15th of March as the Day of Sleep. The WHO estimates that 40% of the world’s population suffers from insomnia, which leads to the risk of accidents, sick leave, school failure, and anxiety in children and adolescents. It is a cause of stress and type II inflammatory diseases amongst many others.
Insomnia is often caused by states of uncertainty, so we saw during the pandemic. We are in such a state of alert that we cannot let go of our automatic responses of vigilance and gently slide into the sweet oblivion of sleep.
Knowing that uncertainty has accompanied our ancestors since the beginning of humanity, we can ask ourselves what we are missing, why is it so difficult for us to manage uncertainty, to live with uncertainty ?
Are we living in the 21st century with an enormous fallacy that ironically began in the 16th and 17th centuries as an immense advance for humanity ? Science came to break the chains that the Church had put in the form of limiting beliefs – that the human being was the center of the Universe : it was believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Science was thus able to take a huge leap in curing diseases and prolonging the human life span.
🌏 🌐 However, we may be falling into another trap if science promulgates the belief that we can control everything, that human beings will be able to live without any uncertainty at all. Well, we ARE living in a universe replete with different systems and where our size is ……Lilliputian… sorry …
We can and should have power over our thoughts, our emotions, our body but there is even part of us that we do not control….. Our rational mind is just a part of ourselves and as such, shouldn’t take the place of the ruler. Instead, there are parts of ourselves which are connected to the other worlds around us in a way we can’t control and which should be taken into account.
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” said Einstein.
The more we want to control everything, the more things get out of control and the sicker we get. There seems to be a systemic rule at play here. Forcing our way into one direction without taking into account who we are and what place we really hold can cause the system itself to look for balance to our detriment.
Letting go of the cognitive mind into the unconsciousness of sleep may even feel like a death experience to some in the form of somniphobia, an anxiety disorder which keeps people from sleeping even when they are tired.
Contacting with our dreams (at night) opens doors to our inner world – the subconscious and unconscious where we are in connection with others through the collective unconscious or through phenomena such as intuition or empathy -and to worlds that go much further and which our cognitive mind is maybe incapable of imagining still. It puts us into perspective …. Life goes on while we are sleeping ….
🐣 How then to live with uncertainty?
🤱 How to sleep as soundly as a baby?
There are natural and psychologically safe ways of recovering a natural function of the human mind. Training oneself to embrace uncertainty as a part of life is surely one. Opening oneself to the wonders of uncertainty is another. Maybe you met the love of your life just like that …. by chance ?
Stay tuned: Come to my FREE masterclass tomorrow Wednesday March 20th online from 20.00 to 21.00. It will be in Spanish this time but register anyway telling me you want it in English and I’ll arrange one.
😴 https://www.feelconnected.org/event-details/dormir-bien-y-sonar
✍ And if you want to share your tips and advice to sleep well here, go ahead… I want to read you !