Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Can't Sleep?

Oh, those fidgety nights, when cernuous off looks impossible! I've had my share of them. I'll wager you have, too. Recently, I heard a fantastic solution from a adult female who devised a manner to fall asleep when she was a kid. Her solution offerings some valuable lessons about how to dwell in the now.

The adult female said she raised her weaponry and legs in the air and left them there until their weight and their fatigue naturally dropped them back onto the bed. Once her limbs fell, she would drop off to sleep.

Another woman, hearing this, said that she had been instruction her children the same technique with their arms. She have them throw up just one arm at a time. This arm-raising go a sort of game that her children take a firm stand she make with them. She, too, said this activity assists her children acquire to sleep.

Why would retention a limb in the air until it falls in bring on sleep? Here's my hunch. Drawing our attending to our organic structure conveys us fully into the present moment. The high-speed train in our encephalon filled with compulsive thought is usually what maintains us awake. We rehash the day's trials and delights, second-guessing ourselves, fretting about what didn't acquire done, or getting excited about (or bemoaning) what happened or what might go on tomorrow. Our organic structure is tired but our head is in overdrive. Shifting our attending to our organic structure takes us out of the past or future and conveys our consciousness to the lone thing that's actually happening at the minute - our organic structure lying prostrate on the bed, lifting our limbs, getting more than than and more tired, now. By lifting our limbs and retention them up, our head is drawn to concentrate on the attempt this activity is taking. We experience our body. We're present.

Sometimes hurting is what maintains us awake. Depending on where the hurting is, we may have got to be originative in how we make this limb-lifting exercise. We necessitate to pick a limb or country that is not in pain. Lifting our mentum or even a manus could work. Whatever we lift, doing so takes our attending away from the hurting and the array of ideas that spell with it. Our head may be occupied with when the hurting started, when it acquires worse, what it maintains us from doing, and so on. Those ideas may have got a batch to make with our trouble falling asleep. Putting our attending elsewhere conveys us back to the present, with one point of focusing -- on something that's able to travel without pain. Sleep will come up more than easily.

Which conveys me to another effectual method for falling asleep -- appreciating your body. Put your attending on some country of your organic structure -- let's state your feet, and pass a few minutes feeling the life inside your feet. Sense their size, shape, and temperature. Wage attending to the feeling of their touching the sheets and their weight on the bed. Then, recollection all the things your feet makes for you -- allowing you to stand, balance, walk, bike, thrust a car, and more. Think of the many fantastic topographic points your feet have got taken you over the years. Appreciate your feet. Thank them for their service.

You can go on this "prayer" of grasp all the manner up your body, if you like - and if you can remain awake long enough.

Rest well.

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