Do you get up in the morning and just keep going until it is time for bed? Can you allow yourself to lie down even for several minutes during the day? Do you need a reason to lie down? Here are two.
Straighten out the body
During our active time we are constantly defying gravity. Standing, sitting or moving about, it is always pulling us down. And you might have noticed that you can be taller in the morning than the night before. This is due to compression in your spine and the joints throughout the body.
Lying down on your back for a while will relieve the pressure on the joints and will also give time for all the muscles to let go and relax. Your spine will ‘straighten out’, the legs will stretch, the head will be supported. Every part will have the opportunity to realign and rest. Your posture will improve.
The best place to do this is on a harder surface that is not sagging down. Coincidentally, lying flat on our backs is how yoga classes end for the most part.
Give the nervous system a break
Our nervous system becomes tired and less efficient during the day as well. Using our bodies, contracting our muscles means that we are using our nervous system too to operate the complicated systems. Just as we relieve the demand on the muscles that hold us up by lying down, we also relieve the consequent demand on the nervous system.
Furthermore, muscular and nervous activity is a chemical process. Some of the chemicals involved are recycled, some turn into a waste product. A period when nothing much is going on allows the body to sort out the chemistry and get rid of waste.
So find a moment today and lie down on the floor. For me the best time to do that is in the late afternoon, when I start to feel the weight of my shoulders pulling me down. But you can do it even twice or more times, why not. I bet you will feel better afterwords.
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Photo by Maria Lupan on Unsplash
