Migrating Birds take Powernaps

Many people find that taking a fifteen minute powernap during the day can help improve their productivity and maintain their energy level. As it turns out, animals also use powernaps to keep them on their migratory schedule.
A recent study published in the journal Animal Behavior found that birds take hundreds of powernaps all day long, each one lasting an average of just nine seconds. This information helps explain the mystery of how birds are able to fly for many long hours during their migration with little time for rest.
The team of scientists from the Bowling Green State University in Ohio studied Swainson's thrushes, which fly up to 3,000 miles from Canada and Alaska to Central and South America each autumn, only to return north in the spring. The birds fly mostly at night and rest during the day. Scientists observed caged thrushes for a year and recorded their sleep patterns and found that during their migratory seasons, they reverse their sleep patterns to stay awake at night.
The thrushes were found to take two types of powernaps, which the scientists termed "unilateral eye closure," during which the birds rest one eye and one half of their brain while the opposite eye and side of the brain remain awake and alert; and "drowsiness," in which the eyes are partially shut but some visual processing is still performed.
If you co-sleep with your baby, this type of semi-consciousness may sound very familiar to you. Many new mothers claim they remain completely aware of their surroundings when they are sleeping with their child nearby. These mothers say that, particularly while co-sleeping, they can sense the child's presence and hear any noises that might alert them to a problem. While they are able to get some sleep, their senses remain awake all night.

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The Great Outdoors

Spending time outdoors is a cherished tradition for many people, while others avoid the outdoors due to allergies, phobias, a lack of access or just a lack of interest. So many of us are surrounded every day by man-made technology designed to simplify our lives - such as cars, computers, and cell phones - but which can ultimately increase the pace of life, leaving us harried, stressed and sick. Sometimes we lose track of the peace and happiness that can be achieved just by taking a walk in the park or spending a day at the beach.
The psychological and physical affects of looking at or being near nature are more profound than most people realize. Studies have found that nature scenes help students perform better on tests, relieve anxiety in patients recovering from open heart surgery, help patients recover faster after gall bladder surgery, and reduce headaches and sickness in prison inmates. It's also been shown that spending time outside lessens fatigue in breast cancer patients and reduces outbursts from Alzheimer patients. And a recent study at the University of Illinois revealed that playing outdoors, particularly in lush green areas, can reduce symptoms of ADHD in children.
Sunlight is important for the production of serotonin in the brain, as well as for the production of vitamin D. The cells that make up our skin are built much like solar panels in the way they convert sunlight to the vitamin D necessary to maintain calcium levels in our blood and ensure strong bone structure. Vitamin D can also reduce the risk of certain types of cancers, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and osteoporosis. Although many foods contain vitamin D and many others are fortified with vitamin D, it is not as readily and safely absorbed by our bodies as the vitamin D that comes from pure sunlight. Approximately 80 percent of our daily vitamin D requirement is met through direct sunlight. However, 42 percent of African Americans between the ages of 15 and 29 and 36 percent of Caucasians ages 18 to 29 are vitamin D deficient. A vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of developing hyperparathyroidism, type 1 diabetes, hypertension, certain cancers and heart failure. Spending a few minutes outside a few times a week can ensure you get enough vitamin D, and any excess vitamin D is stored by your body for several weeks.
Spending time outdoors can be especially beneficial during pregnancy. The vitamin D you get from the sun helps promote fetal bone growth and reduce maternal bone loss during pregnancy, while the vitamin D found in breast milk is necessary for your child's skeletal and mental development. Walking near a body of water or taking a stroll in the woods can lower your blood pressure and improve your mood, which can help you relax and have a more comfortable pregnancy.
If you can't easily access a natural area or if you simply don't enjoy being in the great outdoors, you can purchase many items to help you bring a bit of nature inside your home. CDs featuring the roar of the ocean or birds singing in the forest can help you relax, while natural loofahs, mud masks, salt scrubs, seaweed wraps, light machines and natural light bulbs imitate some of the relaxing and healing qualities of the outdoors.

Learn more: http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/breathingspace/vol34/pregnancy_health_fitness.asp

The Third Eye Meditation

Breathe deeply. Inhale, slowly filling your abdomen up to your collarbone and exhale until the last breath is out. Relax.
Close your eyes. Place your attention on the area between your eyebrows. After a short time, a point of light will present itself in the center of your inner field of vision. Keep your focus there. For some people, it will be beneficial to raise their eyeballs as if they were looking up at about a 25-degree angle. For others, just directing their attention upwards will be easier and less distracting. After some experimentation, go with one of the ways exclusively. In the beginning of third eye practice, it may help to place your thumb at the outer edge of one eye and your middle finger on the outer edge of the other, while placing your index finger at the mid-point between your eyebrows. This gives you a point of focus to place your attention. It also allows you to prevent your eyelids from fluttering. This commonly occurs and can be distracting until you get used to the sensations that accompany this technique.
Let the light come to you. Be available to be filled. The more you continue practicing this meditation, the more layers of the veil of illusion will peel away and Reality will reveal itself to you. As you perceive the Truth, your understanding of the delusional concept that you are apart from the rest of the universe will lose its grip on you, and the knowledge that you are a part of all and everything will become undeniably apparent. Your chattering mind will eventually dissolve in the unspeakable transcendent light of love that is now and forever within and without you...

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The Dalai Lama's Meditation

Sit quietly, calmly with eyes closed, as relaxed yet aware as you can be.
Visualize yourself on the left side of your minds eye as you would appear to yourself and others in a moment of impatience. Really see this inner vision. Watch your face, observe your body language. What does your impatient self look like?
On the right side of your minds eye, see yourself when you are very patient. What do you look like when you have a lifetime of time. As tense as you appeared on the left as your impatient self, see yourself as relaxed in your patience on the right.
Now on the left side, see yourself as you appear when you're depressed. Look carefully. How does that make you feel? Can you be aware of the aura of doom and gloom you're radiating? And then, on the right side of your minds eye, see yourself as you are when you're joyous. Merge with that happiness. Know how others would see you.
Continue seeing all the seemingly negative feelings and behaviors on the inner left-hand side of your minds eye and the opposite on the right.
On the left, see yourself as jealous and on the right as how you appear when you are truly glad for someone else's success or happiness. On the left, see the bigoted you and on the right, the all-embracing. On the left the mean, on the right the sweet. See the stupid you and the brilliant. See the clumsy and the graceful. On the left, see the unsatisfied and on the right, the contented.
Go on and on, becoming familiar with the "you" on the left and the opposite "you" on the right.
Then see the total "you" who would be there on the left if none of the characteristics of the right side were present. Now see the "you" who would be the totality of yourself with the right side only if none of the behaviors and feelings of the left side "you" had ever appeared.

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