Going strong? Do you produce results at a tight pace and with a heavy heart rate? Are you having trouble sleeping? Get to know the expert’s point of view to relieve overexcitement – 2024-03-01 15:27:13

Do you have trouble falling asleep? Or do you wake up at night and it’s difficult to fall asleep, when your thoughts start spinning, keeping watch until the morning? Salla Salo has been a physical therapist for almost thirty years and he sees one pandemic getting worse every year. You could call it a “performance pandemic”. This is a problem on both an individual and societal level, and yet not many people seem to be worried about it.

– For many people I meet, their whole life seems to be some kind of performance, in which all possible aspects are measured. You should be “the best possible version of yourself” or at least “give your all” and be as efficient and planned as possible 24/7, says Salla, who specializes in psychophysical physiotherapy.

The pace of working life and the rhythm of life have accelerated

The needs and functioning of the human body have not changed for thousands of years, but the life around us has. For example, many people imagine that they are doing their body good by constantly whipping it into rigorous training, ignoring the fact that the body and mind are always and all the time connected to each other. The burden of the body is also the burden of the mind.

– When you interview people about the state of their body, you often hear mention of “disappointment with your own body” or that it’s as if “my body has betrayed me” when it doesn’t work as expected. This reveals that the connection between body and mind has not been understood and brings out the expectations placed on the body, which the body has not been able to fulfill. It may be that the expectations have been subconscious, but the body has still acted insufficiently and incompletely in the customer’s opinion.

Disappointments are the result of too high or distorted expectations. They have not been aware of the body’s resources and the actual situation of the body, but have only pushed forward.

– I want to tell you that your body always works great! Salla emphasizes. Your body works appropriately and excellently with exactly the powers and resources it has at that exact moment and in that situation. Always. Unfortunately, however, very few people stop very often to think about their own body’s resources and listen to their body’s resources before they get hurt somewhere.

Most physical problems are caused by the fact that the body has not received enough rest, the right kind of maintenance and recovery, the right kind of nutrition or the right kind of exercise. It’s worth remembering that you can easily cause problems for your body by moving too much or with an intensity that is too strenuous or that is not suitable for you.

– Often the mind just wants and demands more from the body than it is capable of at that moment, and then the mind is disappointed when the body did not act according to the mind even though the mind has not sacrificed a single thought for the real well-being of the body. The body can often compensate for a long time, and when it fails, we have already gone to the other side of the compensation mechanisms and it may be that there is a journey back to balance and well-being from there, and that journey is usually not a quick one, Salla analysed.

The rhythm of the body and the pace of the mind are completely different

The mind can process things very quickly. The mind is not very easily inclined to give the body time, but often takes the body and its flawless functioning for granted. The body does change, but rarely very quickly.

– For quite a few, the most difficult exercise for mind and body balance is agreeing to the body’s rhythm and agreeing to your own body. However, the real change only starts there. The mind fights and the mind frustrates and irritates, but this is really the most important exercise on the road to well-being. Only after that do we slowly and patiently start building resources for the body and a strong foundation for real well-being of body and mind, Salla sums up.

Sleeping is the cornerstone on which the temple of well-being is built

– I usually talk with my clients about sleep, rest and recovery also more broadly, nutrition, of course, exercise and body care, as well as compassionate presence in and for one’s own body. By far the most important of these is sleep! It’s like a cornerstone on which the whole wonderful temple of well-being is built from other building blocks – and if the sleep is not in order, the whole structure collapses. Even if you take care of all other areas in an exemplary manner, too short sleeps constantly or the poor quality of sleep takes the bottom out of everything. It is not possible to compensate for sleeping with anything else, says Salla.

Sleeping is an interesting thing because it affects absolutely everything in our entire system, both body and mind, in a renewing and revitalizing way. It even affects us at the DNA level.

– To quote one of my favorite researchers, an English sleep researcher Matthew Walkeria: “The shorter the night’s sleep, the shorter the life.” This is his conclusion based on more than 20 extensive epidemiological studies and after studying sleep and sleeping for several decades, says Salla.

According to Salla, it will come as a surprise to many that one of the foundations of good sleep and sleep is built on a good daily rhythm, i.e. how you organize your everyday life every day: what time you move, what time you eat and what kind of meals, what kind of alcohol consumption you have and how much time you set aside for calming down and recovering .

Physiotherapy and sleep ergonomics to support relaxation

Physiotherapy often includes assessment of movement and movement as well as guidance, therapeutic exercise and manual therapy depending on how the body is showing symptoms at that particular moment. At the reception, you can also practice various relaxation methods, from which you can get tools to help you fall asleep or improve the quality of your sleep. For example, you can try calming and restorative movements or breathing regulation to relax your body and mind, or practice self-suggestions to guide your brain towards a more relaxed and restful night’s sleep.

– It’s always amazing to hear and see customers sleeping and could you say that with that, the whole life changes in a more peaceful direction! I myself have one trusted partner in sleeping, namely TEMPUR! I’ve been sleeping on a Tempur mattress and pillow for years. In my opinion, the feeling of relaxation and recovery created by Tempur mattresses is in a class of its own. They reduce the pressure on the body in a very unique way and therefore reduce tossing and turning at night and improve the quality of sleep. The metabolism of the tissues remains good and the recovery of the body is made possible in a really excellent way with the help of the Tempur mattress. I would say that Tempur and its improved sleeping ergonomics is a compassionate choice for your own body!

The Tempur pillow is Salla’s best travel companion

– Sometimes people laugh at me because I carry my own Tempur pillow with me on all possible trips. I have been organizing wellness trips to Italy for fifteen years, where we enjoy culture, good food and drink, sun and nature, and Pilates training in a wonderful setting and in a relaxed atmosphere. But in my opinion, hotel beds are almost always completely unsuitable, and that’s why I always take my own big Tempur pillow with me on trips. So not even the travel version, but really my XL-sized Millennium pillow. It does take up almost half the space of a large suitcase, but I think a quality night’s sleep and recovery is worth it, especially when traveling. When there is even a very good pillow, at least I can find a good position for my neck and then I can use the hotel’s own pillows to make the bed a little more suitable for me. And the purpose is that those trips are specifically wellness trips.

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