Say Yes to Insomnia
This is a recent email I wrote to a client who was experiencing some wonderful healing from our sessions, but was frustrated that we had not yet eliminated lingering issues with insomnia. After writing it, I thought it might be something more of you would enjoy reading. Not only because it might help you view your own challenges but because it gives you more insight into one way (there are many) the Craniosacral Process might progress:
“Yay on the walk! That is excellent progress! So, as you probably guessed, this is not something that can be targeted, like taking the car to the mechanic, unfortunately. It does tend to target where the "fire" is hottest first and sometimes an hour isn't enough to get to everything, and sometimes it's a scaffolding process where we start and build upon progress, session by session. One thought I had on the insomnia: what if, during these periods of insomnia, instead of fighting it, you look at it as an opportunity, a special time you have completely to yourself to give yourself love and self-care. What if you got up and went to your favorite chair and wrote in a journal or worked on gentle stretching? What if you asked yourself what you need at that time? They don't call it the witching hour for nothing. The wee hours of the night can be potent times of healing. It might be an important part of your own recovery.
When I was recovering my spine, there were some very scary moments because I didn't know what was going to happen and the road did not look good. Often I would awake in the middle of the night scared and I finally started going to my living room and meditating, or journaling or doing light stretches, or praying. Not knowing exactly what to do, I just did what I could, without focusing on the results but hoping for the best, ready to accept what came next. It tore me apart and forced me to examine my life and who I was, what I was letting control me and what needed letting go. I started referring to my experience as a portal to something better, whether I would recover physically or not. One day, I was with my family at a little store in Puerto Penasco, Mexico and I saw this ceramic (below image), all covered in dust on a shelf. I was awed because it seemed to depict what was happening to me. I was being broken apart, stripped to make room for a more authentic, spiritual me to emerge. This was several months before I was introduced to Osteopathy and Craniosacral Therapy. I don't know if this helps, but I have that sun hanging on the wall in my living room and in moments of challenge, when it catches my eye, it reminds me of the journey I'm really on, that I believe we are all really on. We don't always know where it leads. Sometimes those middle of the night bouts of sleeplessness can be an offering to a rare time to really nurture ourselves.
