Time to Rest
By Steve Goodier
It has been said that the amount of sleep required by the average
person is just five minutes more! Too many of us are chronically
sleep-deprived. Late to bed and early to rise. And it costs us
dearly.
Dr. Dean Ornish wrote a bestselling book called STRESS, DIET AND
YOUR HEART. It was a good book. In it he talks about how to manage
stress, how diet promotes a health life and why proper stress
management and good diet affects ones heart.
He should have been on top of the world. He had just turned forty. He
was fit and healthy. STRESS, DIET AND YOUR HEART soared to the
top of The New York Times bestseller list. So what was the problem?
Where was the joy and fulfillment he so desperately wanted?
He was working more than 80 hours a week, what with speaking,
promoting his book and working, and he was exhausted. A wake-up call
came in a conversation with a flight attendant. Ornish had just
barely made it in time for his flight and he collapsed into his seat.
A flight attendant noticed his frazzled state. She remarked, "You
look harried."
"I feel harried," he admitted.
The attendant tried to encourage him. She said, "I just read a book
that might help! She said she highly recommended it. It was a book
called STRESS, DIET AND YOUR HEART. She told him that it had
some wonderful stress-management techniques that he might try.
At that point Dr. Ornish decided to make the changes he so
desperately needed.
(From "Why Being Happy Keeps You Healthy," by Dean Ornish, M.D.,
"Family Circle," April 1, 1998)
We need lots of rest. These bodies are beautiful creations. They run
practically on peanuts and, when well cared for, they can serve us
splendidly for many years. But when neglected they run down like an
unwound clock.
Sir John Lubbock once said this about relaxation: "Rest is not
idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day
listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float
across the sky, is hardly a waste of time."
Is it time to rest?
Steve Goodier
Publisher@LifeSupportSystem.com is a professional
speaker, consultant and author of numerous books. Visit his site for
more information, or to sign up for his FREE newsletter of Life, Love
and Laughter at
http://LifeSupportSystem.com.