Hey friend,
Welcome to this special episode of the Grounded Sleep Podcast for falling asleep while you're flying.
And I've wanted to do this for a long time,
Finally getting to it,
Because I fly a fair amount and sometimes we need help getting rest when we're in the air.
So go ahead,
I know you're probably sitting up unless you're lucky to lay down on a plane.
You can gently close your eyes and just be as comfortable as you can be.
I'm gonna start us off with a joke about flying.
I heard this comedian say,
People complain about planes being delayed.
My flight was delayed 20 minutes.
And he was like,
Well,
You just relax and have gratitude.
You're flying through the air like a bird,
Sitting in a chair.
It's pretty amazing.
So first of all,
Appreciate that you're getting to travel.
This is the fastest way mankind has figured out how to travel so far.
And start to slow your breath down and relax your shoulders.
There might be a lot of energy around you,
The humming of the plane,
People rustling.
Let yourself just have that.
You don't need to be in any resistance to it.
Relax your belly and your hands and the back of your knees.
And some of us,
When we fly,
Maybe you get a bit nervous or you get a little stressed by time,
Having to get somewhere.
However,
Flying makes you feel.
Just acknowledge that we're all sensitive in different ways.
I have a friend every time he goes through TSA,
Which is security in America,
He gets a stomach ache.
And if you have a hard time falling asleep when you're flying,
You don't need to resist that.
It is what it is.
My philosophy with that is if you can't sleep,
Whether it's on a plane or at home,
It's a great opportunity to just meditate.
There's nothing better than falling asleep consciously meditating.
And meditating does a lot of similar things to our brain as sleep.
So you might get some great rest just meditating.
Either way,
I want you to notice that it's this moment.
When we're in transit,
We often wanna get to the next place and be in the next moment.
Can you just pull yourself back from that?
Breathe yourself into your body and let yourself be in this moment.
Even on a plane full of people,
Horrible,
Annoying people.
Everyone on the plane is annoying,
But you,
Of course.
There's a beauty here.
Could you imagine taking someone from a few hundred years ago and showing them the sunset or sunrise on a plane as you fly across an ocean?
It's close to magical and they serve you juice while you do it.
Really let yourself start to relax.
See if you can be a bit of a Buddha in the midst of the noise and energy of the plane.
When I used to travel living in India,
I would often take the bus because I was a poor 20 something year old kid and they were loud and crowded and hot.
Sometimes I would take a bus for five,
10,
20 hours.
I remember taking buses through the Himalayas that took days.
I would take trains and I would sit and meditate and see if I could just be still and peaceful,
Even in the chaos.
And I found that the more still and peaceful I was,
The more accepting of my surroundings and my situation,
Oddly,
The more miracles would happen.
I would meet beautiful people,
Make friends,
Have adventures.
And I also noticed the folks that were real negative about the travel experience would always have a bad time.
No,
I'm not laughing at their misfortune,
Just their attitudes.
Let your body really start to relax and unwind.
You have nothing up here to do,
Flying through the atmosphere of the earth,
Except to rest.
So let yourself rest.
I remember as a child,
I would sleep really well in the car.
The hum of it,
The movement,
Maybe the consistency of the sound and hum of the plane can actually help you relax.
Let yourself feel a sense of stillness and a sense of neutrality.
And you can manually slow your breathing down even a bit more.
Notice you're not trying to do or accomplish anything.
And there's a certain kind of existential joy in that.
People often try to override that on a plane by watching something the entire time or being stimulated by some kind of media the whole time.
But there's something very essential about unplugging and letting go into stillness.
Feel that sleep starting to pull you and deep rest that you're slowly dissolving into.
As you fall asleep,
You're gonna allow your body and your mind to regenerate,
To rest,
To recover,
Reorganize.
And when you reach the other side,
Re-energize once again.
Let yourself have this beautiful natural cycle.
Sleep well,
And I'll see you on the other side.
