work day you take momentary breaks to stand up and stretch your arms overhead (this severely disperses compressional forces on lower spine and increase blood flow promoting energy). It only takes 30 seconds to stand and stretch. This also helps reset your attention span.

You keep a glass of water next to your desk and drink water because you realize that dehydration is one of the easiest ways to misconstrue hungry and promote lower energy levels. You shift into beta waves as needed throughout the day yet maintain a constant foundation of alpha waves as you move through your tasks with great efficiency.

You practice mindful breathing throughout the day which helps you maintain a sense of calmness yet alertness. Your take a walk at lunch or engage in some light reading and enjoy a healthy lunch. You go back to work and by mid afternoon you eat another healthy snack which will help prevent energy crash. You leave work and exercise before coming home. Once home you spend time with your family and have a healthy dinner with possibly one glass of wine without the TV on. You finish the night sipping tea and reading which helps shift your gears down from alpha-theta-delta.

Not so ideal

You wake up to loud buzzer from alarm with not a lot of time to get to work. You just shifted from delta or theta right into beta and skipped alpha. You move quickly to get ready for work and drink 2-3 cups of coffee. You drive to work in a rush listening to music or something that aids in maintaining beta mind.

Get into work and start working feeling overwhelmed by the day tasks maintaining beta mind. You don’t drink any water pushing you into a dehydrated state. Due to the feeling of being overwhelmed you never get up at your desk till lunch. You have spent a large majority of your morning in beta mind. For lunch you eat something not so healthy loaded in high glycemic carbs and saturated fats. Your blood sugars drop an hour or so after lunch and you are tired and bouncing from alpha to theta with brief periods of beta.

To stay awake you go for more coffee or a candy bar. This helps you make it through the day yet your ability to focus is poor due to the brain waves. There is no exercise after work and instead grab a few beers. You get home and have the munchies so you eat something unhealthy. You eat too much because your blood sugars are off from too much alcohol and dehydration because you drank no water throughout the day. This puts you into a food coma on the couch where you pass out. You wake up around midnight and make your way up to bed where falling back to sleep can be difficult due to the fact that your brain waves are confused as to what part of the day it is. You eventually fall asleep yet you wake up periodically throughout the night depriving yourself from ever really spending time healing in theta and delta.