How did you sleep last night? In my circle of friends and family, this is a question we ask on another often. We recognize that the quality of our day begins with how the prior night progressed. Thoughts that come in the middle of the night or the dark early morning rarely contain inspiration or enlightenment.
I’m usually a hardy sleeper, once the sandman comes, I’m gone till morning. But last night I experienced several periods of sleep interruption that caused me to become aware of significant discomfort in my body. Since I believe in the wisdom of the body, I tried to discern what my body may know that I am unaware of. I try to give the sensations a label – “fear,” “self-doubt,” “shame,” as though something was happening that I should have prevented, or could have avoided.
I know that I am in the process of inviting people to an event, and not many people have responded to the invitation. Most haven’t even opened it. Consulting with friends they tell me they have been experiencing little to no response of late to their emails and voicemail messages as well. And then I think of the people I haven’t gotten back to – it seems an epidemic we are all a part of.
Quite a lot is going on in the Big Body. Last night was a full moon, and my nurse
midwife mother always noted that as a reason for so many babies being born on
that particular shift. The stock market went down 600 points yesterday and you
don’t have to have own stocks to know this will affect moods and decisions in
worksites throughout the nation. We are in the midst of the most divisive political campaigns in our nation’s history and packages containing bombs sent to well-known political figures have been intercepted in the last few days. Thousands of citizen’s of South American countries are on the road, walking north to flee crime and starvation in their homelands.
Standing in the shower, washing away the night “terrors?” a book title comes to
mind. It’s “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice For Difficult Times, by the Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron’s, a book I studied in a book club a number of years ago. This sent me to my notes, and these sentences stood out -“Fear is the natural reaction to getting closer to the truth,” and the suggestion – “Work with the energy of whatever emerges.” With so much emerging, it shouldn’t be a surprise that some of the work needs to be happening in the night.
With the recent release of the second edition of my book Stillpoint: A Self-Care
Playbook for Caregivers to Find Ease, and Time to Breathe, and Reclaim Joy, I feel it is my duty to remind myself and others that for our own self-care, we need our sleep as well. I’d love to hear your strategies for working with the energies that are emerging and getting a good night’s sleep as well.
Sheila
