accessing stillness and rest; a bedtime meditation

I made this mini bedtime meditation for you, as an invitation—not to shut off and down—but to tune in, listen, notice. To simply be with yourself, to find a quiet place within yourself—just for a moment, bringing that care you share so easily and beautifully with others to yourself. Knowing you'll return to your commitments and devotions again soon. Remembering that those commitments and devotions include you, too.

My dreams have always been a significant point of psychic, energetic, ancestral (re)connection for me. In the last year, I was having a hard time deeply sleeping and consistently connecting to my dreamscape—a natural response to significant personal and collective events. While my mind was focused on problem solving, micromanaging, and vigilance, I had a hard time listening to my body's signals of exhaustion. I could only sleep if I could barely think and keep my eyes open. 

To show up fully for my own commitments and devotions, this was not sustainable. I had subconsciously been framing rest and dreaming as escape and inaction from perceived external demands and pressures. I feel the contradiction in saying that, as someone whose work, in many ways, guides people into a restful state in order to reconnect with and cultivate deeper intimacy with our dreams. Then again, I offer this work in part because, well, I need it too. It is an ongoing practice. 

I am remembering that accessing stillness and rest is not escape or inaction. That is shortsighted. When you think of music, a 'rest' or 'pause' does not indicate the end of a song; it is integral to the rhythm and structure of the composition as a whole.

Bringing this to conscious awareness and through my own meditative practices and rituals, I've been better able to shift from over-intellectualizing to my intuitive, dreaming self. Just last night, I dreamt I was in an atrium. When I looked up into the glass ceiling, I saw a huge, dark gray shark with a large, sharp fin swimming by. In that moment, I realized the building was underwater. In another dream, I urgently went to my house to gather my most precious heirlooms and other objects. I knew that a big storm, a flood was coming. Water was already rising in the kitchen.

While thinking about personal desires, sharks, floods, protecting what is precious and sacred, and continued actions of solidarity—with Gaza, indigenous land defenders, and Black and brown communities who are continually targeted and criminalized by the state and vigilantes—I can only imagine all that you're holding in your spirit, body, and heart, too. 

If you're seeking deeper 1:1 support and to reconnect with your inner dreamscape, my hypnosis and past life regression books are now open every Saturday in August.