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
862 Comments
Yesterday, I had an afternoon nap, something I don’t often do but I listened to my body and followed its cue. How often do we do this, listen to our body? It felt amazing and I am glad I listen to my body as it needed the rest to deeply heal.
Absolutely Richard. Interesting that the truest guide for us to live harmoniously in this world, one that we all have access to by virtue of the fact we all have a body, is the relationship we least develop. For as you say the wisdom in our bodies will always reflect the truth of how we are living and guide us to live in honor of our truth.
What a powerful testimony of the true intelligence that is our body, and how it is this intelligence, when we surrender to being guided by it, that honors what is true for our body and being.
This is really something to look out for concerning our sleep patterns and how we are willing to treat ourselves…”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.” We go into our head and discount our bodies when we push through and I call it that second wind, when we stay up and do more work, watch TV or have one of those big conversations…I can do this I am big on knowing how to not look after myself, which conversely means I am super aware of how I can support myself. In a sense you can not disregard with such precision, if you do not know what it is that you disregard. It is vital to be more willing to respond and not deny what the body shares.
Brilliant analysis of what really plays out behind the scenes – in order to blatantly disregard and bludgeon ourselves we need to innately know the truth of how to look after and care for ourselves to the minutest detail.
Gabriele, reading this makes me realise how often we override our bodies and keep going, it is beautiful that you chose to reconnect and were able to sleep and wake early, very inspiring.
I love it Gabriele! Very simple. Something more to add — Isn’t it amazing that we can feel the same thing everyday and not devote ourselves to feel but choose to override it instead. When we do give ourselves permission all is revealed. “All I did was trust the knowing that my body and the tiredness had to still be there.” So, we could say, trust the knowing that my body will know what to do with any willingness to feel.
The body can be the transparent expression of our soul when we just allow it, and our soul when listened through our body simply honours the vehicle of its expression. Love doesn’t want less than love.
‘ 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.’ I love this. Thank you Gabriele.
Once the body is rested and once that resting come’s after and from a tired body, then the body and the whole of the person is ready for what ever needs to be done.
This is a great sharing as so often I stay with what has come in, like the feeling of overwhelm etc instead of connecting back to a steadiness and doing all that is needed from here.
Once we have felt what a restorative sleep provides, there is no going back to the old ways of cluttering the evening with stimulation, excess food and drink or staying up late. It just isn’t worth it.
It is amazing how often I still allow myself to be distracted by technology and override my natural impulse to go to bed early. What has just come to me is that I need to change my routine and, for example, set a time that I will log off my laptop – there is never anything so urgent that it cannot wait until tomorrow and will be much better dealt with by a body that has had a restful sleep.
Tomorrow and to-do lists, two of the biggest distractions, that when allowed to take over very quickly disconnect us from the all-encompassing warmth that we naturally are. When we compare this warmth of connection to our body why would we want to even think about disconnecting – ever?
This is such a beautiful blog and a valuable reminder to listen to our body no matter what.
Its amazing the harm we can do by ignoring the body, as soon as we override what is naturally true for us we bring in so much more complication and stress, far better to listen to the body first and save ourselves the unnecessary stress and harm.
It is so very easy for our mind to override what our bodies are telling us, I have stopped watching Tv after 7pm and I read with my daughter instead, but if I feel that I am tired, I will go to bed as well after the reading and not do anything that may stimulate me.
Beautiful to read this blog another time, it made me more aware and honest about how I tend to push my body in the evening even when the day feels already complete, nearly as if I make a second start in the evening instead of honouring what my body is telling me. I realise this is a reflection of how I am with my body during the day, pushing myself to get the things done, something I know not to be true. Now, with this awareness I will go into my day and offer myself the space to change and choose the connection with my body whenever I feel I’ll go in the business of life.
Thank you, I am feeling very tired and yet I have been pushing through to get things done. Perfect read for this moment and a beautiful nudge to connect more deeply with my body.
When we stay in our mind we easily can dismiss the signals of our bodies and instead run from our mind and in that completely dismiss that what our body continuously want to tell and communicate to us.
This is a beautiful example of how sensitive our bodies are, and how powerfully we are called to be in a sensitive and delicate relationship with our bodies. Thinking ahead is in fact a harsh movement that bludgeons our bodies. Worrying about what’s going to happen in the future (or what has happened in the past) is also an assault.
So very subtle but absolute in the quality of tenderness and stillness – our bodies are our constant amazing barometer that keeps calling us back to these very qualities within ourselves and how we relate to everything in the world.
And the quality of our sleep is an amazing, delicious reflection of this, when we do listen to this precious call.
That’s such an apt description Katerina of what thinking ahead or worrying about anything does. It is precisely that, an assault. Which means that when we do surrender to whatever is before us it is truly nurturing to our whole body and being.
The question is, how much do we listen to that body. How much do we compromise the spaciousness in our bodies for something in the outside that asks us to rush, or makes us anxious, lies in the future or keeps us busy. If we would have the standard to listen first to how our body responds to such a situation we would most definitely live completely different.
It’s amazing how many distractions and things to do that can magically appear to tease us when our bodies are telling us it is tired, the day is over and it’s time for bed.
I know this feeling of connection and disconnection, we all do, how many of us have got so focussed on an emotion or task we wonder where we were for the last few minutes – so it is disconnection. Being in connection with the body regularly means if we do get nudged into emotions or too much activity or thoughts without focus on our body, we more readily are aware of it and come back. I spend most of my day connected to my body and very present, no more churning stories around in my head, most of my thoughts have some purpose that supports not just me but others. How could this not feel fantastic, it is so worth practicing whole body awareness and making it a priority in life..
I look forward to a time where I don’t loose connection to my body very often, but for the time being, I’ll do as you have done and not beat myself up for it when I do and just know it is always there to reconnect to without even trying. I used to have terrible trouble sleeping but now days I am out like the light due to no stimulation in the evenings, and anything I have to deal with gets dealt with in the morning.
Changing one’s rhythm so things don’t get unattended to during the day and end up cluttering the evening is an important step on the way to great and sound sleep.
Sure Kevin, our bodies do know how to handle things well and if we allow and do not interfere from the mind we will complete the day without any loose end and have a lovely sleep thereafter.
So true, Nico. What a difference it makes to my quality of sleep when I feel complete with my day as opposed to when things are still unresolved as I try to go to sleep. I woke in the middle of the night night before last and had to make notes of what was playing on my mind before I could get back to sleep.
‘Beating ourselves up’ is in itself disconnection from our bodies.
I’m quite familiar with this pattern, if I look at it in my whole life it plays out like this: I know what I need to do and before I know it I’m doing something else, what happened? Simply a moment of disconnection. If we don’t criticise ourselves and we simply reapply ourselves then we can easily get back on track.
Great to read this blog again and to realise how I could support myself so much more in the way that I go to bed and prepare myself for sleep knowing that this has a profound effect on the quality of my sleep and thus how I am the next day.
True self-care starts with a deep connection with our bodies, as it is only then that we can honour and attend to what is needed without any ideals and beliefs getting in the way of embracing our wisdom within.
The power of re-connection and awareness with the body – the warmth of love flooding throughout it and the opposite of feeling cold when connected to the mind and unaware of the body. Brilliant blog Gabrielle exposing this.
Connection with the body is critical for true self-care, function is not care. We function and have knowledge when we live in our heads, when we embrace and pay attention to the signs and feeling in our whole body then we live with care and wisdom.
There is actually so much to this blog that applies to our everyday moments and choices – to be connected to the body and it’s wisdom and warmth, or disengage and allow in the cold mental energy and let it run the day. Much better to be with the body!
Great point Melinda. There is indeed much here that relates to the day, more than just the time and way we go to sleep necessarily. If there is a deep surrender to the body in the day then there is no question that come bed time even if you get work to do from an email or the like, the body knows that it will be done in its time and rhythm. It’s when we feel we have to go out of this natural flow that we disconnect.
Surrender to the body and everything else is taken care of, love it Gabrielle.
I so totally agree that when we let our minds push us into the future and we lose our presence in the moment we lose our ability to know what we need to do next. This is because we have lost the connection to the inner heart and the body’s natural wisdom.
I love the magic of choice and how we can choose to stop and connect to how our bodies feel anytime, it is only when we choose to go into anxiety and overwhelm that we disconnect from this and override our initial feelings. The great thing is that no matter what choice we made before we can always choose differently in our next movement and connect back to the wisdom shared within.
Wow it’s amazing how our head can tell us the exact opposite of what is going on for our body – no wonder we are making ourselves ill all the time if we are constantly over-riding the signals our body is trying to tell us with our thoughts.
Well said Meg, you have definitely accurately hit the nail on the head with what you have shared!
It feels to me that our heads are practiced in the art of taking our bodies in the opposite direction to where in fact they actually want to go. Drinking things that our bodies don’t truly want to drink, eating things that our body knows that it’s gonna have trouble digesting, sleeping with people that our body knows damn well it doesn’t want to sleep with, smoking things that our body would never inhale given the choice. Oh yes, make no mistake our heads are masters at riding rough shod over our bodies and to the great detriment of our bodies.
It always comes back to the truth of how our body feels.
Such a great example Gabriele of how our minds can very easily override our own body…tired and warm in one minute, and awake and cold the next. But then how you came back to feeling your body rather than what is ‘the norm’ of being awake, overtired and then sleeping, or having a restless sleep only to wake feeling wrecked in the morning.
True – and not only that, it is erroneously albeit widely applauded as demonstrated in the expression “mind over matter”.
Most would not consider that there is a self sabotage happening here, even on the level of checking emails before bed, but such as the common dichotomy of life, the head is not usually one to act in the truth of its body when it is not connected with it.
I love the simplicity coming from a very sharp obervation Gabrielle. Excellent how you caught your head in taking over the show. And how being in the head leaves us cold.
I know what you have described so well Alison. There is a moment I know whatever is required in this moment is complete. I can feel a settlement in my body and a change in pace as there is space for me to feel what is required in the next moment. Yet at a blink of an eye a barrage of thoughts about what still needs to be done, and how things could be better, egging me to push on and do more in the moment, although I have already felt it is time to stop.
I am learning to stay with the awareness that is there well before the anxious-making thoughts descend and play out their seductive game.
Great observation – the moment is complete but the mind latches on to the next thing and then the next to create some anxiousness which accelerates and disturbs our physiology.
What a beautiful tale of connection and honouring the body.
The sensitivity of the body is much more than we realise, but when someone chooses to start listening to the body, it can provide much more clarity on what is needed, and how to care for it.
This is gold. Being connected to my body before sleep makes every bit of difference.
I loved coming back to this blog today and feeling the deepening of self acceptance that allows us to be free of thoughts that get in the way of our rest and sleep time.
Wow reading this blog couldn’t have come at a perfect time when my sleep rhythm is in disarray. I was reading some of the earlier comments and I think (in fact I know) I have this ‘mental health condition’ where my mind is running ten to the dozen and my body isn’t – I can easily become disconnected from it instead of listening to it more.
There are some gems being shared by many others and all useful for the many suffers of sleep deprivations in the world.
How often do we avoid feeling how truly tired we are, or avoid feeling at all? So much of our activity is based on stimulating the mind and the body almost goes without a say, when it is our vital vehicle of expression.
A great and confriming example of how much we can support ourselves, and everyone else by listening and acting on what our body needs and wants. It is only when we ignore these messages that we get into situations that can become complicated and stressful. Staying connected to ourselves is the key.
Thank you Gabriele I really loved your blog especially these words “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.” I recently had a bad nights sleep after having worked more than what my body wanted and instead of allowing what was there to be felt i went into the trying to reconnect and concern over over doing it .
I can remember many moments in my life where I have had trouble getting to sleep because I felt so stimulated and found it took me ages before I could get to sleep again. One thing is for certain and that is that trying to get to sleep never works. Clearing the energy of the stimulation is the only way to settle once again.
This is a great reminder that it is through our connection that we can maintain that quality of winding down before bed and still attend to things that need to be done with purpose and no checking out, as it is then that we can easily rely on nervous energy and before we know it we have comprised our sleep!
Yes, we compromise ourselves, our body, our health, our wellbeing in so many ways and especially when there is a lack of purpose and presence.
I think I’ve said it before, but what I love most about what you’ve written Gabriele is that you didn’t force yourself to feel what you had felt previously, knowing that that would only lead to frustration or dissapointment. You just trusted and then rested your body. I’m learning to do this myself, and it’s making an enormous difference to how I am with myself.
Thank you Gabriele, this is a dedication I have every night and it is always a marker for me of how I am feeling. If I don’t want to check in to my body and ensure I have let go of anything that may still be in my body before I go to sleep I know I am not in my body! I can see there is more I can bring to feeling this before I get to bed, more awareness of my body and my connection to it than I am already bringing. It is a constant evolution rather than a ‘getting to the end’ moment.
Great reminder, thanks – I can still get caught in the ‘getting to an end’ paradigm when the reality is that there is always more – by virtue of the facts that we are a) part of something much bigger and vaster and that b) our physical reality is not all there is.
And I did it again last night when I had come home from a long road trip and felt a bit agitated and buzzy once I was in bed; I just stayed with that physical feeling, acknowledged and experienced it and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.
I loved that last bit you shared Gabrielle, you had a sense that you could feel something in your body and accepted the part you could feel. For me I’ve held this expectation that I have to feel everything all in one go, in order to address what I am feeling there and then be done with it. Even writing that feels hard in my body. What’s beautiful about reading this blog is the acceptance of wherever your awareness was at at the time.
A great lesson and reminder to listen and respond to the wisdom of the body. Very simple and oh so profound Gabrielle, thank you.
That is indeed inspirational Gabrielle. What a detailed description of what being in the head feels like. I do recognize the fact that once I am in my head, I cannot feel what is happening in my body anymore. Not feeling the ‘nice’ feelings, but also the signals, the pains, the tiredness. Often we don’ t want to feel the unpleasant feelings, switch-off to our heads, but then we also switch-off the love, the warmth, the harmony, the power, the body-confidence and all the other goodies.
Gabriele, what you are sharing is very interesting – how our bodies can be tired but we can not feel this if we are in our heads, this makes sense why there is so much exhaustion in the world; because there is so much disconnection to our bodies and to what they are feeling and the messages our bodies are giving us. This allows me to ponder more deeply as sometimes I can be in drive and letting my head take the lead – trying to get things done, rather than being with myself and feeling from my body when I need to stop and rest.
It is beautiful to reconnect to your blog again Gabrielle and appreciate on a deeper level what you share here. There is much to appreciate and learn from your sharing , listening to our bodies not our head. A confirmation once again that our bodies hold the truth!
There is actually a lovely feeling just reading this blog… Like sitting in front of a fire on a cold night… Thank you Gabriele
Thank you Gabriele, a beautiful bedtime story inspiring me to listen to the rhythm of my body when it is calling for restful sleep.
This week I’ve had a lot of trouble getting to sleep. There is a tension in my body, a bit of excitement as I have a lot on and also anticipating a big move. I’ve been very tired and very restless before bed. I know this is partly because I have not been choosing to wind down…instead going going going until the minute I hit the pillow, at which time I am wired and end up tossing and turning for over an hour, and often in frustration. Being on my phone and checking social media way beyond when my eyes tell me they are sore and want to be closed for the evening certainly adds to the racyness.
This blog post is a nice reminder to listen and check in with my body well before it’s bed time, and then begin preparing for bed much earlier.
I realise that I am not living my day surrendered enough in my body so when I go to bed I toss and turn a lot as all of the tensions I have held my body in during the day are still there, they don’t instantly disappear. I am working on being much more surrendered in my day so that when it comes to sleeping my body can relax and not be on high alert.
Great to have made that connection between the tossing and turning at night and the tension that has been accumulated in the body during the day. Without that insight, you’d be reaching for sleeping tablets when the answer is in the way we live.
There are countless benefits of listening to our bodies and it is our responsibility to break and renounce those pictures which come in the way of us being in the stillness innate within us all.
Beautiful Francisco of how you simply share this.
So easily we get drawn into our heads, and then it gets cold in our bodies. Once we feel that, it is another inspiration to not live in our heads. Who wants to live like that?
Nobody really but it is easy to succumb to old habits, which really only serve to keep us unaware and numbed out to what is really going on.
Beautiful detailed observation how we get disconnected by escaping to the future and panicking about the things to come.
When we loose the connection to the present moment we are in constant catchup. Our body gives us the warners which we constantly ignore.
It’s great to feel the stark difference between a connected or disconnected body. Gabriele, your experience highlights the importance of clocking how the body feels and with that, creating markers to come back to and build on.
OMG love this blog Gabriele – super gorgeous, very relatable and it is a BIG deal !
I wish I had read this last night. As I was settling into bed, I could feel the exhaustion of my body., but as I went to bed the raciness began. What I have come to realise is just how powerful our head is in not letting us feel what there is to feel. It’s becoming so easy to let go of the physical things, food, alcohol, all of it, but one of our biggest hurdles is our mind because it can convince us that we have no power over the thoughts running through. However, the more I connect to my body, the more I am able to see the choice between the thoughts in my head and it’s super empowering. Thank you for this Gabriele 🙂
Is it possible that the raciness did not begin when you went to bed but that it was already there, just not identified as such because you were still in physical motion,i.e. the body was moving. If that was true, how much have we normalised this mind-full raciness then that we only notice it when we stop and go to bed?
The contrast of being surrendered to our body or dominated and controlled by the energy of thoughts is profound. In my body there is a steadiness and simplicity and when not everything starts to speed up and become more and more complicated.
So true Vicky – I’ve been having experiences the last few days of really feeling how life can flow when I’m in connection and surrendered to my body, and how different and confused I am when my thoughts take the reins. It’s alarming to realise that the confused state has been my normal for so long.
Great showcase of how important it is to feel our bodies.
Our body is just amazing always talking to us, telling when we need deep rest, when we can keep going, when we have over pushed it…. if we just stopped and allowed ourselves to feel and connect.
“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.” This is exactly what I am feeling now, so Im going to take myself of to bed, night night!
Feel and respond, feel and respond, feel and respond, if we had this relationship with our bodies then life would be radically different, as opposed to our not feel and dictate or feel and ignore or feel and bludgeon. If we want to get back to our connection with God then it has to start with our connection with ourselves through the body, there is no other way back. No other way at all.
When not impulsed from the heart, our thoughts are a cold fog that seek to settle over our mind so it cannot work in harmony with our body. Great example of this Gabriele.
Sometimes I know I have the capacity to do more, but my body always tells me when it time to stop. If I listen and don’t push through, I end up having a much more restful and restorative sleep.
Wow Gabriele, this is very profound. What I like is that you didn’t give yourself a hard time, and nor did you try to get to sleep. The trying gets me caught up in all sorts of complication where I believe my brain and will power might work. You simply allowed yourself to feel your body again. Giving yourself permission – I am finding that is so powerful as well.
Yes, beats sleeping pills hands down …
A great reminder to read this just before going to bed….
Spot on, Monica. It also made realise how often we can self sabotage ourselves…or to be clear, how we let our minds take over.
Living proof that it’s never too late to reconnect to ourselves, even when we’re going to sleep. It’s so easy to ‘stay at work’ by running our minds about what we’ve done or got to do. I’m learning more and more that when I give myself space to honour what I’m feeling, time has a way of waiting for me too.
Surrendering and honouring our body and its many messages, is a beautiful way to go to sleep, this is a lovely sharing Gabriele.
This goes very deep in it’s simplicity and honouring of what we know to be true even if we can’t feel it right at this moment. Just a glimmer of acknowledgment of this is enough for our body to support us as much as it can.
Slowly but surely I am honouring my body and turning off my computer at 8 pm so that I can wind down for sleep. It is making a huge difference. We cannot drive our bodies to the point of exhaustion and then expect to sleep easily. It simply does not work.
Today I have let myself going into this ‘head running the show’ thing and felt what you have described as ‘unreal state of disembodied, strained and cold alertness.’ It is a kind of robot style behaviour and movement, there is no aliveness just following my head already thinking about the next and the next thing to do very controlled by time and no space. And none appreciation only judgement, very cold indeed. Today a wonderful walk, brought back me in my movements. And reading your blog is very supportive too!
It’s such a different feeling going to bed with that lovely warm tiredness compared to being overtired. My sleep is much more settled and rejuvenating, where when overtired I am still exhausted when I wake. Our bed time rhythms are so important and not overriding them to tick off a list makes a huge difference. I am still learning this one.
So easy to override how we are naturally feeling. I love that delicious state where my body lets me know it has had enough for the day and would I mind taking it to bed now (and similarly dislike the override and the way that feels).
It so interesting how easy it is to get distracted, by phones, TV an other forms of stimulation. What I have that helps me Is that during my wind down time after 6.3pm I avoid making calls or getting on laptops to read emails. I know all this will stimulate the mind. I have a routine of just letting go, cooking, having a meal, reading blogs and then preparing for bed. This I find really supportive.
I am very inspired by the way you so beautifully describe how your body feels, and even the feeling of tiredness feels gorgeously honoured.
Connecting with our bodies allows us to express from what we feel and clearly it is something we cannot negate as easily as when our movements are impulsed from our heads.
I learned a beautiful way to deepen the quality of my sleep. It is to adjust in the evening your expanding energy which we all do in one way or the other. It is to bring that expanding energy what can be felt to one centre place within your spine. As in the night it is to wind down. This way I experience a much more claimed sleep in stead as before I was more dropping into sleep but not claimed with myself. And then it is the same as we can do on daytime. If we choose to be disconnected from ourselves you leave space for others to enter.
I have had a busy week and have been feeling very tired. Last night I went to bed early but then spent 45 minutes on my phone. It’s just gone 8pm but I think I will take myself to bed now and I’m not going to look at my phone or try and squeeze in any extra little jobs on the way. Inspiring blog and comments.
I catch myself trying to do things before I go to bed, and then I ask myself if what I’m doing is truly necessary or am I avoiding allowing my body to stop. Often I find what I need to do is necessary but honour how my body feels and get up early in the morning to do what is needed.
“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.” This is brilliantly described – Gosh how i can relate to this slow drip feed of anxiousness that arrives in my body – and how fascinating the way it overrides the bodies natural call to rest. I have found that completion has a big part to play in this Gabriele, for if we go to bed feeling a sense of completion then we can surrender to the length and depth of sleep that is required to support us.
It’s such a clear description you have made about the difference between the cold, mental energy that disconnects us from the body, and the lovely warmth of being connected to and fully feeling the body.
Great bed time story. Nothing wrong with feeling tired, and amazing to feel how our heads can cut off ourselves from feeling tired and let us just move on: like a cold zombie. And our bodies do actually get cold when we are in our heads.
Oh such a powerful reminder… Feeling the natural tiredness of my body is a beautiful feeling of surrender but I will often sabotage it just as you describe Gabriele… Being in and with my body is the true safest more exquisite place because I am then in connection with who I am whereas my mind will take me on a Merry-go-round of emotions and dramatics and the yumminess of my inner connection lost – until I choose to reconnect again.
Hello Gabriele and this maybe an older blog but it’s a great one. The simplicity of trusting what you feel and what you have felt but equally important is connection. I love how when you felt the connection not as strong or lost your dedication, was to get back to that connection first. So often the thoughts that come after you lose that feeling are to take you further away. As you demonstrate the ‘best’ thing or the most responsible thing to do is reconnect, first.
I love the feeling when my body knows to wake up early and it does it naturally as if my internal alarm is supporting me to get on with my day and what needs to be done.
When we are tired it is so easy to trick ourselves into believing we are not and somehow end up being awake for another hour or two checking our emails, catching up on social media or the news instead of honouring what our body is communicating to us.
Great point – the quality of our day is determined by how we put ourselves to bed.
When I truly acknowledge my body’s tiredness and that what it needs next is sleep, I know I’m keeping it from tipping into a mild form of exhaustion. When I override the subtleties of this that I have come to know and increasingly to appreciate, then I know that I am going to wake up the next morning carrying the legacy of the choice I made the night before. It’s like the pause button goes on at the point of sleep and just gets released again on wakening. So I’m right back where I was – unrefreshed, uninvigorated. That phrase, ‘it’ll all be alright in the morning’ now for me entirely depends on whether I made the choice to honour my body’s tiredness the night before.
Beautiful Gabriele. It shows that we go cold if we live and starting thinking from our heads. But we need also to think every now and then. The clue is then to think from our bodies, thinking and the meantime also feeling our bodies.
Such is the temporal world and all its ways that can have great impact if we are not in rhythm with. And hence the great importance of having a solid and stable relationship with ourselves and our bodies so that we are always in touch with what is true of us or not.