News from the Waters of Rest and Sleep

• Bare feet, or lying down on the ground, or touching natural, moving bodies of water, is one of the simplest, most powerful things you can do to nourish healthy bio-rhythms (ESPECIALLY deep sleep).
• This is a big deal, friends, not just some hippy suggestion by moi. 🙂 The free flow of electrons on the earth’s surface can reset your electromagnetic field from being around so many digital frequencies and screens, clear inflammation, and calm stressful thinking/emotions.
• Mounting evidence is pointing to the fact that we are too isolated from mama earth by our fancy shoes and homes. Could you commit to 10-20 minutes a day outside with your feet on the ground, and notice what kind of impact it has on your well being?

“Like countless colors in a painting…we all need time to be
what we are in order to integrate the whole picture”
~ Sera Beak

A New Yoga Nidra Album for You

My friend David has a huge website where you can experience
free videos and recordings of yoga and meditation classes.

We recorded this album in 2012 –
but in a weird, tortured artist twist of fate, I never released it.
I have a tendency to be a perfectionist at times, and to be honest,
I thought my vocals were weak -too boring and sleepy (I know…ironical.)

Recently I was reminded that others might find these recordings useful, so I decided it was time to free them into the world to hopefully serve people instead of collecting dust in the ethers!

These babies are slow and long,
perfect if you find some practices a little too fast moving,
or if you enjoy lingering in fuller pauses between body sensations.

• End of Life Wisdom Sankalpa
• Sensory Stroll
• Simple body scan
• Feeling meeting points
• Feeling hollow spaces
• Alternate side breath awareness
• Opposites of heat and coolness
• Aware of Awareness
• Returning

• Sensory stroll
• Perfect Gift Sankalpa
• Body scanning of right, left, and center
• Breath Awareness: lengthening  exhales, spinal breathing
• Feeling  breath and energy centers mingle
• Settling into being
• Deep eye release
• Returning

3. Mini Practice for Emotions: 5 mins

*If you feel drawn to use – you can find them here*

These practices are not designed specifically for sleep,
though they can certainly be nutritious in that way –
(naturally, thanks to my sleepy voice),
but you can also use them whenever you are drawn, day or night
as a way to strengthen meditative awareness during any
pocket of rest and relaxation.

I sometimes like having them infuse afternoon naps,
or lying down in a park, or at the beach…or while having a pedicure. 🙂

Sending big summer love,
and wishing you a restful week,

~ Jenn (ifer)

The other morning I found myself de-railed
by a temporary bout of self induced comparison-itus.

Maybe you can relate – being hijacked by a weird niggling feeling
that somehow I, or the expression of my life, isn’t measuring up –
compared to something else.

But then, in a moment of liberation/rest,
I was reminded to remember these words…
(in an aussie accent)

“Comparing is So Last Millenium, Baby

Yes, you are the rarest mosaic of all – a rich & incandescent tapestry
enwoven with all the love, lessons & life only you can know & share.

Rare tapestries are not meant to be compared
in a flea-market-of-the-soul dearheart,
and neither are you. ~ Leonie Dawson

Oh…yeah. Duh.
It’s easy to forget this about ourselves, don’t you think?

Also, in case it’s helpful to you,
here is a little slide show of sleep wisdom gems from Dr. Naiman
called bedtime snacks for the soul

Keep Calm and Rest On, 🙂

 

~ Jennifer

“‘Let me sleep on it’ is not always a way of postponing a decision.
It may also be a recourse to the folk wisdom that knows:
there is more than one way to think about a problem.” – A. Alvarez

Lately, I’ve been playing with my communication.

Noticing how I enter into communication more closely.

Attempting to be a little more like this Celtic friendship blessing I came across recently:

I honor your Gods
I drink at your well
I bring an undefended heart to our meeting place
I have no cherished outcomes
I will not negotiate by witholding
And I am not subject to disappointment

Because my habitual, unconscious way?
A little more on the defensive side,
usually several cherished outcomes,
and negotiating by witholding –
familiar with that flavor also.

Yet something rang so clear and true in that last line
“I am not subject to disappointment”

(even though on one level, of course I am, technically, as a sensitive human being)

I still love the idea of entering into every communication –
whether with my husband, my family,
the people I work with, friends, strangers, myself,
or even a massively important do-or-die relationship like sleep –
holding this deep blessing as a north star.

Even when I fail miserably.
(I recently heard Seth Godin state ‘Those who fail the most win’🙂

What would our next conversation – with anyone –
be like if this intention filled our minds, hearts,
agendas, pockets, eyes, fingertips and breath?

What would SLEEP be like
if we approached it each night
with this blessing?

If sleep was like a lover, a wise teacher, a force of nature, a best friend?

I honor your Gods, I drink at your well
I bring an undefended heart to our meeting place
I have no cherished outcomes, I will not negotiate by witholding…
and I am not subject to disappointment.

Hmmm.

Why Sleep Tips Don’t Work

Bless my hero Dr. Naiman for keeping it real in the sea of hype about sleep tips.

“Contrary to how we commonly conceive of it, sleep is not just another activity, competitive event or strategic outcome that can be tweaked into excellence. Sleep is an experience — a personal subjective experience of another kind of consciousness.
It’s an exquisite experience that just cannot be reduced to
or managed in terms of a simple set of tips.”

He reminds us that we live in a culture
that tends to mistake numbers for absolute truth,
and that quantifying ‘tips’ lends them an undeserved air of scientific authority.

Also, people who already have a tendency to Type A approach their life, often tend to do the same with their health and wellness, and they can easily become obsessive about doing ‘all the right things’ for their sleep, which can exacerbate anxiety.

It’s not that sleep tips are never helpful,
they just aren’t supposed to be offered in isolation. 🙂

“Sleep transformation is about a shift in our fundamental perspective –
not just a change in behavior or strategies, but also a change of heart.
It begins with a thorough reconsideration of what sleep actually is,
and depends on our willingness to complement scientific and medical perspectives with personal, subjective and spiritual experiences.”

Would you like to have a conversation about how I may be able to help you with your sleep well being?

Just send me a note here. 🙂