The other day I felt really tired towards early evening. And I let myself feel it. I had come back from the Universal Medicine Retreat 2013 in Hoi An, Vietnam a couple of days earlier and had generally been sleeping more than usual and been more willing and able to feel what was actually going on in my body. And here I was, on a Wednesday evening, sometime between 7 and 8pm and I could feel a quite lovely tiredness after my working day. There was no weariness or exhaustion, no stress or duress, just an easygoing tiredness. My body felt warm, it felt like me and it felt right, familiar and quite lovely in its own way. An early night was definitely on the cards.
Nothing much to write home about then – except for one thing: sometime between 8:00 and 8:30 I would have to check my emails again! I was waiting for an answer from interstate that would determine whether I needed to set my alarm or not for early the next morning to work on a couple of texts that had to go out before I went to work.
I did what I usually do as far as my evening routine is concerned, and then back to the laptop – within 20 minutes and a few more emails I found out that there was more to do than I had anticipated and that there were actually three texts, two of which had to be back the following day. So I decided to do the practical thing and set my alarm.
No big deal – until I checked in with my body again: I had already become aware of the fact that the warm tired feeling wasn’t there anymore. All I could feel was that my head had become the most prominent part of me. I also became aware of an anticipatory feeling of being rushed sometime in the future (tomorrow), plus a hint of potential overwhelm and a real pressure around the assumed possibility of not being able to meet these new deadlines. And somewhere lay waiting a whole barrage of thoughts about all the other things I had to do and somehow squeeze into the next day, and subsequent days.
In other words, I wasn’t connected to my body anymore. If I wanted to sleep and sleep well I needed to reconnect. I could feel that these thought processes / emotions were slightly above and ahead of my body like a bank of fog: it felt really strange but it was very real. And it felt cold. It was hard to believe how cold it felt. I had to keep checking: it was definitely cold. And I couldn’t feel the tiredness anymore, just this immaterial and disengaged, cold and somehow empty blur.
I was just about to go to bed, but how could I settle and go to sleep? I knew that my body must still be tired but I couldn’t feel it anymore. It was amazing to observe how my head was running the show and feeding me this weird and unreal state of disembodied, strained and cold alertness. Had I not let myself feel the warm and very real physical tiredness before, I could have easily fooled myself into believing that I wasn’t tired at all.
So I went to bed knowing this was not an evening for catch-up TV or other things. I needed to just get into bed and reconnect – I knew that my body must still be tired, but I had just lost touch with it and the tiredness.
What happened next? I just ever so slightly started feeling my body again; I was also aware of my expectation of meeting that warm and real tiredness again and then… I woke up an hour before my alarm went off the next morning and easily did all I had to do before going to work.
Big deal? Yes, for me it was a big deal – an amazing experience of the truth of my body and the disengaged coldness of an otherwise different choice.
But wait, there is more: I got my friend Katerina to read a draft of this blog and she wanted to know what happened after the semicolon and before I woke up the next morning!?
Well, it was just so simple and straightforward that I am nearly at a loss as to how to describe it. All I know is that I wasn’t telling myself off for having lost the connection and I certainly didn’t try to re-connect. All I did was trust the knowing that my body and the tiredness had to still be there. I just put a few feelers out, felt what I could feel, which was quite subtle, and gave what was there permission to be there. And before I knew it I had fallen asleep. Very simple and oh, so profound.
By Gabriele Conrad, Goonellabah, Australia
867 Comments
Hi Gabriele,
There are so many times when I will feel tired, but let myself get distracted by all the things I need to do. At the weekend, I was feeling a little under the weather, and was at home gently doing chores. I had started washing up, and as I stood at the bowl, running hot water, I was suddenly aware that I felt very tired, I like to get things done and would normally finish what I’m doing before doing the next thing, but probably because I had had a cold and cough that week, I was more committed to honouring my body, so I immediately left the washing up, and lay on my bed just for 15 minutes to rest and just let my body relax. I know that I do this at work too, I may feel like getting a drink or to stretch my legs or even to go to the toilet, but I will want to finish this one thing first, which often leads to another, and I can ignore the impulse to do something else for quite some time in the end. So, I’m getting quite good at noticing these things, I just want to make a few more choices to act when I notice instead of ‘just a minute and then I will…. ‘ as if my body is the distraction, and not the main event to listen to…
I know that feeling well, Laura… “just a minute and then I will stop”. Before I know it, the minute turns into an hour and I am in a ferocious push and drive, that really hurts my body.
I agree Laura – after years of listening to my body when I am tired I am still learning but it is really great to go to bed when tired and no later and to wake up refreshed 9 out of 10 times.
So true and beautifully described, the ever ongoing to-do-list that we can use to hold ourselves to ransom with.
So simple and profound Gabriele, thank you for the reminder.
I so enjoy the clarity and depth in your expression Gabriele. I also wanted to know what happened after the semicolon and before you woke up, so thanks for sending the draft to Katerina and thanks to Katerina for her input. This highlights for me how sometimes sharing with another can be so supportive, and how we don’t say things sometimes because it seems so ‘simple and straightforward’ and we are ‘at a loss for words,’ or so we think, but it is in giving ourselves permission to expand and elucidate that offers ourselves and everyone else an opportunity for greater understanding and appreciation.
Thanks Gabrielle. I have noticed this too. That if I am not careful my mind finds emails to read and TV and jobs to do even though my body is telling me it’s bedtime and before I know it I’ve gone to bed later than planned and a bit racy and then not slept very well. Staying in the present and really listening carefully to my body are really important.
Yes, it is uncanny how convincing the mind can be and I have recently found that even just overextending by a mere five minutes has a huge impact on my body and my vitality.
Yes I know what you mean Gabriele. There is a conversation going on with my body that is exact. A rhythm and a moment to moment flow. If I am OUT of this even for a few minutes I can feel the difference.
Amazing Gabrielle….. on that note, I am being inspired by you and am going to bed this very second! Night night… 🙂
Thank you Gabrielle for sharing. I have been noticing that when I am tired and feel that warmth in the body, if I connect to that and honour it, I drop off to sleep instantly and awake fresh before my alarm clock goes of. If there are days when I ignore any tiredness, I go to bed with anxiousness, my sleep is restless and an alarm clock has to wake me up. Your sharing has inspired me to go deeper and really connect to my feelings of tiredness and just honour where my body is at.
I totally agree Amita. It can nearly feel like a kind of hangover in the morning when I let the tiredness slip away and go into nervous energy or anxiousness about the day ahead. Just goes to show that the body is the marker of what is really going on rather than the mind that can seemingly be so convincing with its messages to the contrary.
Thanks for a great blog Gabriele. I am feeling warmly tired now, just a few things I have to do, then I’m planning to go to bed. I will remember your words.
I trust you’ll sleep well Natalie!
That is a great sharing Ken – I find too that I override the exhaustion and push through and then, if anything doesn’t go ‘according to plan’ the anxiety kicks in and together, the push and the anxiety, then become the fuel for that particular task. And what also happens is that the ‘doing and getting done’ of the job have become far more important than the quality I have been doing it in and whether I have been connected to myself or not. And really – could I be connected when the push is already something that had, by it’s very nature, taken me out of my body?
That’s great, Alison. Your comment about getting the ironing board out made me laugh out loud. It is funny but crazy how we can override what our body is clearly saying as the end of the day is approaching, once we let the mind kick in. Thank you so much Gabriele for this awesome account.
To spend the week observing how we override our bodies messages, l feel would be life changing. If we get really honest with ourselves.
I am sure that even spending one day closely observing what we do with the messages our body is continually giving us would be incredibly revealing, and doing it for a week would definitely expose the deeply held patterns of how we have lived while ignoring our very wise body. As you say Irena, it all comes down to honesty.
Yes Ingrid. To make the commitment to focus on listening to the body whole heartedly for a week would be very revealing and no doubt would bring up a lot of OUCH! moments.
I agree Irena
Yes thats right Irena and the question is why do we do so
Yes, I had a similar experience with work. I felt exhausted but had a 2 hour job to do. I stayed with the feeling of exhaustion, honoring it. During the job I broke something and felt a wave of anxiety. I centered myself and carried on but I noticed that I was not feeling exhausted any more, then I understood that I was runnning on nervous energy (an old familiar habit). This time however I felt the shift and understood I had overoad the exhaustion and was running on nervous energy. It was a great awareness of an old pattern.
Thank you Gabrielle, your article is very inspiring. I can so easily get distracted and fool myself into the illusion of doing more when actually the same amount could be done at a different time the next day ie. in the early hours shortly after waking up, for me anytime between 3 am and 4 am, and usually the day goes by without feeling tired.
I agree Alexandre – for me, this mad habit of ticking off things to do is totally mind driven and does not honour a loving rhythm at all. I find that I do this very often from an anticipated fear of overwhelm and more work coming in but the truth is, there is never more than I can handle as long as I stay connected and read what my body shows me so clearly.
Alex and Gabriele it’s great what you share. I too used to do a lot of ticking boxes but always felt my list did not stop and I would be so tired as I just did not give myself enough time to wind down. I have now changed my pattern, so I listen to my body when it says enough for the day I stop, I start allowing my body to unwind and prepare myself to switch off for the evening. I am so much more relaxed and not tired. I am able to fall off to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.
Yes, ticking boxes at the expense of how we are truly feeling is a big trap and I have noticed that listening to my body can sometimes even mean to stop working on a document one or two pages before it ends, but enough is enough and my body clearly tells me so. If I override it and keep going, that last bit really drains me and causes a nervous acceleration in my body which then makes it really hard to wind down.
Gabriele that’s a great point if we over ride the stop that nervous acceleration kicks in, which makes me feel worst. It really is about listening and stopping before the tiredness kicks in and understanding our body.
I am still working with this too Gabriele but completely get the nervous acceleration that can come from – one more typed sentence or a phone call answered. This level of nervous tension is well learned and it takes a lot to quell and let go of – way more energy than honouring and then completing the task when the body felt to.
Gabriele this is great to read because I often have those times when I feel to rest and prepare for bed in the evening and then instead, get engaged in emails or T.V. and “forget” that I am tired. When I go to sleep its then in the anticipation of being behind, being tired etc. I will try out your simple tips!
This is awesome Gabriele and perfect for me to read this morning. I can really relate to being connected and feeling tired in the early evening and then letting the mind come in and take over and feeling overwhelmed and anxious about what there is to do in the future which then affects the quality of my sleep and how I live the next day. I love how you describe ‘I could feel that these thought processes / emotions were slightly above and ahead of my body like a bank of fog’ and how you didn’t beat yourself up or try to re-connect but just allowed. I can feel how I have often blamed myself for losing the connection to my body and how this only serves to take me further away because I remain stuck in my head. Thank you for this practical but profound and inspiring sharing of your experience.
Amazing to read, I love your awareness. I could feel my body change when I read the first part of your blog (in bed) it started to relax more and wanted to feel what you were feeling, the natural warmth and tiredness.
As I read the next part it felt all to familiar, the to do list, what have, I got to get done etc.
It is truly amazing how you describe this, the ‘disengaged coldness’ and more importantly how from simply having the willingness to go back to the feeling you originally had it changed yet again. Very inspiring on how important it is to take note of our bodies and listen to them and more importantly that we have the power to change instantly if it does not feel right. Thank you or sharing.
Wow this is a great blog Gabriele. I know I have ignored my body most of my life and lived in a thought world in my head. Observing it’s truth and accuracy now leaves me in complete wonder, and how much it really does know, what it can do and how wise the body is, just amazes me.
Thank you Gabrielle for this blog, it is a great reminder of the infinite wisdom and power of the body to do what is right for us if we allow it and don’t let our heads rule the way. I love the description of just putting a “few feelers out” and “giving permission” – so simple and yet clearly so effective.
So true Stephen, this article ‘ is a great reminder of the infinite wisdom and power of the body to do what is right for us if we allow it and don’t let our heads rule the way’. Simple and true.
I agree Catherine – it is just an allowing of what is already there as our natural state underneath the turmoil and the noise and the at times frantic activity. I am learning that more and more and how simple it all really is.
With sleep being championed as the panacea, the great healer, how lovely to read your article Gabriele and everyone’s comments, which to me suggest that it’s our relationship with sleep, and ultimately ourselves, which can be a healer.
I loved this blog- as I started to read it I expected it to be about the perils of allowing yourself to get distracted by emails etc close to bedtime, but the truth offered was way deeper. In particular I loved the reminder that we do not have to try hard to connect, just allow, for connection is our natural state, and comes easily if our bodies have become accustomed to that way of being.
And also that golden line of giving ” what was there permission to be there”….gosh that is gorgeous and such a gift we can give ourselves. It can be such a work in progress when we get in our way and don’t allow what is there, to simply be there but it is a road I am certainly glad I am on.
I couldn’t agree more Sarah, giving ourselves permission to listen to what was there to feel, and maybe not always honouring that, but oh so glad it is a more consistent choice that is made, is awesome.
I remember when my daughter was about 1 and we were in a one bedroom flat and we were wanting her to sleep in her own room so she got the lounge. So at 7pm the TV was off and when I felt my body it was tired and actually wanted to sleep. It felt great to honour this by actually going to bed. But what really stood out for me was that I was obviously overriding how my body actually felt for the stimulation of TV, or in your case the computer. I can certainly relate to that now as I haven’t watched TV in a long time, but the busyness gets to override what my body wants. Like you describe we are then a walking head running the show with our bodies suffering! And with that I am off to bed!
I love what you have shared in saying we are walking heads…funny, but true!
I have also been someone who has always gone to bed early. It is almost like I have no choice as I just get more and more tired. But what I am noticing is how I can delay the actual winding down time that my body really needs in the evening.
Can certainly relate to allowing the busyness of life to overide when I go to sleep. I noticed that whenever my life gets busier and there is more work to do that my self care always slips such as giving myself the time to sleep, this means that when I wake up I am in far more exhaustion than when I started and therefore the work that I have to do is a far greater struggle.
Walking head – walking dead! Numb to the fact that our body is the most intelligent thing of all. Great reminder Vanessa to look out for every teensy trick the mind can play on distracting us away from who we truly are and what we truly feel.
What a great and self-loving rhythm around your sleep and winding down time, very inspiring.
Yes, it can seem like a big deal, but isn’t it the simplest and truest and most logical thing to do at the same time? The mind doesn’t have to tangibly and physically live the choices that affect our body after all.
I can relate to what you say about going to bed complete. It feels awful to go to bed being worried about what there is to come the next day and having not completed EVERYTHING that needs doing on that day.
Such a great example of how we disconnect from the feelings we know in our body – and as you say, let our head run the show. It’s such a subtle energy and can easily be over-ridden, but the outcome is profound. Yet when we trust and reconnect we’re right back there. So simple and so beautiful.
Thank you Gabrielle for this great example of how easy it is to override our bodies and go into our heads, our bodies are always clearly signalling how to care for ourselves, and beautiful that you re-connected to your body and honoured this feeling – very inspiring.
Very profound indeed Gabriele. Thanks for the reminder that our bodies will give us all the signs we need if we want to listen to it.
Gabriele, I absolutely loved the description you gave to the changes and signals your body was giving you as you went from being body centered to mind-led and back into your body. I have spent so much of my life being a “spacey” child and unfocused and anxious adult. I knew I was not representing who I really am but felt like I couldn’t find myself! Now I know that all I need to do is breathe gently, do things slowly or gently and I feel myself again. I know this because it WORKS and all the many modalities, meditations, workshops, courses and “healings” I tried before did not bring me back to me in this way at all. Thank you simple-common-sense-Universal Medicine.
Yes, you are absolutely right, no outward method or modality can help us find ourselves – I tried travelling as well to add to the list. Isn’t it amazing that what we are trying to find is right there with us all the time, just waiting to be connected to?
A very relatable topic as I too have found myself feeling that everything is purely focused on whats in my head and all the situations and endless to-do lists. All the while I know my body has had enough. What has inspired me from this blog is the fact that by just feeling that tiredness and allowing that to be the focus as we go to bed the body gets a chance to rest in a higher quality. I have found that if I go to bed with my mind running the show my sleep is not as deep or effective compared to intentionally putting myself to sleep.
Hi Leigh, when you write “I have found that if I go to bed with my mind running the show my sleep is not as deep or effective compared to intentionally putting myself to sleep” I can really relate to that. If I go to sleep with a to-do list then I will wake up with one, there is no doubt about it, I have slavishly conducted that same experiment many times. Looking back to what I experienced and wrote about I can clearly see that it was one of the occasions when I truly surrendered to the wisdom of my body and let the mind be what the mind is – a chatterbox of sorts that will come up with anything and everything to try and take me away from what I feel in the body – if I let it.
That is an awesome point – how you go to sleep is exactly how you wake up. I’ve often wished it to be different and there to be a magical cure in the night so that if I abuse my body the day before then I’ll still wake up feeling refreshed. It has taught me that we have a responsibility in the way we put ourselves to bed, and the way we live our day, because ultimately, that is what we take to the new day ahead.
I can really relate to what you both say here, I have experienced the difference between racy before bed and calm before bed affecting how I wake up. And at the same time just expecting my sleep to magically swipe away all the days abuse and tomorrow will be a clean slate. But how is it a clean slate if I wake up in the ‘new day’ with the previous nights thoughts still playing?
“All I know is that I wasn’t telling myself off for having lost the connection and I certainly didn’t try to re-connect. All I did was trust the knowing that my body and the tiredness had to still be there.”
This part really stood out to me this time around, it takes the strain off trying or forcing myself to ‘be me’ or re-connect. My bodies feelings never go away, I just ignore them and trying to feel them again with the intention/belief that they have gone somewhere where I must strive to reach them never works.
So true, any trying or forcing makes the body contract and go tight and hard and then it is very difficult, if not impossible, to connect to its yumminess and the warmth that is always there – and to the tiredness or whatever else the body is showing me.
” How you go to sleep is exactly how you wake up.” How true this is Meg. Often I will dream unpleasant dreams about the tasks ahead and not being able to complete them. I wake up anxious and racy about the new day. But letting go and honouring my body, preparing it for a lovely re-energising sleep ensures the following day unfolds with all its beauty.
Gabrielle it’s so true what you say about going to sleep with a to do list results in waking up with one. I used to wake up in the middle of the night to try and complete the to do list, lie there for a while knowing I’ll feel tired later if I keep awake and then finally get up to do it just because I might as well do it rather than just think about it! Now a days I plan my days so my day feels complete or I decide to stay with what’s more important, me and my body rather than give focus to a list.
Thanks for sharing Gabriele. My friends and family think it’s very odd and unachievable to go to bed so early and be able to sleep but I now find it the only way for me. If I’m tired I can go to bed at 8pm and be asleep ten minutes later then wake up between 2am and 3am feeling totally refreshed and have all this extra time to do stuff in a better energy than if I tried to do it tired the night before. This just makes so much more sense and I feel much better for it.
Kevin, I am the same I can be asleep by 8pm and it feels amazing to be snuggled in my bed and asleep in 10mins to then be able to wake in the morning feeling fresh.
I agree, I feel the same – rather than pushing through the evening or night before and getting less and less productive, I get up early and get everything done easily and then go to work.
I agree Kevin and the quality of that sleep is much deeper and more restorative than if I were to go to bed later and I love waking feeling completely refreshed in those early hours of the morning.
Yes, it is crazy really – our body lives always in the present and does everything we ask of it and our minds are either way ahead and entangled in the complications of an anticipated or dreaded future or for some, in the regrets or triumphs of the past. Sounds like a mental health condition to me!
And mental health conditions are on the rise at an alarming rate. How simple is the cure that you have described here Gabriele! What if, like yourself we learnt at an early age the difference between letting our minds run ahead or complicate things and the truth and wisdom of our bodies? It could be summed up by what you have written Gabriele about ‘an amazing experience of the truth of my body and the disengaged coldness of an otherwise different choice.’ Your writing simplifies life beautifully – what about writing a book Gabriele?!!
There are certainly many areas of life that could benefit from the simplicity and ease of listening to our body – will you join me in the project though?
So true Gabriele, well described!
Oh I know sooo well, the anticipatory feeling of being rushed and the subsequent overwhelm that ensues about something that needs to be completed by a certain point in the future. Thank you Gabriele for highlighting the importance of coming back to feeling the truth in our bodies and not be distracted by the false stories of our mind.
I found this deeply beautiful. I love how Gabriele can convey precisely what she feels, and how her body communicates – she makes feeling so tangible.
Absolutely lovely Gabriele, it can be so simple and yet so profound when we choose to go back to what our bodies are telling us. After reading the bit about you at the end of the blog I realised I would love to read more about your life, you are an extremely inspiring lady!
Hi Gabriele, I just enjoyed reading your lovely blog again and it is a great reminder of how easily we can over-ride that initial message from the body, the warmth, the tiredness and the completeness of the day. Recently I had noticed how I was going to bed a bit later doing a few more emails before bed and saying to myself I don’t feel tired. I had let this run for about a week going to bed later and later, until I realised that this was affecting how I was in the day, such as not being attentive and letting things slip or get in the way. It was great to feel the knock on affect of over-riding that initial impulse to go to bed.
Hi Alison, what you write reminds me of the fact that “nothing is nothing and everything is everything” (Serge Benhayon). Years ago I would have never put the two things together, going to bed that little bit later every night and how it then affects how I am during the day. And yet – it does and it feels great to have become aware of all these nuances and take responsibility for how I live and thus, for how I feel.
You are so right, Alison. I was reading my earlier contribution again and it reminded me that all I really have to do is to surrender to my body. Sounds easy but after years, no decades of living a rushed and strained existence and sucking the urgency and assumed duress of the next day/s into myself quite a bit of steadiness, patience and relearning are required. And yet, and still to my amazement, when I connect to my body and don’t rush or get frantic – I get so much more done because I don’t keep tripping over myself!
Gabriele, as you said ‘it sounds easy’ yet it requires re-learning. I have slowed down considerably in the way I work and walk and the world has not stopped. Things still get done but I have so much more time to dedicate to my self-care. Great blog.
Wunderbare Gabriele thank you for this – for me – so mind blowing sharing. It help me a lot to understand more of all my ingrained behaviors with working and being disciplined. These behaviors are often starting without me being aware of it and it is good to read that it needs my steadiness and my patience to re-learn. I love your sentences “All I know is that I wasn’t telling myself off for having lost the connection and I certainly didn’t try to re-connect. All I did was trust the knowing that my body and the tiredness had to still be there.” This sentences gave me a warm feeling and a joy and the easiness in that sentences is infectious.
I agree Ester and I love how you word it..”being patient with myself”. I feel this is such an important part to the surrendering Gabrielle described.
I love what you share Gabriele, there is a great image that comes with ‘how I can trip over myself’ getting less done as you say. For me I find it much more tiring to even think too much about what is next before I’ve completed what it is I’m doing. My body knows what is needed and the more loving care I offer my body the more it provides and supports what I need in a day.
Beautifully expressed Sandra – I also find it so tiring when I think too much. “Overthinking” was a big topic in my life, I was just in my head. I work in an IT department and there are always technical challenges I could think about. For me it is about learning to trust, what ever is needed my body will tell me, there is no reason to think ahead or to worry. My body tells me everything that needs to be done and what I shouldn’t do.
Wow Alexander, this is amazing to hear from an IT expert, which as far as I understand it, is a lot of head work and always somewhat the pressure to be needing to know more technical details. For you to approach life and especially your work from trusting that your body knows what you need to know is incredible.
Great observation and I have found the same. When I am in two places at once, in my actual physical reality and the imagined time pressured future, it gets quite exhausting and it certainly doesn’t get more done, quite on the contrary. It is a huge distraction and only leads to mistakes and things having to be done again and corrected.
That is it isn’t it Gabriele the truth is we can get so much more done if we stay connected to our body, don’t rush and allow the day to come to us. I did this yesterday and I had a full day, but it was complete and I felt ready and prepared for the next day and my sleep reflected this. If I allow space in my day everything just flows and everything that needs to happen does, and my body does not feel racy and exhausted,
Great observation Gabrielle. It takes me quite some discipline to be in the body constantly, even I know being the head does not bring me anything, makes me close my heart and is even harming to myself and others. And still I go on.
It is harming for sure when we are absent to ourselves and therefore to others; there is a hard coldness that, once we become aware of it, is intolerable between two human beings.
Thank you Gabriele, it is so easy to let those outside demands come in and override the delicious feeling of healthy tiredness. You remind me that how I live my evening time, and how easily and lovingly I choose to go to bed, will make so much difference to how I wake and live the next day.
Yes, I have found that too. How I put myself to bed sets the tone for how I wake up and how I go into the day, my day. It is quite simple really!
Yes the same here, Gabriele, the quality I put myself to bed with, the more I can feel and stay connected to my body sets the tone for how I start the day. The day actually starts the evening before.
Indeed, what I take to bed with me will be what is with me the next morning.
The more I am with myself, the simpler the coming day will unfold.
I totally understand what you’re saying, and it’s amazing how joining to our mind cuts the connection to our bodies. Thanks for the amazing, simple sharing, and it was beautiful to feel your words, how you felt into what was going on with no judgment on your self!
Great reminder Rebecca, thank you.
Gabriele, this is such an awesome blog – so simple but as you say so profound. I loved how you describe this coldness that was happening when you disconnected and let the head take over.
Thank you Gabriele, perfect timing for me to read this and to feel how honourable it is to trust our bodies, to trust ourselves and how the mind is waiting for any chance to distract us and run away with its thoughts. This post is better than any sleeping concoction!
… and no side effects, Bernadette!
And a lot cheaper and easier to take – just having a dose of ourselves really.
I love the way you put that Gabriele, and so lovely to feel it.
So true! who needs sleeping pills when you have awesome blogs expressing the truth about sleep like this one!
That is so true Rebecca, we don’t, although I can sense something within me that says (with arrogance) well my situation is different.. I must say that this actually is a trick, we all can connect, and we can all feel if we are tired or not. The key is acting on it though:)
I agree Bernadette – learning how to deal with the mind running away (really getting into nervous energy) makes such a big difference in our life.
So true, it was a perfect timing to read this blog, I have noticed these thoughts before going to bed to check my emails, the set up of the mind that wants to distract me from being with my body. I am thankful for this sharing, and it gives me the opportunity to be very aware by my next bedtime.
This is gorgeous Gabriele. I can so relate to the feeling of needing to let go and sink in to your body and that warmth before going to sleep. I have found that the more I let go and allow myself to surrender, the easier it is to naturally wake up early and have the clarity to do the work that I need to do. Whereas, when I go to bed in the anxiousness of needing to get up early, I have to drag myself out of bed. Beautifully written.
Jonathan, I can completely relate to what you share. If I allow myself to drop into my body and feel the warmth, I have a very peaceful sleep and am able to wake up early the next day feeling refreshed. If my mind is not settled and body feeling cold, I struggle to fall asleep and feel tired when I wake In the morning.
Jonathon thank you for your beautiful sharing. I feel the same way. If I truly surrender to how I am feeling then I have a lovely restful sleep and feel totally energised and ready for my day, but if I override my feelings of tiredness and watch tv etc I feel horrible the next morning and really struggle.
So true Jonathan, it is an honourable part of the day to wind down and prepare for our sleep, it is so intimate when our body is asking us to completely surrender.
True Marcia, it is that intimacy of being truly connected to our bodies and the wisdom within.
Amazing sharing Jonathan and I can relate I often have the anxioussness and then wake up with a drag and burning feeling in my eyes. I now feel inspired to trust that the warmth is there to connect back to even if at times I do not feel it.
Thank you Jonathan – I so needed to read this blog and this comment. I realise the way I go to sleep is so important and to take that time to reconnect and allow my body to let go and surrender to sleep is a practise I will do.
I have experienced this too Jonathan. I would much rather wake up early naturally than have the feeling of having to drag myself out of bed. When I feel heavy upon waking up in the mornings, I know it’s related to my choices the day before or more. Choices that was not honoring my body or myself. So, my choices today I know affects the quality of my sleep and how I will feel the next day.
This is a great reminder to me about how loving it feels to just let go and allow myself to feel whatever is there with no expectations or outcomes… that is definitely something I can sleep with! Thanks Gabriele.
No expectations and no outcomes…gosh, how simple, lovely and warm life can be without these!
No expectations or outcomes…..that is a possibility I need to ponder on, thank you.
Yes- I can rely on that too, how loving it feels to just let go – there is this deeper trust that we all know and aligning to this place where all there is.
It is a constant work in progress to allow ourselves to feel what is there without the constant layering of stuff.