#1352 Napitate Lately?

Today I want to talk about Napitations.

Napitations? Yes. Napitations.

50% Nap. 50% Meditation. 101% Heroically Energizing.

(We actually talked about this forever ago in +1 #326.)

Here’s the deal.

In short…

Science says: Naps are powerful. In fact, Sara Mednick wrote a whole book about the power of naps. It’s called Take a Nap! Change Your Life. (Check out those Notes!)

Did you know that EVERY animal species (BUT HUMANS!) takes a nap during the day? Yep.

Every other animal is “multiphasic, meaning that they have many phases of sleep. Homo sapiens (our modern industrialized variety, anyway) stand alone in attempting to satisfy the need for sleep in one phase. … As A. Roger Ekirch, one of the few historians to study sleep, put it, ‘Napping is a tool as old as time itself.’”

Did you know that the Romans set up their Masterpiece Days to include a time for naps? Yep.

“By the first century B.C., the Romans had divided their day into periods designated for specific activities, such as prayer, meals and rest. Midday became known as sexta, as in the sixth hour (noon by their way of counting), a time when everyone would go to bed. The word has survived in the familiar term siesta.”

Did you know there are at LEAST 20 good reasons to take a nap? Yep.

According to Dr. Mednick, you should nap if you want to… “Increase your alertness, make better decisions, preserve your youthful looks, lose weight, reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke, improve your stamina, elevate your mood, boost your creativity, reduce stress, reduce dependence on drugs/alcohol, alleviate migraines, ulcers and other problems with psychological components, improve the ease and quality of your nocturnal sleep and… Because it feels good.”

That’s a quick take on the WHY.

Here’s the quick take on the HOW.

Or, at least how I do it.

First, decide it’s worth the experiment.

Then, go all in.

I personally go into the ol’ bedroom and put in the ear plugs and put on the noise canceling headphones to make it quiet. Then I pull the black-out curtains shut to make it dark then I hop in bed, pull the covers up and act like I mean business as I put on my eye-mask thing.

Then I clear my mind as I do my go-to breath count and COMPLETELY relax my body.

I breathe in through my nose, down into my belly to a count of six. Hold for one. Exhale back out through my nose for a count of eight.

Ah…

Repeat.

Thoughts arise? Perfect. Back to our breath count. COMPLETELY relaxing our body.

And…

BOOM.

Science says that a nap as short as SIX minutes can have incredibly positive benefits.

I find that after 7-11-15 minutes I am surprisingly (!) Energized and ready to dominate the rest of the day.

Napitatations.

They do a Hero good.

Try one…

TODAY!