Lay Down Sally

Rest here in my arms,

Don't you think you want someone to talk to.

Thought  I was out of the tired stage. Turns out I was out of the narcoleptic stage. 

Especially after meals, I'm all "I think I'll lie down for a bit" instead of "I feel great, let's keep this train rolling!"

You know what though? This is normal (it's got less to do with pregnancy than with real life). After you eat, you're supposed to lie down. Don't matter if you fall asleep, but if your schedule is jam-packed as is every other American, no doubt you will fall asleep. 

The trick is to have enough willpower and self-discipline and overall greatness, really, to get up after 20-30 minutes. Because after that, you're done, son. Go past 30 minutes and you are swimming with sharks. Grogginess rolls in, and she's just as bad as that fatigue you experienced after your meal. She's an all-consuming bad mood mixed with a little laziness and PMS. Your head is going to be so empty, you'll feel a little piece of sand rolling around in there, like the one in my iPhone. Plus, you'll be talking like my husband talks in his sleep, "Just let me fix it!" "Ayatoddy (?) I'll feed the cats." Not much sense, and a lot of fits and outbursts with leg kicks. 

This is going straight into your gastrointestinal tract. This information. Because it's all about digestion. Digestion is put on hold if you are in sympathetic (fight or flight) mode, which is how we all are about 70% of the time, even though the only danger, really. is how we're treating ourselves, most of the time, except, of course, if you live with a lion. 

I live with one.

You know what else about lions? They sleep. Right after a big meal. Actually, they eat meat so they are forced to sleep through most of the day. Just like big Jackson.

What's needed then is the parasympathetic mode for optimal digestion. And listen buddy, the calmer you are, the better the whole thing goes for you. The more optimal your digestion, the higher your energy. Because the gut takes a big cut of it when it does its thing, which takes a long time, believe me.  So if you can start it off right with a little bitty nap, why not? So I imagine that lying down after lunch and supper (unless you work the night shift, most likely you'll be going to sleep after supper), is the best thing to do. My dad told me to do this a long time ago. Take a nap, not too long, after lunch, and your whole day will go better.

Because people are not home in the middle of the day usually. The modern-day workplace does not condone curling up into a ball for 30 minutes under your desk like George Castanza. 

 I can't imagine just lying down under a shelf in the bookstore like a bum after I eat at work. Or during one of my yoga classes--lying down and not talking. "I just ate. So this is a silent yoga class. Y'all do what you want while I just lie here. I'll teach you for the last 30 minutes if I wake up." Which would easily make me the worst yoga teacher ever.

 Which brings us to our pose of the day:

This is savasana. Pronounced SHavasana. We do this pose in every class. It's very simple--just lie on your back. But you know? It's always at the end of class for the last 5-10 minutes. Why? To soak up the benefits of the poses done before. To meditate on the body. Maybe it's necessary to stop and lie down after every nourishing and helpful thing you do for yourself--eating, yoga, walking, laughing, feeding the dog, taking a shower, talking to friends. Imagine. Productivity wouldn't be high, but we'd be jolly as could be.

So I pronounce to the world (maybe disregarding Spain because it looks like they already do this), to enforce a nap-time. I hereby introduce the Nap Time to Prevent Brain Funk Law. We could definitely call it something better, but I don't have all day. We'll let the House and Senate deal with nomenclature. All companies must give their employees the opp to nap after lunch. It would be best to have a nap/yoga room with cots and bunk beds, and no funny business like Grey's Anatomy. If I ever run a company, you better believe employees will get 30 minutes of R&R after lunch. No more than 30 minutes because I've been to the dark side. I'm actually there right now. Nap gone wrong. 

Nap gone long.

I took this from my friend Caroline's blog. I like it a lot.

So for the sake of productivity, let's keep it with eating and yoga. If at all possible, do an experiment and see how much better you feel if you should be able to lie down for 20 minutes after your next lunch. Close your eyes. See where it takes you. Right out of brain funk, no doubt.

Restfully, 

Liza Jane