| Why is wakeful rest more restorative than ordinary | | | | you in the academic detail), be mindful that the |
| unconscious rest of a traditional nap? The answer to | | | | greatest stress release, purification, restoration and |
| this question could change your life if you put into | | | | healing occur during wakeful rest, not during deep |
| practice its message. | | | | sleep. Though it is true that deep sleep is essential to |
| You know how sometimes a daytime nap leaves you | | | | psychological health, the body's greatest self-repair |
| feeling like a slug upon awakening, whereas other | | | | occurs during alpha-theta states. Here's why. |
| wakeful rest enlivens you upon your return to | | | | Healing at Its Best in Wakeful Rest |
| ordinary activity. You may have had this experience. | | | | As mind and body are at rest, the system naturally |
| Brain Wave Patterns and Corresponding Mental | | | | engages in a purification process, which inherently is a |
| States | | | | state of activity, not inactivity. By activity, I don't |
| When the mind and body are at rest, all physiological | | | | mean ordinary daily activity, I mean the miniscule, |
| processes slow down and restoration becomes the | | | | though magnificent activity of stress release. We |
| order of business. Looking at brain wave activity of | | | | know this through the decades of research on the |
| the wakeful, resting and sleeping person, we see | | | | psychophysiology of meditation. |
| four distinct brain waves: beta, alpha, theta and delta, | | | | Suffice it to say, when you spend twenty to thirty |
| each corresponding to a specific mental state. | | | | minutes once or twice during the day in wakeful rest, |
| The brain wave patterns associated with ordinary | | | | you engage in a restoration more profound than the |
| activity are beta and alpha states, alpha and theta | | | | inactivity of deep sleep. And for domestic violence |
| with wakeful rest, and delta with deep sleep. Each | | | | survivors, the more stress release the better so as |
| brain wave pattern corresponds to a specific state | | | | to offset the ongoing heighten level of arousal that |
| of mental functioning. | | | | colors your day. |
| For the sake of simplicity (as I don't want to lose | | | | |