Kiyonaga Torii, Bonsai Vendor - Soothing Sound Alarm Clock & Timer from Now & Zen, Inc.

With your heart open and your breath flowing, make a choice to fully regain your sense of well-being and empowerment. Expand your attention to include full-body awareness by saying to yourself: “I’m aware of my whole body at once, here in this present moment.”

On any given day, you likely feel spontaneous moments of peace that arise when you’re watching children play, for instance, or exercising or witnessing a beautiful sunset. This step of the sequence helps you consciously initiate this relaxing feeling so you feel whole and in the moment by choice rather than by chance. After all, the things you focus on help create your mood — and what you focus on is up to you. By waking up to the present moment, you regain your sense of well-being and control. As Selby explains, “You can shift from being the victim of your mood swings to being the victor.”

Meditation for an Uplifted Mood

Meditation 101:

adapted from Body + Soul, Jan/Feb 2007 by Terri Trespicio

Soothing Sound Alarm Clock & Timers by Now & Zen, Inc.

Now & Zen

The Soothing Alarm Clock Headquarter Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

real chime alarm clocks and timers

The Zen Alarm Clock® and The Digital Zen Alarm Clock® are unique lifestyle products that make a big difference in people’s lives-they have recently been featured on Good Morning America, GQ Magazine, The New York Times, and The L.A. Times.  We have had glowing product reviews in Real Simple Magazine and Natural Health Magazine.

These clocks provide a gentle and gradual awakening with Tibetan bell-like acoustic chimes.  And in addition to their alarm clock function, they serve as aesthetically beautiful chiming timers for practices such as yoga, meditation, bodywork, etc.  We have sold over 100,000 of our original triangular-shaped Zen Clocks (and sales continue to grow every year largely through word-of-mouth), and now our new Digital Zen Alarm Clock (winner of the Denver Business Journal’s Most Innovative New Consumer Product Award) is a major hit in all our channels of distribution.

waking up with chime alarm clocks by Now & Zen

Now & Zen Headquarter Store

1638 Pearl St.

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

The Perfect Sleep Routine

Tip:  The Perfect Sleep Routine

Morning

Wake up to your Zen Alarm Clock at the same time every day, whether that’s 5:30 or 8:30. This ritual will help maintain your circadian rhythms and make it more likely you’ll fall asleep at the same time every night, too. (Yes, you can sleep an hour later on weekends.) As soon as you wake up, “get into some sort of daylight situation really quickly, even if it’s just stepping out on a balcony,” suggests sleep expert Joyce Walsleben, R.N., Ph.D. Bright light suppresses the production of melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone in your brain, and helps set your body clock. If you’re going to have coffee, this is the time. Walsleben recommends that women avoid it from noon on, and limit their morning dose to a cup or two. And keep in mind that “if you drink an 8-ounce cup in the morning,” cautions Rubin Naiman, Ph.D., “you may still have small amounts of caffeine left in your blood at bedtime.”

Evening
Eat dinner several hours before bed to give your body time to digest, and avoid spicy or heavy foods if you’re prone to heartburn. If you drink wine or beer, do so “three or four hours away from bedtime,” advises Walsleben; while alcohol may speed the onset of sleep, it can disrupt the sleep cycle later.

Night
Avoid watching intense TV shows, paying bills, or engaging in other stimulating activities an hour or two before bedtime. Instead, dim the lights to stimulate the release of melatonin and do a few relaxing yoga poses (such as Legs Up the Wall and Child’s Pose) or 10 minutes of deep breathing or meditation. If you have a bathtub, use it. (Adding relaxing lavender oil will help.)

Dark Oak Zen Alarm Clock with Chime, the original progression clock

Now & Zen’s Alarm Clock Shop

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

Utamaro Kitagawa, Dojoji Dancer - Using Meditation Timers in Your Stillness Practice

Feature: Ends your practice gradually and gently over 10 minutes with a Tibetan bell-like chime.

Benefit: A beautiful way to end at home or traveling.

Feature: A countdown timer perfect for meditation, yoga, or to end meetings on time.

Benefit: Makes yoga, mediation and meetings more relaxing and fun.

Feature: Chimes on the hour, lighted dial, beautiful yet portable.

Benefit: A timepiece for a progressive lifestyle.

Feature: Hardwood case, acoustic chime.

Benefit: Aesthetic pleasure.

1. Feature: An interval timer that will chime repeatedly at any set sequence.

Benefit: Sets the pace of practice with a beautiful sounding chime.

meditation timers for your meditation practice

Harunobu Suzuki, Beauty at Shrine in Rain - Eliminate Your Snooze Button Clock for a Longer Life...

The Walnut Digital Zen Clock’s long-resonating Tibetan bell-like chime makes waking up a beautiful experience – its progressive chimes begin your day with grace. When the clock’s alarm is triggered, the acoustic chime bar is struck just once … 3-1/2 minutes later it strikes again … chime strikes become more frequent over 10 minutes … eventually striking every 5 seconds until shut off. As they become more frequent, the gentle chimes will always wake you up – your body really doesn’t need to be awakened harshly, with a Zen Clock you’re awakened more gradually and thus more naturally.  Unlike artificial recorded sounds coming out of a tiny speaker in a plastic box, natural acoustic sounds transform your bedroom or office environment.

The Digital Zen Clock also serves as a countdown and interval timer for yoga, meditation, bodywork, etc.; and it can also be set to chime on the hour as a tool for “mindfulness.”

Digital Zen Clocks feature a “high” and “low” chime strike volume control, which allows you to adjust the sound of the chime to suit your needs. The Digital Zen Clock runs on 2 AA batteries (not included) and can also be plugged in with the included AC jack. The clock includes a lighted digital display (which can be set to be lit full-time when plugged in).

Zen Alarm Clock with Gentle Chime Sequence

Now & Zen’s Chime Alarm Clock Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

Banish Your Snooze Button Alarm Clock - Choose the Alternative Zen Alarm Clock

Do you know that having a wonderful day starts from your bed and with the first sound you hear when you wake up? Yes, your morning mood affects your day and it could start right when you calmly and peacefully wake up to the beautiful sound of your Digital Zen Alarm Clock.

Now & Zen, Inc. – has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock), and transformed it into something pleasant. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently. When the clock’s alarm is triggered, its chime produces a long-resonating, acoustic tone. Then the clock remains silent until it automatically strikes again three minutes later.  The frequency of the chime strikes gradually increase, striking every five seconds.

Digital Zen Alarm Clock with Chime

Now & Zen’s Digital Zen Alarm Clock Shop

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

chime alarm clocks with soothing elegant sounds

Bravo to the makers of the Zen Alarm Clock!  This clock is both visually beautiful and extremely functional.  It wakes me with a series of chimes instead of my old alarm clock which sounded like a missile hitting my bedroom each morning.  I can’t believe it took me this long in life to discover this ingenious clock!  Working people who have to rise early~you will love this!!!

from an actual Now & Zen customer…

Chime Alarm Clock Showroom, headquarter store in Boulder, CO

Now & Zen

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

Sleep deprivation takes a heavier toll on the performance and alertness of people who are extroverts than it does on their introverted counterparts, according to results of a randomized clinical study.

Extroverts had lower scores on tests of alertness and wakefulness during 36 consecutive hours awake, including a 12-hour period of social interaction, researcher Tracy L. Rupp of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md., and co-authors reported in the November issue of Sleep.

In contrast, 36 hours of sleep deprivation that included no social interaction had minimal effect on performance or alertness of extroverts or introverts.

The findings provide insights into interindividual differences in vulnerability to sleep deprivation, particularly interaction between personality traits and social conditions. However, the effect of the interaction was the opposite of what the investigators had hypothesized.

According to the theory, social gregariousness and sensation-seeking behaviors arise, at least in part, from lower levels of tonic arousal. Because of their presumed lower level of cortical arousal, extroverts seek out social contact and stimulation to increase brain arousal to optimum levels, the authors noted.

In contrast, introverts are thought to have relatively higher levels of cortical arousal and avoid socially active environments that would lead to more cortical arousal. Consistent with the theory, Rupp and colleagues previously reported that higher scores on a test of introversion were associated with greater resistance to sleep deprivation.

To continue their investigation of the theory, the authors recruited 48 volunteers for a study of the interaction among personality traits, social exposures, and vulnerability to sleep deprivation. All participants completed a personality inventory assessment that led to categorization of 23 participants as extroverts and 25 as introverts.

The participants were randomly assigned to one of two social experiences, which followed eight hours in bed and two hours to eat breakfast and get ready for the evaluation.

Participants assigned to the socially enriched condition could watch television, play games, read, or eat, and remained with laboratory technicians, who were instructed to keep the participants engaged socially throughout the exposure.

Participants assigned to the socially impoverished condition had access to the same activities as in the socially enriched condition, but had no interaction with each other or with technicians.

Both social conditions lasted 12 hours (10 a.m. to 10 p.m.), and was followed by 22 hours of sleep deprivation, during which time participants were tested hourly for alertness and performance. Technicians monitored participants continuously to ensure that participants did not fall asleep. All told, participants remained awake for 36 consecutive hours.

During sleep deprivation, scores for speed on the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) deteriorated in all groups but was more pronounced in extroverts assigned to the socially enriched exposure compared with extroverts assigned to the socially impoverished condition at 4 a.m., 6 a.m., and noon.

The socially impoverished condition had minimal impact on test performance or subjective sleepiness in any of the groups.

“The ability of introverts to resist sleep loss, on the other hand, was relatively unaffected by the social environment,” the authors noted.

adapted from abcnews.com

Pink Orchid

Stop.

Take a deep breath. As author Martin Boroson says in his new book, One Moment Meditation, that’s all we really need to do to meditate, or be in the present moment. Just a minute. And, his entire book is devoted to this one, absolutely necessary minute. Seem overkill? It did at first to me as well, but as I started diving into the book, I found myself effortlessly slipping into one-minute meditations throughout my day, which says a lot as a mother of a one-year-old. I could even meditate and find stillness parked in the driveway, as long as I found spaciousness in my body and focused on my breath for a few seconds. Boroson notes throughout the book that learning to take these pauses will eventually become habitual—unlike the 30-minute meditations we’re privy to once a week, during our yoga class. While this technique may not take you from here to enlightenment, this is the book for those of us who want to meditate, know we should meditate, but find time just gets in the way. Those of us who really need to meditate. As Boroson notes, “if you really believe . . . that you can’t afford a minute, it’s a very good indication that you need a minute desperately, and that everyone else needs you to take one, too.”

adapted from Healing Lifestyles & Spas

Zen Timepiece, a meditation timer with bowl/gong

Now & Zen

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

No Snooze Buttons Allowed...Zen Clocks Awaken Gradually

The Walnut Digital Zen Clock’s long-resonating Tibetan bell-like chime makes waking up a beautiful experience – its progressive chimes begin your day with grace.  The Zen Alarm Clocks doesn’t have a snooze button to shorten your life!  It has a built-in snooze that wakes you gradually with gentle chimes.

Here is how it works.  When the clock’s alarm is triggered, the acoustic chime bar is struck just once … 3-1/2 minutes later it strikes again … chime strikes become more frequent over 10 minutes … eventually striking every 5 seconds until shut off. As they become more frequent, the gentle chimes will always wake you up – your body really doesn’t need to be awakened harshly, with a Zen Clock you’re awakened more gradually and thus more naturally.  Unlike artificial recorded sounds coming out of a tiny speaker in a plastic box, natural acoustic sounds transform your bedroom or office environment.

Digital Zen Clocks feature a “high” and “low” chime strike volume control, which allows you to adjust the sound of the chime to suit your needs. The Digital Zen Clock runs on 2 AA batteries (not included) and can also be plugged in with the included AC jack. The clock includes a lighted digital display (which can be set to be lit full-time when plugged in).

koi fishes in the pond

Now & Zen Headquarter Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383