Hey friend,
Welcome to the Grounded Sleep Podcast.
And in tonight's episode,
I want to start with a quote that I love.
I believe it's from Einstein,
Where he says,
Stay away from negative people.
They have a problem for every solution.
They have a problem for every solution.
I love that.
And I wanted to make a special episode for the holidays around releasing the stress and the anxiety that many of us experience during this time of year,
Where maybe we are around negative people,
Or perhaps we get triggered by being around our families.
Now that would never happen to you or to me,
Just to other people,
Right?
Wink wink.
Or perhaps we feel sad or lonely.
So whatever that energy is for you,
If you're sensitive,
You might notice that there's a little bit more tenseness out there during the holidays,
But that doesn't mean you have to absorb it and energetically digest it.
So in this meditation,
As we fall asleep,
We're going to learn how to release it if we did take some of it on.
So go ahead and get in bed if you're not already there and make sure the lights are off and you're nice and comfortable.
And this is a forewarning.
If you don't want to feel and release some anxiety,
Then this won't be the episode for you.
But if you do want to work some of this energy,
Then stay right where you are and make sure you're breathing nice and deeply into your belly,
Just feeling it like a balloon and releasing at your own pace.
Let yourself feel the rhythm of your body,
The movement of your breath.
Let all the muscles in your body start to relax.
And for many of us,
When we get into bed,
Sometimes we don't get into bed alone.
And I don't mean your partner or your animal.
I mean,
We get into bed with the energy of the day or of the world.
On occasion it sticks to us.
And so we might feel it in our stomach or on our chest,
Or we might experience the weather of all of that mental noise in our heads.
And it's easy to absorb some of that excessive mental pollution that's out there.
And it's better to become aware of it and release it before we go to sleep than to ignore it and let it just be in our unconscious as we sleep.
So if you want to have better dreams,
And I can't promise this,
But as you work on yourself,
As you release energy,
And as you deepen into yourself,
You may be more likely to have better dreams.
I know when I meditate before sleep and release energy,
I tend to have a deeper sleep and have better dreams,
Sometimes insightful dreams.
So I want you to just notice if you brought any energy into bed,
Any anxiety from the world,
Any kind of external noise,
Let's call it,
That you internalized.
Maybe somebody else's problem,
Some media,
Some worry about the future,
Some of that,
Oh,
There's so much to do,
Who has time for sleep,
Whatever it is,
Just get a sense of one energy that maybe keeps you up at night or tonight in particular is just kind of a little bit frustrating or irritating.
And I know you're probably like,
Thanks,
David.
Yeah,
This is what I want before sleep.
Let's do this work together.
It's important work.
And once you start to notice that energy,
I don't want you to go into the story of it or into trying to solve it or heal it,
None of that.
I just want you to notice the feeling,
Notice the energy,
And notice that this energy is not you.
It's just something that you're feeling.
If you were to smell something,
You wouldn't go,
Oh my God,
That smell is me.
Or if you were to see an object,
You wouldn't go,
Oh,
That object is me.
And so when you feel energy from the external world,
That energy is not you just because you're feeling it.
It's just energy.
So as the wonderful teacher and author Don Miguel Ruiz taught us in the Four Agreements,
Don't take things personally.
So notice some space around this feeling,
Even if it's uncomfortable,
Just be aware of giving it some space and some room to breathe.
And before it goes away,
Maybe there's some message from this energy,
Something it wants to teach you or make you aware of,
And recognize that you don't have to take on all of this stuff from the world.
It's not your responsibility necessarily.
You might just be sensitive.
Some of us are tapped into the mental ethers and we kind of feel,
Sense,
And think things that pass through it that don't even belong to us.
In the anxieties and pressures of the holidays,
Some might be personal and others might just be in the ethers.
Kind of like when you're stuck in traffic and you could sense the other cars,
The people in them,
Their angst.
You don't need to match that energy of the world.
As you're here falling asleep with me,
Let yourself be that calm person.
Even if you are surrounded by other energies that maybe are a little more intense,
Let yourself be that calm person.
What I'd like you to do is imagine a balloon,
Whatever color balloon you want,
Just kind of hovering over your stomach.
And this balloon has an almost absorbent quality.
It can absorb energies.
You know,
When you spill something and you clean it up with a paper towel and that paper towel absorbs the liquid,
This balloon,
Almost like a sponge,
Has plenty of space on the inside and as it's floating above your stomach,
It just starts absorbing any of that excessive anxiety,
Stress,
Anything you came to bed with from the world that you don't need,
Anything that's ready to go.
And just like a fish tank filling with water,
Perhaps you watch the balloon slowly fill up.
And slowly let this balloon just take this energy out of your body.
And if at any point you feel like you have a hard time releasing or you go into some resistance and you're like,
David,
I can't release this energy.
It's making me more frustrated.
Then let the balloon absorb the energy that says,
I can't release energy.
Let it absorb the frustration itself or the resistance.
Again,
Letting the balloon fill up all the way up.
With any energy your body's ready to release,
It might come out of your stomach,
Your chest,
Your head,
Or any other place in your body.
And if you fall asleep releasing energy,
That's totally fine.
Allow your body to start to melt into your bed.
That balloon gets all the way full and take your time.
But when it does,
You can just send it off out into space.
Let it go.
Just like if you were holding a balloon and you released it and the air just took it up.
You get to choose if you're going to go through the holidays with this deep sense of calmness or carrying the world with you.
It's up to you.
And so from now throughout the rest of the holidays,
Or as long as you like,
You can continue releasing the world's energy and going to sleep in peace.
Perhaps that's the greatest gift you can give yourself.
Surrender to the night to go and have a deep,
Restful sleep.
