One of the five top most stressful jobs is considered to be an air traffic controller. Requiring total concentration to maintain the flow of aircraft in and out of airports controlling air traffic is key to aviation safety. At times its required to work more than 40 hour days and retirement is usually mandatory at age 56.
Having worked and lived as an air traffic controller for over 25 years, I can tell you first-hand what this type of stress has done to my body on a normal day, and how that increased during the menopausal years! After being in my head all day and sometimes all night because of work, it wasn’t easy for me to let go and breathe! My vocation didn’t offer me the luxury of having a ‘bad day’. I was expected to be at peak performance 100% of the time, and that expectation itself was enough reason for me to lose sleep.
Luckily, I discovered yoga about 20 years ago in a private class. I didn’t know it then, but years later I realized that was the day that changed the direction of my life! I was raising two sons and when they were in their early teens I brought them to yoga class from time to time as a way to introduce them to something they too could benefit from.
At the time, yoga wasn’t as popular as it is now, but that early exposure helped them and now I’m happy to say my sons still practice yoga! My yoga teacher was patient with me and kept reminding me to breath into the challenge of the posture. I have to say, I had a love hate relationship with my ‘mat’ for over a decade, and work stress was beginning to catch up with me.
My health started to show signs of wear and tear. I knew that if I didn’t find some outlet for the chatter in my mind, I wouldn’t be healthy in mind or body when it came time to retire, and I really wanted to enjoy that time! I knew it was the time to dust off my yoga mat and get more serious about my yoga practice.
Yoga on the mat led to meditation, but quieting the mind wasn’t always obtainable for my mind which had been trained as the ‘controller’. Then my yoga instructor lead me in a short Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra during savasana in yoga class. She had just returned from Divine Sleep Teacher Training with Jennifer and couldn’t contain herself! She was eager to share the beautiful restorative practice she had just learned with us.
That Divine Sleep practice was very powerful, relaxing, and I felt free! It was another life changing event for me. I purchased Jennifer’s CDs, then listened to them almost every night. It was incredible to have this new practice in my life. It has helped me rest and fully rejuvenate, and that’s had a huge effect in my life and in my health. I am thrilled to say that now today I’m completely medication free!
Our faithful dog Jake has been a family member for nearly 14 years. He loves my yoga mat, that’s his favorite place in the house to sleep! I wish I taught him a few yoga tricks, but instead he taught me how to live in the moment. Dogs live in the moment, every moment. They don’t dwell on the past or what frustrating event happened earlier in the day, he is a happy in the moment dog. Full of love and ‘dog’ smiles.
Last year I retired as an air traffic controller and studied to became a yoga teacher! More recently I had the opportunity to personally meet Jennifer and take her Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra Teacher Training and I am so grateful! She is an amazing woman who gives of herself, her knowledge and her creation so unselfishly. My hope is that I can offer this to someone and have it touch their life as much as it has touched and healed mine.
Jennifer teaches in such a beautiful way. Each day the different elements of Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra were explained to fully understand the technique and objectives of the material. Part of the training is that the students lead each other in small bits of Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra multiple times during the training, and it was heaven to both lead and receive it. I can’t begin to thank Jennifer enough! I am already leading Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra in my yoga classes and the students truly appreciate it.
