Meditation: Headspace, Wind Down: Sleeping Length: 10 minutes Where: In my bed, Los Angeles How It Felt: Like a weighted blanket
I’ve gotten in the habit of pushing my meditations to the end of the day, but I’m not fighting it at the moment. With so much going on, I’m just happy I keep doing them!
Plans changed a bit so we got the chance to sleep in together this morning- a rare occurrence. (It just took me four tries to spell “occurrence”! So many more letters than I imagined! And an “e”, huh? Ok, ok.) I really wanted to get good sleep last night so we could wake up and have loads of cuddle time. Plus I was crazy tired.
So I did a sleep meditation the “normal” way this time: I lay down in bed, got super comfy, and prepared to get sleepy.
Instead, I heard about the first minute of the session, then, the next thing I knew, I heard a few words like, “off to sleep.” It was over! I fell asleep so hard and fast, I can’t believe my brain knew to wake me up at the end to take out my AirPods!
I need to remember this about sleep meditations. Sometimes I think, because I fall asleep during those sessions, they don’t “count” as much. Never mind that they are fulfilling their intended purpose; I feel like it’s cheating sometimes. Which I know is silly. The goal is to meditate every day- it doesn’t matter how.
Times like last night remind me that my brain is paying attention even if I fall asleep. It’s like the hypnosis sessions I used to do at night. Even though I fell asleep early and almost never heard the whole thing, I always felt the effects the next day. Meditations are no different. My subconscious must still be listening, or how would it so consistently know to gently wake me at the very end, and only when I have something to do like remove ear buds or turn the fan on? (Or put my retainers in, haha. Dork.)
It’s so crazy just how much our subconscious minds absorb all the time while we really aren’t focusing. This is probably a good life lesson, too, about the people and energy we surround ourselves with, the art we consume, our environment in general, etc. Just because we aren’t consciously processing everything doesn’t mean we aren’t absorbing it.
I definitely feel more negative when I’m around negative people for awhile. I know that. I feel out of control when my home is messy. I feel inspired when I’m surrounded by beauty and kindness, and I have more energy. I’m not thinking, “Ok, this is a pretty garden, now I feel better because of the colors and the nature.” I just do.
Resolving to pay a little more attention to this, to see if anything is sucking the energy out of me subconsciously that I haven’t even noticed. The brain is pretty amazing, isn’t it?
My Year of Meditation 