Page 16 - November 2017 Voices

How’s Your Stunt Double?

by Beth Genly, ACB, ALB

Why is it that You need more sleep.
in a movie, the You deserve more sleep.
consequences of You are safer (and so are the people around
extreme behavior you) when you get more sleep.
are obvious to me, yet when I take a step back Best of all, you will feel much, much better
and look at my own real life, I can be quite blind? when you get more sleep.
Do I think I have a stunt double? Your brain, your emotions, your health and
Let me explain . . . Take the final chase episode
in the Jason Bourne series: one of the shadowy your wellbeing will all function much better, when
agents steals a huge black Hummer, which he you get more sleep.
drives at high speed in the wrong direction It is time to give yourself the gift of sleep. Track
through freeway traffic. Pretty soon, he is hurling your results. You’ll be amazed!
dozens of civilian cars into a metal wake behind - © 2017, Marnie Loomis and Beth Genly.
his speeding vehicle. Excerpted and condensed from their new book,
Of course, part of me does enjoy such vicar- “Save Yourself from Burnout: A System to Get
ious movie fun. But as I munch my popcorn, Your Life Back.” (Available at Amazon.com—Ed.)
I still wonder: who will have to pull the bodies
out of all those cars, staff the emergency rooms,
explain it all to the families, clean up the broken
glass and tow the cars?
So. How do I expect to be able to work at top
speeds regardless of whether or not I’ve had any
sleep, skipped meals, and ignored my own needs?
Why aren’t I more aware of the destruction
caused by leading my own “blockbuster-style”
lifestyle?
In my mind, I’m working like a super-macho,
high-performance action hero, but without sleep
as a performance priority, I’m treating my body
as if I had a stunt double.
I know I’m not alone in this. Many of us
push ourselves this way, announcing, “Sleep is
for wimps” and pushing ourselves ever harder.
But we don’t have stunt doubles. We don’t
have teams of technicians, either, to help us
carefully craft each “close call,” and we can’t
digitally erase any mistakes we make. We have
one irreplaceable real-life body.
You Can Do It! You Can Get Enough Sleep

No more blockbuster living! Sleep deserves
to be a priority in your life.

16 VOLUME 4 ISSUE 5 NOVEMBER, 2017