#145: How to use mindfulness and micro-resting to reset your energy during the day

This is the second half of my conversation with yoga therapist Cheryl Gordon, where we move beyond yoga poses and talk about how mindfulness and small daily “micro-rests” can completely change how you feel in midlife.

You’ll learn simple, science-backed ways to restore your energy, regulate your hormones, and calm your nervous system - even on the busiest days.

You’ll learn:

1. How short “micro-rests” can recharge your energy and focus
2. Why slowing down isn’t laziness - it's essential for recovery
3. How mindfulness helps with stress, cravings, and emotional balance
4. Simple ways to weave restorative movement into your day
5. How rest and relaxation directly support hormones, sleep, and metabolism

Enjoy the show!

Connect with Cheryl:

www.cherylgordonyt.com

youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE5vzNEhrdYmDX8GYWLLaKw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cherylgordonyt/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cherylgordonyt

The Mindful Eating Guide provides the basics to anyone who would like to lose weight sustainably and without restrictions. 

The 5 Step Midlife Reset Masterclass 

Transcript

#145: How to use mindfulness and micro-resting to reset your energy during the day

[00:00:00] In this episode, we're diving into how mindfulness and micro rests can help you reset your energy during the day so you don't end each day feeling completely drained. We'll talk about how even a few minutes of mindful movement can change your energy. How short pauses can lower stress and cravings, and how to use small daily resets to feel calmer and more focused.

Oh, and by the way, this is actually part two of my conversation with yoga therapist Cheryl Gordon. So if you haven't listened to last week's episode yet, where we talked about yoga and menopause. What helps and what to avoid. You might wanna start there first, but let's get back into the discussion talking about mindfulness and micro rests. Enjoy the show. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: So there are two more topics that I kind of wanna touch on before we finish today. One is your view on strength training and what is the role of yoga because, oh my god, [00:01:00] every day, you know, people are saying, oh, but I go to yoga and, and that's like body weight strength training and that's gonna preserve my muscles.

What's your view on that? 

Cheryl: Well, you're, you are the absolute expert when it comes to like what the benefits of say, plank pose would be as opposed to doing something with weights. But that is what people are referring to in yoga is a pose, like plank pose, um, downward facing dog, uh, chair pose, which is like a squat.

And I did. For many, many years think that, yeah, body weight like that is enough. But here's a couple things that I have learned, , as I've been studying more into this. It was a shoulder injury just as menopause hit, which like, it was like a, a dump of hormones almost overnight. And I guess a lot of women feel that way.

 The shoulder injury hit like very, very quickly. And so I was doing a lot of research around that. And what I learned was in yoga, there's a lot of push movements. Mm-hmm. But not very many [00:02:00] pull movements, which is really important as I've learned to have a balance in that. So there's so many things that yoga is great for.

It is weight bearing. We do have a lot of standing postures. So it is helpful for bone mass. It is helpful for muscle and joint stability. But as we get older. And we, we are fighting that natural loss of muscle mass and bone mass that you talk so much about. Lynn, I think we have to just step up our game a little bit.

So my sun salutations and my warrior poses are amazing. They help me with balance, they help me with focus, they help me with cognitive, they, the breathing helps my regulate my nervous system. So I think yoga is absolutely fundamental. For my longevity and and my performance, but I don't think I can count on it to build my bone mass and build my muscle mass.

I think I have to work a little harder at that. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah. And I think this is actually, you brought up a really important point that I think a lot of people miss is that it is only push stuff. Um, [00:03:00] because the pull stuff is hard to do. Even when programming, strength training at home, you can do a horizontal pull when you've got some dumbbells or rubber band or something and you're.

Pulling it towards you as a rowing motion. But there's actually, now that I think back on it, in yoga there, there really isn't any way. So it's all about pushing, pushing in the plank, pushing in the sun, salutations, pushing in the downward dog. It's always push, push, push, and never, never a pull. So yeah, that's a really good 

Cheryl: point.

Yeah. Which leads to an imbalance in your shoulder muscles. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah, 

Cheryl: which makes us very vulnerable to rotator cuffs ish injuries. So, and you see that so much with yogis, right? Especially women my age. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Okay. Wow. And then I wanted to ask about micro like recovery during the day. This is something that we talked about when we were talking offline [00:04:00] and you mentioned that is a good way of recovering.

'cause I've noticed. Just personally, so I am looking for tips here and, and also to share with the audience that, you know, you, you're doing a long eight hour workday or 10 hours or whatever, and you just kind of go, go, go, go, go. And by the end you're just, you just feel like you're, you know, one of those mustard tubes that's been squeezed everything out and you're like, oh, how do I even recover from this?

And it'd be nice to end the day feeling a little bit. Better, a little 

Cheryl: less. Absolutely completed. And, and this is something nobody ever teaches us. Mm. You know, in our, in our culture, I always say North American culture. Yeah. But, in, in our culture, the way I was raised anyway, it was like you put in that long workday, you work a hundred percent when you're, when you're there.

And then often many of us go home and we still have almost a full-time job at home Yep. To take care of things. So no wonder we, we are exhausted and over [00:05:00] wired by the time it's time to to rest. So. What I try to educate my students around is how the nervous system is wired. That you're not, you're not any different really than my dog or even the dinosaurs in that we have a certain amount of hours out of the day where we were designed to be active and a certain number of hours out of the day where we were designed to be in relaxation response.

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Okay. 

Cheryl: And in both of those situations,. It should be kind of equal throughout the day. So if you're working 12 hours and coming home or 10 hours even, and coming home and putting another three or four hours in and then going out, you know, to see friends or whatever. Even though though that's pleasurable and maybe you enjoy your work, that's still overtaxing your nervous system.

If you've been doing that for decade after decade, then you hit the wall. When menopause perimenopause and menopause hits. The deficit really starts to show up for you because you just don't have any, any bank time, you have no [00:06:00] resiliency to face this kind of hormonal, upload. What I have found to be really helpful is to take short breaks, midday, it feels really counterintuitive and it's like, feels lazy.

It's not mapping, per se, the scientists call it non-LEP deep breast. And so what it is, is it brings your brainwaves into, a period of coherence that mimics deep rest. So it's not sleep, but it brings your brainwaves into that kind of state. And what it does is it creates a reparative journey through your body.

Because when you're in active mode, like right now, I'm trying to think about my words and I've been, you know, working. So my brain's in active mode, my whole system's in active mode, I'm using up resources. If I wanna plug my cell phone in and get it recharged, I have to go into reparative mode or restoring mode.

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah. 

Cheryl: So this takes us into restoring mode and ideally there's 12 hours of each in a 24 hour cycle. And a lot of times we can't take 12 hours just to X out. Yeah, I was gonna [00:07:00] say so. But these microbursts are maybe four times as effective as actual sleep of recharging your system or giving you that restorative time.

So this can take them for many different forms. I enjoy short periods of meditation. So you can, there's lots of apps you can use for that. I'll also lie down on my living room floor and throw my legs up the couch. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Ah, yeah. 

Cheryl: And if it's a cool time of year, I'll cozy up with blankets. I have a little dog and she comes and lays right on my belly because she loves cuddle time.

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah. 

Cheryl: And so the warmth of her riding on my belly, I just kind of focus on my breathing for five or 10 minutes. I literally set a timer on my phone. And it just takes me into a completely different state, completely different place, like a mini vacation. Then when I get up from that, my brain has had that recharge.

I've had that little bit. 'cause sometimes have you ever run really ragged and your cell phone is [00:08:00] dying and you don't have time to plug it in overnight and really charge it? 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah. 

Cheryl: So you just do a quick 10 minute charge on your cell phone and it's enough to get you through the day. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah, 

Cheryl: that's it. That's what you're doing.

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah, 

Cheryl: so meditation, I throw my legs up the couch. And even if you're not really into all those kind of woo woo things, even setting your timer on your phone for a 20 minute or less nap, you will not interfere with your brainwaves that night when you try to go to sleep. It won't be enough rest interfere with sleep cycles, but it will get you into that zen state and give you that reparative time.

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I have to say that I, I have done this a few times when I've been so tired, you know, that I'm like, okay, my brain isn't even working anymore. So I go downstairs and I think, okay, I'm gonna take a 20 minute nap. And I set my alarm and, and I don't even fall asleep. But when I get up, I just, I feel.

Amazing. You know, it's, it's so weird because you don't, you don't sort of expect it to have that much of a great [00:09:00] effect. So 

Cheryl: imagine, imagine Lynn, if you did that prophylactically. Imagine if you did that when you weren't exhausted, but your body got used to the idea that on a certain time, maybe midday, you were going to have this little recharge and your body began to kind of count on it and look forward to it.

You, you banked up some extra energy through that practice. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah. So, so if we think about like practical takeaways here, so this kind of five to 10 mini break once a day, sometime in the middle of the day. Would, 'cause I'm thinking that nowadays they're talking about after lunch you should take a walk so that your blood glucose doesn't go spike.

Which it will spike anyway because you ate something. But so it might be before you eat or maybe a different time, like maybe if you're eating at noon, you take this break at two. As a second break, like you have your own. 

Cheryl: I think it's a great idea to have a little walk after meals. Mm. In a yoga tradition, they [00:10:00] say a thousand steps after every meal.

It's good for your digestion. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Okay. 

Cheryl: So a little walk, especially in nature, would be a lovely practice after meals, but I don't think you want to lie down if you are choosing to do a practice that, that you lie down. Shouldn't do that for half an hour after you eat. Yeah. Because you want digestion to complete.

 Two in the afternoon's great. For a lot of us, we maybe don't have that opportunity if we're in an office environment. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Mm-hmm. 

Cheryl: You can always go sit in a toilet stall though and do some alternate nosl breathing if that's the only thing available to you. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah. 

Cheryl: But I used to, when I was working full-time in an office environment, I would come home and do that legs up the couch thing at four 30 in the afternoon.

So as a little break before I got going on my supper and my evening job, I would just take that little 10 minute break and then I was civilized to talk to. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah. You know, that actually reminds me that I've had the same, I've done the same thing like at the end of the workday when I know I'm going to the gym and then I'll, I'm, I'm just so exhausted that I think.

[00:11:00] What is gonna happen with this training session? I'm just so tired. I could fall asleep right now, but, but I can't go to sleep yet. It's too early. And, and then I do, I'm like, I have to lie down for a little bit and then I go for like five, 10 minutes and I, and I might even talk to my boyfriend or something, you know, but nothing stressful.

But often it, I just lie there and maybe cuddle with him and, and then that, then I am like reenergized. So, yeah, that is a really good one, I think. 

Cheryl: And we might get way too off topic, but that cuddling part's really important too. , it generates hormones that give you warm, fuzzy feelings that add to relaxation response.

And I'll just throw in one more thing. We didn't really talk too much about diet, which a lot of women our age are interested in knowing about. This is one way that I lost some weight, believe it or not. Okay. It wasn't taking up. As much as I love the strength training, I'm not sure it was the strength training that lost the weight.

I know it wasn't going on body pump classes or treadmills. I really think what it [00:12:00] was is creating these nurturing practices so that it calmed my emotional eating. And we call this mindful eating in my world. And, these micro breaks are really important for say, when a craving for chocolate or popcorn comes up and you know you're not really hungry and you know it's not gonna help you meet your goals.

So a little mini rest at that point, a mini reset at that point can really help you deal with those urges and cravings.

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Oh, that sounds amazing. And, I'm gonna try that also because I notice if I'm really tired, then, then I crave sugar, right? Mm-hmm. If I haven't gotten enough sleep, I mean now my sleep is back on track.

'cause I got my hormones, adjusted, my H-R-H-R-T adjusted, but at one point I was like, oh, you know, and you just want to. Eat some carbs, have a little bit of candy. If my kids had left something here, it was, it was gone. Mom had eaten it. But that would really help if instead of eating the candy, you go take a five, 10 minute reset.

Absolutely. 

Cheryl: You just, when you're [00:13:00] craving those carbs, it's comfort food. We call 'em comfort foods. We, we know that we just need that little dopamine hit. We just need that little reassurance that life is okay, it's worth living. But if you can find some other ways in a mindful fashion to nurture yourself, show some self-compassion, uh, get a cuddle.

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah. 

Cheryl: You know, that will really help that emotional eating pattern. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Yeah. Well, you are getting your cuddle from your dog, so that, that's a great one too. So one final question, just because I have always wondered how long a yoga session do you need to have for it to make a difference? Because I guess all classes are like an hour, right?

They're always an hour, but. But what if you don't have an hour? Is five minutes enough? Is 10 minutes enough? What's your view 

Cheryl: on that? I definitely think you do not need a whole hour. Uh, it's lovely if you do have that amount of time and can do like a full class and people have the [00:14:00] chanting going and you know everyone's together and it's awesome.

But I always tell my clients, whatever you can do at home to supplement and recreate this at home is an amazing gift to yourself. It's like you're training a puppy or you're toilet training your toddler. Mm-hmm. Repetition frequency is so important. Consistency is so important. So everyone's different.

Every day is different, but sometimes you can do two postures and you feel the shift. You feel that nervous system regulation coming into your, your, your awareness. Sometimes it might take a little bit longer, but I definitely think if you could commit to 10 or 15 minutes a day, you would notice a cumulative benefit.

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: All right. Great. So, wow, this went a little longer than Oops. Expected, but that's okay, I hope. But before we go, I want you to please share where people can find you and. Tell us a little bit about what you offer as far as your programs. You have the online program that I [00:15:00] mentioned in the intro, and then you have some in-person things, but go ahead and tell us about them.

Cheryl: I do have a website, Cheryl Gordon yt.com. You can get all the programming information there and I just released a new masterclass. It's a five step midlife reset and it's free and it's uh, out right now and it will outline five different. Steps along the lines of what we've been talking about to help you reset your metabolism, reset your nervous system so that you can get back to a little bit more of the things you love doing.

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Wow. Great. Okay, so I'll put all the links in the show notes so you can check those out. And definitely I'll be checking out that masterclass for sure. 

Cheryl: Wonderful. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: All right. Thank you so much for joining me and being on the show, 

Cheryl: we do have good chats.

Thank you, Lynn. Namaste. 

Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto: Thank you. Namaste.