Tired but Wired: Simple Ways to Slow Down in a Busy City
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A lot of people who come to the studio for the first time describe the same evening. They're tired, but they can't switch off. The day ends and the mind keeps going: the inbox, the commute, tomorrow's list. Rest feels like something they ought to be able to do and somehow can't.
It's a common London feeling. Between the Tube, the phone and the working day, there are very few hours when nothing is asking for your attention, and even the quiet ones tend to have a screen in them.
Here are a few simple things people tell us help them slow down. None of them needs equipment, and none of them is medical advice. If tiredness, poor sleep or low mood has gone on for weeks, please talk to your GP first.
Breathe out for longer
Sit or lie somewhere comfortable and let each out-breath run a little longer than the in-breath: in for a count of four, out for a count of six. Keep it easy, and stop if it starts to feel like effort. Many people say a few minutes is enough to notice their shoulders drop.
Give your ears a rest
Most of us spend the day in sound we didn't choose: traffic, chatter, a television in the next room. Try ten minutes with no input at all. No podcast, no music, no phone. If silence feels too stark, one steady sound can be easier to settle into. People often tell us that's part of what they like about a sound bath: long, low notes from a gong or a bowl give the mind one thing to follow instead of twenty.
Get warm and lie down
Lie on the floor with a blanket over you and a cushion under your knees, and let the floor take your weight. Warm, flat and supported, with nowhere to be, is about as simple as rest gets.
Stop trying to relax
Many of us try to relax the way we try to do everything else: as a task to get right. It rarely goes well. Rest is easier when there's nothing to achieve and no way to do it wrong.
Make it regular
One quiet hour is pleasant. A quiet hour every week becomes something you plan around and look forward to: a fixed point in the week that belongs to you.
What a class at the studio is like
If you'd like someone else to hold that hour for you, that's what a class at Sacred Tones is. You arrive ten minutes early, take your shoes off and settle onto a mat with a bolster and a blanket. The practitioner lowers the lights and plays crystal and metal singing bowls and gongs. You lie still, or doze, for 50 minutes. There are 14 places, so it never feels crowded, and there's herbal tea when you sit up.
People describe it in different ways: calm, sleepy, restless at first and still by the end, or simply a good rest. All of those are fine. There's nothing to get right.
The studio is at 28 New Kings Road, Parsons Green, London SW6 4ST. A single class is £28. If you're new, the New Client 2-Class Pack gives you two classes to use within a month for £45.
