Everyday Calm: Relaxing Rituals for Busy People by Darrin Zeer (a book to read .txt) 📕

3. Gently lower your upper body into a forward bend.

4. Let your head drop forward and relax your neck muscles.

5. Breathe and relax into the stretch.

Be patient with yourself; peace and relaxation will arrive.

Sleep Serenity

Even when you’re tired it can be hard to fall asleep. This exercise is sure to bring on the Z’s. Get into bed and lie flat on your back with your arms and legs apart. Take long and deep breaths, imagining that you are breathing into your whole body. After taking a deep inhalation, hold your breath. Practice tightening all the muscles in your body and hold tight for a few moments. Exhale and release all your muscles, imagining that each muscle is limp and relaxed. Repeat this practice three times, or until you can feel your body melting into your mattress. This will help you fall asleep peacefully.

What we think, we become.

—Buddha

Biographies

Darrin Zeer, a self-styled relaxation consultant, is also the author of Office Yoga and Office Spa, both from Chronicle Books. He travels around North America encouraging people to stay calm, enjoy their work, and be successful. He has appeared on CNN, in Time magazine, on NPR radio, on Web MD, and in hundreds of other media venues. Darrin spent seven years in Asia studying the Eastern arts of healing and meditation. He lives in Hawaii and California, where he writes and also consults for companies like 3M, Four Seasons Resort, and Glen Ivy Hot Springs Spa. Darrin is involved in the Miracle of Love Intensive, a six-day spiritual program that is offered in many cities around the world. If you or your company would like to contact the author, please visit his Web site at www.relaxationconsultants.com.

Cindy Luu is a New York City–based illustrator and graphic designer whose clients include Bloomingdale’s and Ann Taylor. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. This is her first book.

Acknowledgments

Special special thanks to Kalindi for being my inspiration! Thanks also to my wife, Monique; my parents, Louis and Carole; my editor, Lisa Campbell; my agent, Jeffrey Herman; my mentor, John Mapleback; and editor John Pine and publicist Debbie Matsumoto. Also to Damien, Lara, Scotti, Ginny, Blaze, Marcus, Siegmar, Kris, G’Angela, Hans, Deb, Christoph, Alison, Savanna, Faith, Robert, David, Dave K., Gina, and all my family and friends around the globe. I couldn’t have done it without you!

To truly live and become aware takes great courage.

—Gourasana

We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.

—Talmud

Text copyright © 2003 by Darrin Zeer.

Illustrations copyright © 2003 by Cindy Luu.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

eISBN 978-0-8118-7844-9

Chronicle Books LLC

680 Second Street

San Francisco, CA 94107

http://www.chroniclebooks.com