The Grounded Sleep Origin Story And Meditation

Need help getting to sleep in a healthy way? In this episode David shares the story of how the Grounded Sleep podcast was born. He then guides a deep meditation on releasing old problems before sleep, and recognizing that those problems are portals to our own purpose.

Transcript

Good evening and welcome back to another episode of the Grounded Sleep Podcast.

I'm your guide David and let's get ready to go to sleep.

Get into bed,

Turn the lights off,

Make sure you got your favorite pajamas on.

It's nice and quiet,

Nice and dark,

Nice and restful.

So we can take a ride into that deep deep sleep space so you can rest well and wake up a new enthusiastic,

Happy,

Excited,

Creative,

And purposeful person.

I want to start tonight by talking about why this podcast is called Grounded Sleep and I'll start in the Himalayas.

So I used to live in India and I was in my mid-20s and I went back for about three,

Three or four years I would come and go from America.

I spent over a year there.

I was living up in the Himalayas and I met this incredible,

I don't know what you would call her,

Witch,

Healer,

Some kind of a healer.

She did some pretty cool healing work on me.

I had a degree in philosophy.

Thought I was really smart and knew everything about meditation and she kind of blew me away and I asked her how she learned how to do her work and she said Hawaii,

There was this place.

So I bought a plane ticket to go to Hawaii but before I went to Hawaii I actually had a,

I had this appointment with this guy in India they call a Nadi reader.

They also call him a Nadi Gruha and I think I got that right.

I think that's what they call him.

I had to make an appointment three months in advance with this guy and he was a kind of a fortune teller I guess you could say and you know of course I was skeptical but I was excited and my mother and my brother actually flew into India to spend a few weeks with me and I got them appointments too.

And we go to this guy's house and we're in Bangalore which is a you know like a tech hub city which I thought would be really advanced but at the time is still just cows walking in the streets and lots of,

Oh there's a lot of pollution,

A lot of poverty.

It's been a while so I don't know what Bangalore looks like anymore but that's that's what it was like when I was there.

And while I'm telling this story make sure you're really settling in to sleep.

Deepen your breath,

Slow it down and chill.

And so we're at this guy's house but we knock on the door and he doesn't answer and I made this appointment three months in advance.

And so we wait,

We wait 10 minutes,

20,

30,

40,

An hour rolls around and I'm like you know what I know we came all this way but this guy's not coming out.

And right as we turned to walk down the steps from his house and it was like a building,

Just a couple stories,

As we turned around to go down and leave he opened the door.

Very well-dressed,

Mid-40s,

Nice mustache,

Looked like a very rational capable person and he brought us inside and sat us down and he read each of our palm leaves or you know I couldn't see what he was reading off of and I never gave him anything except our first names.

And man was he just incredible.

And you're like how does this lead to the grounded sleep podcast?

Well we'll get there.

And it was it was amazing truly so many things I can't go into all the details that he said to me,

My mother,

My brother,

He had my mom in tears in about five minutes and I won't share what he said to them because you know that's that's their thing and my brother actually recorded it but he lost the recording unfortunately.

So anyway long story short he does me last and I already had a plane ticket to go to this I'll just be honest about it this an intuitive training school in Hawaii where they train psychic intuitive type people.

I might have just lost you there if you're not into that but just just roll with it.

And so I had a plane ticket to go to Hawaii and actually when I when I got to Hawaii I had nowhere to live I hitchhiked out of the airport.

I'm fast forwarding a bit and I'll back up but I I have found a place to live on a farm a lettuce farm and I spent three months my first three months they're just farming and pulling lettuce you know out of the ground cutting it up,

Bagging it.

And so this fortune teller guy you know he's never left India he's probably maybe he never left Bangalore I don't know and he's reading my chart and he goes I swear to God I'm not changing this I'm not aggrandizing it in any way to make it sound better.

He said bear with my Indian accent he said my friend I see you're going to a place kind of like Australia and you're going to work on the farm and then you're going to go and you're going to become a psychic and then you're going to become a teacher.

And then I won't share what the rest of what he said was because it's still playing out.

Now you can say he programmed me to do these things but I already had the ticket it was already going it was already didn't know I was gonna work on a farm that was not in the cards but so maybe he didn't even know what Hawaii was I don't know but so it wasn't Australia it was Hawaii on the way I worked on a farm and actually that farm was an integral part of my life for seven years when I lived in Hawaii made some amazing friends there and I did I studied the intuitive arts the healing arts very very woo-woo stuff I will admit that for being a rational person from New York New Jersey where I grew up but I was it was I don't know how it happened kind of crazy anyway long story short I after seven years of studying in Hawaii then eventually teaching being the director of the school I decided it was time to go back to civilization I was on the big island of Hawaii pretty rural area and I went back to New York up to my brother's house he had a 200 acre farm still does in upstate New York now he farms hemp and makes CBD and organic vegetables anyway we get there and we decide to start this thing called grounded mind which was a year-long meditation program which I spent a better part of a year recording and so I made this program the grounded mind it was you know it did pretty well people seemed to enjoy it it still does you could still get it and and from that I created some other things like the energy matters podcast and I started my own website David Gandleman calm just so is easy for people to find my work and got onto some apps and start somehow I got a gig teaching at Cornell over there right where my brother lived teaching meditation which I still do and absolutely love it up there but only I try to go in May and September October before it gets cold and so we created this grounded mind program and then you know I was having trouble sleeping in all honesty I was sleeping really well for a long time and then I went through a breakup and I all of a sudden had trouble sleeping I would wake up at 2 a.

M.

Be like oh man I I gotta shake this and it wasn't I wasn't shaking it I was having a hard time and that's kind of how the podcast was born I had started recording before kind of before the relationship I was in ended but then it just kind of stalled and I I put the podcast aside and then and then something just triggered in me like no let's get back to this if you're having trouble sleeping I'm sure many other people are let's let's help you let's help them so hopefully I bored you to sleep with that story and if you're still awake don't worry I've got more but before I I go into more just want to check in and make sure that you're relaxed you're breathing you're comfortable and notice that no matter you know how much is going on in your head that essentially none of it is really really real is what is actually physically happening right now in your room it's probably pretty calm so I don't want you to you know if it's not calm in your head if you've got some weather emotional weather going on mental weather I don't want you to try to escape from it and go to sleep I know that's what we often try to do I want you to just befriend it be okay with it lie with it from one perspective from one side of the coin something might seem like a problem but from the other side it's your purpose so one side we look it's a problem the other side its purpose so if we're being really honest and candid tonight then you know at least I am from my side here definitely been through a few relationships you know in my 20s and then 30s early 30s and it was always seemed like a problem the way a relationship would end or how would make me feel or invalidate me it was a problem but then you know I started looking at it and still learning to look at it from the other side it's not a problem its purpose and so I built a healing from heartbreak course and a healing from past relationships course and I started you know sharing that putting meditations out there and you know reaching thousands of people who were going through the same thing or similar things and all of a sudden that thing that was a problem that was a local problem that was just me that was isolating that made me feel stuck what I decided to do is start to reconcile it in myself by meditating coming up with solutions meditations tools and then sharing them and getting feedback from people and working one-on-one with students and clients and with groups and we're all working on stuff we have to decide is it a problem is there something wrong with us or is it our path so which one is it and as you fall asleep tonight you can do so with the intention and even in your sleep you can start to reconcile this and take things that feel like problems challenges and turn them into purpose really look at it from that space of ah this might be one of the reasons I am on this planet might not be the only reason but it might be one of them so let your head be heavy on the pillow unwind your muscles drop your shoulders back a little bit and down breathe all the way down into your stomach expand it and contract it notice that sleep is calling you every night as it gets as it gets dark as you get tired there's an invitation there's almost like a seduction from sleep it's like oh you're tired just let go a little bit more and come with me it's kind of funny to think that I started off you know playing ice hockey in New Jersey and going to college in New Jersey and then somehow I ended up in the Himalayas with a philosophy degree and somehow I ended up in a fortune-teller and then somehow I ended up in Hawaii and somehow I ended up in New York and then San Diego Bali LA and there were so many seemingly like seeming problems moments where I didn't have enough money didn't know where I was gonna live didn't know what I was gonna do with my life wasn't sure if my business was gonna work you know of course relationship problems quote-unquote problems when we look back everything makes sense after we've reconciled things in ourselves and ourselves but looking forward it always tends to be confusion or often not always but often even if you were just to look back at today was the day chaotic was it orderly was it exciting was it boring did it have purpose did it have direction did it come to a completion and right now as we fall asleep allow it to come to a completion you don't have to do or be anything for anyone let yourself unwind let yourself let go you and let yourself have a beautiful night's sleep you you you you you

Reviews

❤️

Thank you for this journey to india and hawaii

Love the honesty, compasionate and pure hearted insight of your stories! Thank you

Love ❤️ this one and I’m still awake probably because I had a half cup of coffee at dinner. I enjoyed hearing your travels to the Himalayas and Hawái. 💕🙏❤️

I love to listen to David's stories. And the background music is so beautiful and calming ❤🙏❤🙏

I just love listening to you. You could probably read grocery lists and be soothing. 🙏🌺 🙇🏻‍♀️

Great meditation! I was just thinking- I wonder if this guy still teaches and where... Then you mention Ithaca! I live in a farming town 18 minutes from! Do you still teach there in these months?!

Lovely story... I'm curious as to what the school was that you went to in Hawaii!

I love David! My favourite teacher. Thankyou 🙏

Calming and feeling grounded after second listen. First listen put me to sleep. Great storytelling

I LOVE this for many reasons, your calming style, empathetic nature concerning those of us with sleep issues, & your sense of humor & kind humility. I put this on repeat but usually fall asleep happily before the end of the first play. Thank You for these healing podcasts.

Great practice thank you

More stories!!!

I love the way you tell a story!

Wonderful! I was relaxed, but didn’t want to fall asleep, for fear that I’d miss something important 🥰

Loved the story!

Wonderful...thank you

Thank you for sharing a "Life Happening". Fell back asleep thinking of problems being purpose. Looking forward to other podcasts of yours.🤗💖

Peace, Love n Cheer.

💚 loved the story. Thank you