1...2…3….4……...150 sheep.
I got in bed at 12:00 A.M. I thought that I have only been counting sheep to try to help me sleep for maybe 30 minutes. I glanced at my phone. It read 5:46 A.M. I asked myself, how did time fly so fast? Why am I all of a sudden having insomnia? I usually sleep like a bear in hibernation.
Days go by, and I felt like I was constantly wasting my time begging for a good night’s sleep. During the daytime, I was groggy and trying to keep it together. During the night, I was frustrated and unable to pinpoint why this was happening. I tried to relax for an entire day, and still, I could. not. sleep.
I scrolled through articles and tried almost everything it claimed would help me sleep: herbal teas, cutting out caffeine, elevator breathing, imagining myself in a white room with nothing around me. Still I lied awake, trying to get even just one minute of sleep.
But in the back of my mind, I realized that there was something that I haven’t tried -- meditation and yoga. So, I made it my mission to hit the ARC and look for some basic yoga classes, preferably where nobody could see me. Ding! Ding! Ding! A light bulb illuminated in my head. I read candlelit yoga as one of the class options and knew it was the perfect place for me to practice my downward dog poses in the dark. According to my friend, I am “the most un-zen person in the world.” I did not think that yoga and meditation was for me at all, and honestly, I still do not. However, it is something I found out that I needed. After feeling like I dominated yoga, I finally slept that night. Meditation was the surprising cure to my insomnia.
Even if you feel like you have got it together, sometimes you are hit by a rude awakening that you are not okay. As a worrywart, I am constantly worrying about every little thing but it has never gotten to the point where it has affected my health. So when this constant worrying was starting to keep me awake at night, it confused me. I now realize that in the days that I did not get any sleep, I was constantly stressing about everything that is going wrong or could go wrong in my life. When people around me told me that everything is going to be okay, I could not believe it even when I tried to. Sometimes, we do not let ourselves unwind because we think that we are too busy and it’s a waste of time. But the reality is, taking the time to clear one’s minds is what helps the body heal.
“Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak.” - Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati