It’s been a long time since I have gone an entire night without one minute of sleep; probably not since the days I had to work emergency service and had one of those extreme weather days where the number of calls out lasted the number of hours that my part of the Earth faced away from the Sun.
For what ever reason last night while lying in bed with my little fan blowing in my face and my lovely wife beside me after a wonderful evening of cooking dinner for my kids and my daughters new in-laws, I just couldn’t go off the grid.
I went to bed at a respectable 11:30 PM, I did have some pain issues with the recent operation, but no more than usual. The stress level was within normal limits. I lay there getting into my Zen thing with the mind idling sound of the fan and got to the tipping point of this world and the other world of alternating blackness and dreams. Just when I felt myself slip over and go into shutdown mode, something pulled me back over.
When it happened I just knew it was not a temporary set back. You just know your going to have to take other measures at that point either pharmaceuticals or the old standard personal relaxation techniques that usually do the trick. I have a few tricks in my magic sleep bag, sometimes it’s imagining floating in zero G’s in a dark room in the space station viewing the earth from 250 miles above terra firma watching the earth go from night to day to night again in the space of 90 minutes. Sometimes I occupy my mind with things I want to accomplish the next day. Sometimes I mentally work on blogs that I want to write searching for that elusive profound earth-shattering collection of words.
Last night I tried counting. Not sheep, I was counting the National Debt. So you see my dilemma. Today I have tried to nap a couple of different times with no luck!
The problem as I see it, we have a person occupying the office of president of this great nation and he has never seen a wasteful expenditure that he doesn’t like.
Sleep depravation is an effective tool, ask Winston Smith. So if I seem to be rambling more than usual, you know why.
Tonight doesn’t look any more promising, but perhaps you can help me.
What comes after $14,303,385,166,482.11
5 comments:
Bankruptcy.
yup
Rebellion, in the form of the 2012 election, hopefully.
cjh
it better happen by then Cj or it will be too late
One of the "things" I have found helps for me is "grounding"...once you get comfortable, slowly move your awareness of your physical body, starting at toes/feet...feel the sheets, bed, blanket, other body parts in contact with one foot, then slowly work your way up that side of the body, each piece at a time...calves & shins, knees, thighs, hips, belly/side all the way up, then back down the other side.
When you reach the bottom of the second foot/leg, try to pull awareness to the "core" of you - takes some practice - once you have "you" centered, then visualize your "you" sinking slowly into the warm, embracing, soothing earth step by step...go through mattress, then box springs, then floor (and ceiling if you're on the 2nd floor) go through the basement (if you have one) then the foundation of your home - you know, sand, gravel, etc...then you are in the welcoming embrace of cooling (or warming if you prefer) embrace of earth. Keep sinking until you're well beyond the surface. Then just surrender to the peace, to the earth drawing out the stress, pain, anger, frustration, doubts, etc. and replacing the places emptied with peace, calm, security, strength, tolerance, etc...
It is a pretty in depth exercise, and it takes a while to complete it fully, as I usually find I've actually found sleep before I've reached the end of it....
just a suggestion :D
good luck...
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