Beditation

Sleep rivals food, air and water as essential for human life. The ability to fall asleep when one’s head hits the pillow and stay asleep for eight hours is truly a super power - as is the ability to power nap!

Conversely, the inability to get a full and restful night’s sleep can be a major source of stress. We toss and turn and the more we worry about not being able to sleep the more sleep eludes us.

It struck me a few years ago that these restless hours would be a great time to meditate. With a busy schedule, I was having a hard time fitting meditation into my day. Moreover, I was often so tired that I put off meditating because I worried I would fall asleep. Here were blocks of time that I could use to fit in my meditation, and if I fell asleep….. Wonderful! Not only that, but meditation could help me “flip” these moments of stress and fear about the effects of not sleeping into self-care time - a time in which my well-being was being enhanced rather than damaged.

So now when sleep plays hard to get, I find a position that my body appreciates, and I bring kind attention to the feeling of breathing: the wave-like motions in the torso gently rocking me. At times I work my way backward through the alphabet exploring things I’m grateful for that begin with each letter, and imagining that I’m sinking into a warm bed of gratitude, resting in it. At other times, I bring into awareness all the people who contribute to my well-being - those I know and those whose contributions are indirect, like the road crew who fixed the pothole on my street. One by one I hold them in kindness and wish them well. If the mind injects panicked thoughts of family members in trouble, I hold the family members and myself with compassion, offering both of us a wish for an end to any unease or struggle we’re facing.

The possibilities are endless, as I’ve discovered over the years during many bouts of sleeplessness. While sleep regularly stays out past its curfew, my relationship with sleeplessness has been transformed. I am still occasionally bleary-eyed, but I feel nurtured, cradled and connected to a world of kindness and wonder.

May all beings everywhere feel nurtured, cradled and connected,

Your CMP Family