Let's rest in the arms of Love.

I’ve had such a journey with sleep. Getting a good night sleep, and even naps, are a part of our spiritual awakening and they’re a part of our healing mentally, emotionally and physically. Many people have challenges with falling asleep, deep sleep and with not having enough time for sleep. In our 40 days of Pray & Clear we’re going to begin making sleep a priority.

When I was younger, I went to a sleepover at a friend’s house and I stayed up half the night and I got sick and threw up. From that point, I began to equate not getting enough sleep with feeling sick and miserable. I bet you that at the sleepover I probably ate a massive quantity of junky food and that’s probably the real reason I threw up. Yet, my mind made an equation that sleep deprivation = feeling unwell.

As I moved into adulthood and living in New York City, I became mildly obsessed with my sleep needs. I found that I pretty much needed 9 hours a night and that if I didn’t get it I didn’t feel well. After a few days of my less than ideal amount of sleep I would start to feel unwell and believed I was susceptible to colds and things like that.

I literally made graphs and charts of my sleep needs. I believed it was a giant waste of time to spend so much time sleeping. It distressed me. Judge, judge, judge. I believed I could get my sleep needs down to 6 hours a night. Other people were happy with 4 hours, why couldn’t I be happy with 6? I believed I could train my body to accept 6 hrs and be happy. I had the willpower to do it. I began to set my alarm earlier and earlier.

As you might imagine, I began increasing my caffeine intake so that I could just get through my 10 to 6 workday. I was a zombie by the end of the day and after a week of that I got sick. Of course I did. And I felt like a failure. Judge, judge, judge.

So, I reconciled myself to wasting 9 hours of my life each day. At least, that’s how I felt then.

About 10 years later I began to really deepen my spiritual practice. I began to meditate and pray and make a real effort, and guess what? Now, I average about 7 hours of sleep per night. Sometimes I wake up and feel refreshed after 5 hours, sometimes I sleep for 9 hours, but I average around 7. What that taught me is that it’s true:

Spiritual practice SAVES time. Literally.

Rather than doubt it, PROVE it! Prove it and your life will im-PROVE.

Here are some reasons to make getting a good night’s sleep a HIGH priority!

1. It will bring you far more benefit than staying up late watching something that doesn’t matter at all.
2. When you’re over-tired the pull to caffeine and sugar and comfort food is MUCH MUCH MUCH stronger – don’t set yourself up for that self-sabotage! Love yourself!
3. It’s easier to skip spiritual practice when you’re tired. That’s a loop that people fall into for YEARS. Remember: Spiritual practice SAVES time, AND it refreshes.
4. When you’re sleepy, it’s much more tempting to skip the self-care, such as exercise, taking a few minutes to stop and smell the roses, or do something fun.
5. If you’re feeling exhausted are you really going to have more Joy? Nah.
6. Who has time for meaningful intimacy and connecting with people, starting a new relationship or being creative when they’re over-tired?
7. How’s your sex-life when you’re exhausted?
8. When you’re run down your radiance and luminosity go to dim. We’re not very attractive when we’re dull and dim from lack of self-care.
9. Mental clarity and good decision making aren’t as strong when we’re tired.
10. People who are sleep deprived tend to over eat to try and get some energy. Their natural self-control mechanism seems to be wonky when they’re over-tired.
11. Your body, metabolism and everything about you works better when you’re well rested – including your ability to be patient and kind!
12. Loving yourself is anti-aging.

How to get better sleep patterns happening?

1. Make the decision that it’s a priority. After all, YOU are in charge of your life.
2. Make a decision about what time you’ll go to bed.
3. A natural muscle relaxer that is actually an important mineral and nutrient that most people don’t have enough of is magnesium. Here’s a wonderful supplement – take it half hour before bedtime – so good for you! It’s called CALM and here’s a link to get it at amazon. It puts me right out. AND it has the added benefit of making you more regular if you have constipation issues.
4. Take a break from watching TV in bed. Take a break from leaving the TV on while you’re sleeping. When people actually break those habits they always report to me that their sleep improves and their life improves. Try it – for 40 days and find out for yourself! You can always go back.
5. Right before you go to sleep listen to my daily prayer. Count your blessings and be grateful. Bless everyone you can think of and send them Love & Light. That’s a really great way to end the day.
6. Ask the angels to help you get a good night’s sleep and wake refreshed, renewed and restored! It works! Try it and find out! Ask them to watch over you all night. They’d love to!
7. Regular exercise improves sleep.
8. Alcohol will affect your sleep patterns and will give you restless sleep.

40 days of rebooting in our Pray & Clear – learning to Love ourselves free of feeling helpless and continuing to live in lack and self-attack. We can accomplish so much simply by actively choosing our healing and transformation.

We don’t have to give up anything important – we’re actually RECLAIMING our JOY and that IS important. We traded poor habits and ego identification for happiness and Joy! We’re getting our life back!

If you’re challenged abstain from certain foods and beverages, if you feel bothered by it, frustrated or upset by the thought of doing without, or even if you feel the cravings are too intense, consider this:

Nothing tastes as good as Joy feels!

Please share your insights, breakthroughs and prayer requests in our facebook group. It’s a loving and compassionate space for all of us. The posting has been SO meaningful!

On the dietary side of things – Here are a few thoughts about blenders, nut milks and smoothies: I gave away most of my furnishings when I moved out of my home in Los Angeles in 2014 and was traveling for over a year. I didn’t give away my Vitamix, instead I gave it on loan to a friend who is loving having it. They’re a pretty pricey item – an investment, and they’re great for grinding up all kinds of things and are amazing – easy to clean. I bought mine reconditioned from Vitamix.

FYI, I find that most CERTIFIED refurbished/reconditioned things are a great buy – I buy most of my higher priced electronics that way. Basically, what happens a lot of the time is somebody buys something or gets it as a gift and after a short time they realize they’d like a different model or color and they return it. Refurbished items, in order to be certified by Apple Computers, must go through MORE rigorous testing then things that are brand new. It helps eliminate the “lemons.”

This is the smoothie generation – so they’re making blenders for that purpose now. When I was in England, I got a blender that I LOVED from Amazon.co.uk – but I don’t remember which one – I read the reviews and I remember it was about 25 pounds. Items like that are less expensive in U.S. and I got a blender here in Hawaii for about $25. It works just fine and I use it to blend up all kinds of things in my daily smoothies – spinach, almonds, cardamom pods, fresh ginger. It’s a Hamilton Beach, but I can tell it probably won’t last for years to come. I like having a big blender because if I have company I can make smoothies for more than 1 person.

Next time you make a smoothie, try adding some baby spinach to it. It doesn’t change the flavor TOO much, and it’s a lot of fiber, so good for you and it fills you up! Yay!

If you’re finding what I’m sharing to be helpful won’t you please share at facebook and twitter to let others know? Thank you!

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