Watch this video to Discover:
- The many benefits of napping for your health, well-being, creativity and weight loss
- How napping can help you overcome exhaustion, stress and even stave off junk food cravings
- Quick tip on how to squeeze in a power nap anywhere and anytime in your day
Naps are one of those things that we secretly want to do, especially an afternoon nap. However, none of us ever really end up taking naps, because we feel like we’re not being very productive or because it just feels like too much of a luxury.
Yet, naps are actually one of the most important things that you can do for your health, overall well-being, for your creativity, fitness and even for weight loss.
Usually, when we think of weight loss, we think of burning calories or eating less, and it’s true, you’re not really doing either of those when you’re taking a nap.
But it turns out that one of the reasons we gain weight is because of stress and exhaustion. Stress activates a hormone, known as cortisol, that causes perpetual junk food cravings. Typically in the afternoons, we’re feeling both stressed out and tired. A nap can solve both of those problems. Just taking a 5 or 10 minute nap, around 3:00 or 4:00 pm, will help stave off junk food cravings and reduce the stress hormones that cause your body to hold on to weight.
What I suggest is to watch your patterns and observe your body and what it tries to communicate to you around that time, a.k.a afternoon slump. What you’ll notice is typically there is a certain time in the afternoon, somewhere between 2:30pm- 4:30pm when you’re feeling really tired, you’re not very productive and you start to crave junk food.
So if you start to feel tired around those times, see if you can take a 5 or 10 minute break to just close your eyes and take a little nap. If you can lie down that would be great, but if not, resting your eyes in the car in the parking lot, or on a park bench for just 5 to 10 minutes will really help relax your mind and body before you get up and get going again.
What you can also do during this time is listen to a visualization, visualization done correctly puts your brain in the alpha and the theta state, both of which will allow you to receive the rejuvenating effects of being in this deep relaxation mode.
It’s also great to have a healthy snack at the ready. The types of foods you want to prepare are foods that contain healthy fats such as avocados, coconut oil, ghee, butter, or chia seeds. These healthy fats combined with a healthy protein, like grass-fed free range animal protein mixed with some live greens, combined with a nap will work wonders for helping you change your body hormonally so that your not stressed out, don’t have junk food cravings and can make healhty food choices the rest of the day.
As you might already know, here at The Gabriel Method we’re always making visualization for specific aspects of weight loss. As a result, we have an afternoon recharge visualization that you can listen to and download for free right here. The visualization is about 7 minutes long and it will help you feel refreshed and recharged. Give napping and visualization a try and you’ll see how it will improve your productivity, creativity, energy levels and weight loss goals!
