sleep

     Over the past 6 months or so, my body has regulated into a routine.  It feels like my body is treating me better in response to how I have started treating it better.  We feel like friends.  Pastor John at my home church has mentioned that he made a rule for himself sometime ago.  No food after 6 pm.  He lost a bunch of weight that he needed to lose, and he feels a lot better.  I also read in one of the Waldorf Homeschool books about the human body’s natural rhythm.  This is information that seems obvious and I probably learned about it somewhere in my four years of Nursing School, but for the first time it really clicked.  Our precious bodies function best on a rhythm of digesting the fuel we give them during the day, then repairing themselves during the night.  If the body is given a bunch of fuel just before sleep, (sitting in the yellow chair eating a big bowl of ice-cream and some chocolate while reading a novel) then it spends energy digesting when it is meant to be repairing and restoring.  So I tried it.  No food after 6 pm.  I cherish good sleep and it has been illusive for me most of my life.  I have slept well enough times that I strongly desire to experience it more often.  It worked.

I can easily expect my nights to go as such:  get into the comfortable bed that was made early this morning together by me and the child.  Read him a book or two then lights out.  I get up with my solar powered flashlight to check the wood stove one last time and maybe go potty again.  It is just before 9 pm, dark outside.  Back into bed to snuggle with the child and listen to his breathing change as he easily falls into his consistent, deep sleep.  Turn over onto my left side and fall asleep easily, repeating the Sat Nam mantra with my breath as necessary to calm the mind of any lingering thoughts.  Awaken from a restful sleep around 1 am and receive the generous prompt to get up and feed the stove some wood.  My waking is always at the perfect time for the fire.  It burned as long as it could to keep us warm, I got the longest chunk of sleep possible, and there are just the perfect amount of coals remaining to catch a new log on fire easily and quickly, allowing me to crawl back into bed and relax in the knowledge that the stove will continue to heat the house for the remaining dark hours.  

In the warm house, snuggled up to the peaceful child, I easily fall back into sleep after a few rounds of thoughts that are quieted by the Sat Nam breath mantra.  After a second chunk of restful sleep, I gently awaken around 5 am, feeling restored and mildly ready to slowly start the day.  What gets me out of bed is the stove needing wood and what keeps me out are the memories of what its like to crawl back in bed.  It seemed good but 99% of the time I would fight to fall asleep and then experience yucky, strong emotional dreams that left me feeling gross when I finally got up.  I trust my body.  When it wakes up like that around 5 am after a restful night’s sleep, it is ready to get up and be awake.  And 99% of the time it just takes 1 or 2 minutes of being vertical for the day to move towards appreciation for the quiet time by myself and for the beautiful sleep I just experienced.  This is the time that I write.

No food after 6 pm was part of what developed this lovely routine and there were many other factors.  Not eating after 6 pm was a huge emotional adjustment for me and shows how much my inner spiritual life has aligned with Love.  I could not have done it with out help from Universal Love.  I don’t even want to describe what I used food for and how eating before bed ruled my life.  There’s no need to delve back into all that pain.  

I write this from a place of complete amazement.  I am astonished that this is my life.  For so many years I have desperately wanted to get up early, I knew it was what my body wanted and asked for.  Now it is happening.  Easily.  After a restful sleep, I am getting up and embracing the day with joy and Love.  Who’s life is this?  I stand in awe of God’s goodness and I am filled with hope for how my life will continue to improve and become even more fulfilling and comfortable.  This is, as they say, an answered prayer.  I desperately called out for what I wanted and now I have it.  I feel Loved and taken care of, special, like I am good enough to be Loved.  

A dear friend wrote recently and asked how I was doing.  With all the society’s strange changes that have happened recently I felt inspired to write about good sleep.  I feel that our current society is dissolving and we are living through some dramatic changes.  I feel like I have a lot to offer my fellow humans because I have steered my life towards the most human things that cannot be touched by ‘regulations’.  I am a human being and I sleep well.  

There is great Love for you here.