Sleep & Healing During Conflict | GSP Ep 63

All right,

Get into bed.

Welcome back to the Grounded Sleep Podcast.

I'm David,

And hopefully I'll help you get a really good deep sleep tonight.

And this episode's a doozy.

It's about falling asleep even when there's conflict.

It might be personal conflict.

It might be the conflict in the Middle East,

In Ukraine,

In Africa.

It might be some other conflict that's in your awareness.

But before we jump into that part,

Don't worry,

I'm not gonna stress you out about conflict.

We're gonna unplug and unwind and relax ourselves,

Even though we know that's going on out there.

But before we do,

Let's just get nice and comfortable.

I'll update you with a few things going on in my world,

And then we'll let go into a real deep sleep.

I recently held a retreat in Boulder for my Energy Matters Academy,

Where we teach intuitive training and healing,

All that really woo-woo stuff.

And I think some of those students came to Boulder on the woo-woo train.

And I hosted five of the other teachers at my house.

And one of them,

My good friend Marjorie,

Had these amazing onesie pajamas she was wearing,

And they were so funny.

It had a tail.

Maybe it was a dragon or something like that.

We had a good laugh about it every night.

So get in your onesie,

Or whatever it is you wear to bed,

Make sure the lights are off,

And you're nice and comfortable under the blanket.

And also,

As you begin to close your eyes,

Have gratitude that you have a bed and that you have a blanket and you have a place to sleep.

And you don't have to feel guilty about that.

Instead of feeling guilty,

Can you feel gratitude?

So a few deep breaths and start to relax.

So I just finished teaching this retreat that was so fun.

And I'll share a video of it somewhere,

Maybe like on Instagram.

Yuck,

But yeah,

There.

And the week before that,

I finished teaching a nine-month training for my meditation teacher's certification program.

So I train meditation teachers,

And we're doing another one next year in February.

So it was really nice to see that cycle come to an end and watch all these amazing people get their certificates and take a really big step in their lives.

Because I'm not the only teacher out there,

Nor am I the best teacher,

Nor am I for everyone.

And I'm really,

Really excited to see each of these teachers flower and help so many people step into a new kind of consciousness heal themselves and really grow.

And hopefully there'll be many,

Many thousands more teachers on this planet in the future.

So that was cool.

And then of course,

We all know what's been going on in the Middle East.

Except a teenager,

A friend of mine,

Who when I asked him about it,

He said,

What's happening in the Middle East,

Man?

I haven't heard anything.

Kind of blew my mind.

But when that started,

Cornell University,

Which I've been working with for many years,

Asked me to teach a weekly global peace meditation.

And it's for the faculty,

Staff,

And any students that wanna come on Zoom.

And I'll be doing an in-person one there in December on campus.

And they've had a lot of stuff going on in the news about their university.

And so it's been stressful for them too.

And so I just wanted to update you.

A lot of you folks messaged me and asked me for updates.

So that's what's going on.

The world is definitely in a state of conflict at the moment and a lot of people are suffering from what's called empathic distress,

Which is when we feel the pain of the world,

But we can't really do anything to stop it,

Or we feel like we can't,

And we feel overwhelmed and exhausted.

So if you feel tired from all the conflict,

You're not alone.

But the world has been in conflict for thousands of years.

It ebbs and it flows.

The difference now is we're so connected through media,

Social media,

The news.

And just with each other,

We have bigger groups of social circles and friends.

And that challenge is difficult,

But it's important as we globalize,

As we come together as one species on this planet.

We'll get to decide if we want to evolve together and thrive or continue to fight.

And so we have these individual growth periods that we move through.

We have periods of growth and evolution as countries,

As ethnicities,

And we also have evolution as an entire species.

How that's gonna go,

I have no idea,

But I do know that as we shift our consciousness,

As we heal ourselves,

As we treat each other with respect and compassion,

As we try to understand people we disagree with,

That's the only way that we're gonna have peace on this planet.

So let's see where that goes.

I don't know,

But you can do your part and I'll do mine.

And so with that,

Take a few deep breaths and start to deepen into your restful state.

Knowing that the world is moving and unfolding and you can give the love and light that you can give,

That you also have to take care of yourself.

And perhaps it's the shift in your own consciousness and the inner peace and healing that you find that'll have the greatest effect on the world.

Slow your breathing down and let the muscles in your body start to relax.

Feel the softness of your pillow.

And if you notice any internal conflict,

Anything that's been ruminating inside of you,

If it keeps you up at night,

All I want you to do is acknowledge it almost with a loving balm of compassion.

As you fall asleep tonight,

You don't have to fix it or figure it out.

I don't know about you,

But I've had injuries,

Physical ones,

And things happen emotionally.

And when I put them to rest and relaxed,

Had a good sleep,

I've woken up and they felt better.

So give yourself the opportunity to heal tonight.

And there's an energy that we connect to when we fall asleep.

We start to leave the world,

The plane of the physical,

And we step into the dream realm,

Call it the astral realm.

Maybe you go up there and you get a healing or you surf the waves,

The astral waves,

Play games,

Meet friends,

Be creative,

Love,

Or just rest.

And if you like tonight,

As you fall asleep,

You can set a clear intention to heal any conflict inside yourself.

And if there's conflict on the outside,

You wanna send healing energy too.

So I'm here setting that intention.

You're here setting that intention.

And the thousands of people that listen to this and sleep are all also setting that intention.

So we're setting it together.

As you set that intention,

You might even visualize.

If you've ever put like a warm pack on a sore muscle on your body,

If there's an area of your body,

Whether it's physical or emotional that needs some healing,

You can imagine putting like a warm golden pack on top of it and let it soak in throughout the night healing you.

Maybe there's a few spots on your body that need it.

Warm healing astral energy,

Dream healing energy.

Just place those warm golden packs on a few different places on your body.

If you overthink,

You could put one on your head.

If you have a partner or an animal in the room,

You could put one on each of them.

Just sensing and feeling that healing energy.

There's a softness to it,

A compassion.

And it will soak in the whole evening,

Healing any area it touches.

And while we're here together,

Let's do some healing on the planet as well.

We could start with the most recent conflict.

You can put a big golden pack of healing energy on the entire Middle East.

You're not problem solving or ruminating about it.

You're just sending a golden pack of healing energy.

Just blanketing the whole area.

And you can send one over any other part of the planet that calls you.

Could be Ukraine or parts of Africa like Sudan.

Anywhere you sense need some healing,

You can put a pack of gold over that area.

So this evening,

As you're falling asleep,

You're getting a healing.

The people,

The beings around you are getting a healing.

And parts of the planet where humans are suffering are getting a healing.

If you wanna extend that to animals,

To plants,

To any,

To the oceans,

Whatever calls to you.

And this kind of healing isn't done through effort.

It's done through awareness and intention.

And a certain kind of heart opening.

There's a gentle opening like a flower,

Just blossoming.

And as you start to let go and allow yourself to fall into a deep rest,

Into a deep sleep,

You're in that vibration of healing.

All conflicts need resolution and healing.

They need understanding and compassion.

Allow your body to be really nice and relaxed,

Letting go of any tension from the top of your head down to the bottom of your feet.

There is nothing left to do.

Just allow yourself to be really still,

Slowing that breath down even more and drift off into sleep.