Self Love. Self Care. Inspiration

Self Love. Self Care. Inspiration

My book of poetry, "Stripping- My fight to find Me" is a story of the triumph of the human spirit. It is a story of our deep need for connection and the infinite power of love to heal.

Hello,
It’s Sunita here.

I am a poet, an author, a wife, a mother, a sleep doctor, and a childhood trauma survivor. I healed when I understood that I was broken, not a victim. I learnt that everything I needed was within me. And that my mental health and my inner life was the essence and driving force of my existence.

I now want to challenge and inspire you to move beyond your old stories so you can embrace possibility and fulfill your potential. So, if that is where you are in your life, I invite you to come visit with me when I write. The conversation is honest, the topics are varied, the perspectives are from many angles, but the bottom line is always Self Love Self Care First®.

Where did SLSCF® come from? I realized that I needed to find meaning in my suffering. I kept thinking, “What did I come out of this journey with? How can I convey what I now know other than what is in my poetry? What is the simplest, most fundamental, basic understanding of human nature that I discovered? And that is where Self Love Self Care First® comes from. I discovered that If we do not love ourselves, we do not care for ourselves. The pain of our lives and the messages we receive go deep to cause us at times to not pay attention to ourselves, and at times even hate ourselves. It is a difficult journey. And these feelings and beliefs come from the deepest parts of our unconscious. Self Love Self Care First® is a journey of learning we are all on. This is The Journey. To find compassion for ourselves. To find acceptance for ourselves. To find love for ourselves.

Find your light. Because we are not moving towards any light. There is no light out there. It is inside. We must move inwards- not outward to look for the light. The light is inside you.

And when you find yours, you light up the world!
I hope you will join me in a journey of discovery, wonder, growth, and a celebration of our truth.

And love…

Because what else is there to talk about?

Be well, Do well, Live well,
Warmly,
Sunita



Sunday, July 5, 2020

How a Nightcap is Robbing You of What You Really Need to Survive and Thrive During COVID-19



Hello,

It's Sunita here.

If you have walked over to your liquor cabinet and poured yourself a nightcap during this pandemic, consumer reports suggest you are not alone. 

"U.S. sales of alcoholic beverages rose 55% in the week ending March 21, according to market research firm Nielsen. Spirits like tequila, gin and pre-mixed cocktails led the way, with sales jumping 75% compared to the same period last year. Wine sales were up 66% while beer sales rose 42%. And online sales far outpaced in-store sales. Nielsen said online alcohol sales were up 243%. Danelle Kosmal, a Nielsen vice president, suspects growth rates peaked that week as people loaded up their pantries before state stay-at-home orders went into effect." Source- Marketwatch

The negative effects of alcohol on our health, decision making and behaviors is of grave concern during any time, but especially so during a pandemic when stresses are more than any other time we have experienced. The COVID-19  pandemic is affecting every family in our country, and will likely have a yet unknown, and in many cases, a reasonably projected long lasting impact on our health and well being.

It is not unusual for us to turn to alcohol in times of stress, thinking it will help us feel relaxed, and take the edge off our worries and anxiety. 

But the exact opposite happens. 

And it may be the beginning of a vicious cycle that drags us down the dangerous path of decline, and possible addiction.

To be able to fight, and overcome the stressors of the COVID19 pandemic, it is critical that we maintain optimal physical, emotional and mental health. We must be focused, and have the clarity necessary to ably make short-term and long- term decisions with perspective. For that we need 7-8 hours of restorative sleep. Excessive, or even small amounts of alcohol in many cases will not allow us to get that. Drinking before bedtime is especially detrimental to our sleep. 

We need 7-8 hours of restful and restorative sleep to function optimally, so a nightcap is not helping us survive, or thrive during a pandemic that has unleashed stress, worries about our futures, and major disruptions in our personal, social and professional lives.

You may believe that a nightcap helps you sleep more soundly. Untrue! Let me explain how.

1- Alcohol is a sedative. 

You may ask why you feel enlivened after drinking alcohol if it is a sedative. Well, the first part of the brain that is immobilized by alcohol is our prefrontal cortex. That is the part of the brain that helps control our impulses and restrains our body. So after drinking an alcoholic beverage, we initially feel like we have "loosened up" and are more relaxed. We may even feel elated, excited and energized. But this gaiety changes into sluggishness as other parts of our brain start to feel the sedative effects of alcohol.


We give up a state of consciousness more readily and slip into a state of sedation. This not the same as sleep. If you were to see the electrical brainwave state of your brain in this period, it would look very different from when you experience natural sleep.

2- Alcohol before bedtime fragments your sleep. 

It is causes mini awakenings all night long which are not remembered by us, but negatively impact the nature of natural sleep, causing it to be non restorative. The next day becomes exhausting.

3- Alcohol is one of the most powerful suppresants of REM sleep. 

Our REM sleep aids us in memory integration and association, the type of information processing required for developing grammatical rules in new language learning, in synthesizing sets of related facts into an interconnected whole. 

It takes our liver and kidneys many hours to degrade and excrete the alcohol consumed before we sleep. Nightly alcohol will disrupt your sleep. More specifically, any alcohol consumption after noon-2 pm will disrupt your sleep.

In addition to the many physical and mental harmful effects it has on us, fragmented sleep and deprivation disruption of REM sleep will result in exhaustion and poor decision making the next day. 

Poor decisions most likely will include having a nightcap the next night, and then every night. You get the picture. It is a cascading problem that robs us of our ability to manage our stress and survive the pandemic. 

In case you need assistance with alcohol addiction, and/or want more information about Alcohol and Covid-19, please explore this link alcohol and COVID19. Any history of trauma, mental injury, mental illness, depression, anxiety,etc. may put you at a higher risk/susceptibility to alcohol abuse during this stressful time. Do not wait to seek help. If you are suffering from sleep deprivation, insomnia, daytime fatigue/sleepiness, snoring, see your PCP or a sleep specialist immediately. You may have an undiagnosed sleep disorder.

While in quarantine, consider a yellow balloon approach to life. Abstinence is the best, and most predictable way to get a good nights sleep.


 Learn more about the "yellow balloon".

Get enough natural sleep. Wake up refreshed. See your problems with a fresh perspective, think creatively, and overcome being stuck. Get to work. Surviving COVID-19 is not the goal. Thriving beyond it is!

Wishing you a week of great sleep and wise decisions,

Love,

Sunita

#selfloveselfcarefirst #selflove #selfcare #sleep #alcohol #nightcap #sleepfragmentation #REM #sleepdeprivation #addiction #COVID19 #stress #survive #thrive #decisionmaking #wellness #mentalhealth #trauma #sleepapnea #insomnia




 




Posted by Sunita Merriman at 9:49 AM
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Sunita Merriman

Poet. Author. Wife. Mother. Clinician. Childhood Trauma Survivor

Author of

Stripping : My Fight to Find Me

“You may be broken but you are not a victim.

Everything you need is within you”

Challenging You to Move Beyond Your Old Stories so You Can Embrace Possibility and Fulfill your Potential

Inspiring you to put Self Love and Self Care First™

www.SunitaMerriman.com

Sunita's first book, Stripping - My Fight to Find Me, is available now from Balboa Press


Visit http://www.sunitamerriman.com to learn more about the book or to order it from Balboa, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Audible, or iTunes.

Stripping - My Fight to Find Me

Stripping - My Fight to Find Me


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