Enlightenment In The Stars: Grounded Sleep Podcast #14

Welcome to the Grounded Sleep Podcast! You don't have to do anything except get into bed, close your eyes, and allow David Gandelman to guide you into a deep, peaceful rest. This podcast was born out of David's year-long meditation program called Grounded Mind. Enjoy letting go of the day, letting go of the mental noise, and going back to that primordial place of stillness that you woke up from this morning, that is now calling you back.

Transcript

You know that experience when you're standing outside under a starry night and there isn't a cloud in the sky and it's quiet and you just see that vastness expands of space and you get that feeling of wonder and awe just like this incomprehensible awareness of the infinite and you go,

Man,

I can't even understand how vast space is.

And then you turn your attention away,

Go back into your life and let all those little things start to pull on you again,

All your worries,

Frustrations,

Places where you're dissatisfied and then you kind of lose yourself in what we might call the horizontal world where the only things that matter are the things that are made of matter.

And it's so easy to do,

Isn't it?

The ground is covered with asphalt and cement and the stars are covered by the clouds or light pollution and we squeeze ourselves into this very narrow band of experience and then we think it's all important and it becomes all encompassing.

And then when we lay down in bed to close our eyes to sleep,

It's hard to shift out of that energy and get out of that horizontal world.

So welcome back to the grounded sleep podcast.

It's good to see you again.

Pull yourself out of that horizontal world,

Lay down,

Get into bed because we're about to get vertical and take a ride up into the stars.

But before we do,

Couple things.

First,

Make sure you brush your teeth and you're in your PJs.

The room is quiet and dark and you're really ready to go to sleep.

You know how everyone is always saying,

I need to get some sleep.

I need to get to bed.

Isn't it like that energy of I need to get,

I need to get to,

I need to get it a little too intense.

So tonight as we go to bed,

We don't need to get to sleep.

Perhaps we need to invite sleep in.

Open ourselves up to that dimension.

Instead of needing to get something,

Perhaps we just start to let go.

And I know that's probably hard for you to just let go because you might be a control freak or you're just a freak.

But can you start to unwind and start to let go?

Because tonight we are going to take a little trip into the stars.

And it's hard to do that if you're all wound up.

So let's go ahead and unwind.

Make sure you're relaxed.

Your shoulders aren't pressing up against your ears.

You're comfortable.

Preferably laying on your back,

But whatever you need.

Make sure your breath is nice and slow,

Nice and deep.

And that you're breathing consciously.

And with your eyes closed,

Recognize that your body is starting to relax.

Let's put it in hibernation mode.

Almost like on autopilot.

Because when you fall asleep,

Your body continues to function and you're not even aware of it.

I read that dolphins can have half their brain awake and be swimming around and the other half is asleep.

Even though that's how I feel sometimes,

I know that's not exactly the case.

But you can start to consciously let your body go into a bit of a hibernation onto autopilot,

Into rest.

So we're going to take a little journey into the stars tonight.

So all of the sudden,

I want you to imagine that you're floating right above your body and you're just looking down at it in your room.

Watch your body be nice and restful.

And then you start to go up a little further above your house or apartment,

Wherever you are.

You can hear the sounds of the city or of nature.

It's almost like you can experience and be aware of the entire town or city that you live in to its edge all at once.

It has a certain energy to it,

A certain vibe.

And then you go a bit higher up and higher up until you can see your entire country.

You might even look down and go,

Oh,

That's a funny shape.

And then you go even higher to the upper atmosphere of the earth and you can see a better part of the planet.

You look above you and you see the International Space Station just floating on by.

And then you go out even farther so you can see the entire earth.

You realize how beautiful it is,

How special,

How fragile,

Even how alive it is as a planet.

You start to notice the stars around you.

And there's a few really bright ones.

You can see Mars.

You peer over and notice how close the moon is.

You see Mercury and Venus.

And of course,

You see the blazing sun without the filter of the earth's atmosphere.

And you start to get that sense of that deep,

Incredible awe that you've experienced before as you look up into the stars.

But you've never seen this many stars before.

You normally think of the sky as being dark,

As space being this darkness.

But as you look out now,

You realize there are just billions upon billions of stars.

The universe is filled at these beautiful points of light.

And as you float out here in space,

Some of those bigger questions or existential energies start to arise in you.

What is this all for?

Why are we here?

Is there meaning?

And in the vastness of space,

Even though it's so incredibly big and hard to comprehend,

Paradoxically,

Something in its vastness makes you feel special.

And there's a healing that comes with that.

But knowing even though there is this infinite space with infinite creation,

There's something so unique about you.

And even more paradoxically,

Even though you are so special,

You are so connected to everything else.

It's as if the stars have consciousness,

As though the planets have personality.

Even though the universe looks like it's just full of inanimate objects made of a whole lot of hydrogen and helium,

That on some subtle level,

Everything has awareness.

And in being up in this place just surrounded by the twinkling of the stars,

There's something you recognize about yourself,

Maybe something you haven't paid enough attention to.

And while you're up here,

Your body gets to just sleep and rest.

And you get to decide,

You can stay up here in the stars throughout the night as your body rests,

Or you can slowly descend back down,

All the way down to your room,

Back into your physical body and rest from there.

And either way,

As the night gets darker,

You get a really incredible rest.

And as you sleep,

You recognize that the spirit of the stars are with you,

That the vibration of the entire galaxy and even universe is present in every atom,

In every molecule,

In every cell,

In your entire body.

You realize that the universe is both outside and inside of you.

Have an incredible sleep tonight.

Rest well.

And I'll see you on the other side.

Reviews

These are so great David. I can’t thank you enough 🙏🏼❤️

I enjoyed this one - or, I should say I enjoyed the beginning of this one because that is all I remember before falling asleep. Thank you! 😊

🙏💫

Such a wonderful teacher. He’s got a great voice and is the real deal. Thank you 🙏

Always winderful

Wow! 💕 I love all of your meditations, David but this podcast really moved me allowing a deep peace to lull me to sleep. Thankyou 🙏🏻

I chhose to stay up above the 🌎 s atmosphere. Good night David. My sleep co creator. I appreciate you.

Lovely meditation… although I didn’t fall asleep! Many thanks David 🙏

Fantastic, David! 💖💖
I had an amazing long deep sleep. Woke refreshed and happy 😃

Thank you for another great session David! I told my husband about you tucking me in every night. He says ‘thank you’ for the help 😉

Another great one! Dude, you crack me up. Haha. I’m going to have to listen to this one again tonight though because sleep was invited and already in my being way before I finished. This is me just waking up the following morning a whole hour before my alarm is set to go off, and feeling great! Thank you so much, David! 💙🙏🏼

I’ve never heard till the end. David’s voice is so sweet. Very special sleep meditation

must have been amazing as I only made it about 5 words in before I fell asleep! such a relaxing voice. I hope to hear it in full one day

Lovely thank you 🙏🏻

I love the realness mixed in with technique that David uses. I fall asleep every time before it’s over. Calming voice, great content, truly helps me unwind- which is a feat. Thank you!

Such a comfortable voice, and I love the little bits of humor. I listen over and over! Thank you.

Wonderful,as usual.Namaste! Thank you very much.

Late review... fell asleep 😴🙏🏼

Always enjoy all of your meditations 🙏🏻

Thank you David, I love these sleep podcasts! They are so soothing and gentle. Much love to you dear soul 💜 x