One of the most common things runners tell me is that running is their form of stress relief. That’s great, but it can become problematic when you’re injured and can’t run, or when you don’t have time, or sometimes even when running isn’t quite enough.
Stress can also overwhelm your running. Through more than a decade of professional practice I’ve found that all the many ways that running and stress interact are responsible for many, many running injuries that didn’t have to happen. (My series of blog posts on stress and running starts here.)
It’s important for you to have healthy ways of relieving stress besides running. So I’d like to share a resource I created many, many years ago to help you reduce the life stress that may be impairing your ability to run well, sleep well and recover properly.
Heart of the Palm is a guided relaxation I created in the style of the Sounder Sleep System and taught to students looking to reduce their daytime stress and sleep better at night.
I taught it to people in outpatient psychiatric centers, outpatient AIDS day programs, programs for cancer survivors, a halfway house for ex-offenders, in workshops at the New York Open Center for people struggling with insomnia and stress, and even once, memorably, to a room full of sleep medicine doctors, all of whom fell asleep sitting right there in their chairs.
I loved teaching it because I loved watching people’s faces and bodies relax, the stress and tension melting away, until every single one of them looked beautiful. No matter where people were coming from or what they were struggling with, they felt they felt clearer, calmer, and better by the end of the class.
If that sounds like something you could use, or even if you just want an easy technique to use for five minutes in the middle of the day to help you relax, then give it a try.
The audio talks you through a full-length version, which is good for learning and you can also use in bed at night. But once you get the hang of it you can do it anywhere you can sit or lie down undisturbed for a few minutes.
Enjoy!
Note: this recording is a bit of a museum piece, with suboptimal audio quality and ancient info on my professional practice as it was in 2001. The actual technique begins around 1:22.
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The track for the Deep Relaxation Audio Lesson is not accessible. Is it possible to correct this? I’ve been having difficulty sleeping, and fear it is affecting my recovery. I’m hoping this lesson can be of some assistance. Thank you! Christa Fenton
Thanks for letting us know, Christa. We changed hosts for all our audio files and it’s been hard to track down all the blog posts that still have links to the old files, since there are so many posts. We’ll update this one by tomorrow, so check back then. I hope it helps you!
Thank you, for sharing this Jae
I found your Heart of the Palm relaxation technique wonderfully comforting and calming. So simple but so profound. I feel amazing – I will certainly take this practice into my daily life. Thank you once again 🙏
You’re so welcome, Suzanne!
I tried this well before I thought I would fall asleep but fell asleep soundly before half of the recording. Hoping to do the whole recording and remain awake to do it all. I became very quickly relaxed.
Wonderful!
Hi Jae
I have this audio from you from some time ago and really rate it. I am pleased to see you making it available again.
I appreciate that this is quite old and may be from a ‘different part of your life’, but I would love to hear of more Audio you might have produced using the Sounder Sleep System. I have Michael Krugman’s book, and can go through it myself, but this track of yours is the best audio I have found using this approach.
Thanks & Regards, Jon N
I’m glad you like it, Jon! I never recorded any other Sounder Sleep techniques, I’m afraid. I did just check the “shop” page on soundersleep.com and I see there is an audio CD set called Rest Assured with a variety of techniques, and it looks like it ships from Europe, so maybe that would be an option for you. I think since Michael Krugman passed away without leaving anyone in charge it’s been tricky to keep the method going and offer things like recordings.
Thanks Jae. I know about the ‘Rest Assured’ set but am reluctant to pay for them without a sample listen. I’ve heard some negative comments on the reading and in my experience of Feldenkrais lessons, the ‘fit’ of the audio is quite important (your voice is a good fit for ‘heart of the palm’! ;-).
I keep promising to record my own lessons from the Michael Krugman book (not that I like the sound of my own voice much ;-/), but haven’t got around to it yet…
Regards, jon N