THE GIFT OF AN ANXIOUS NIGHTTIME “Wake Up Call”Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night, heart pumping and body filled with anxiety for no apparent reason?
Although this experience can be uncomfortable and unwelcome, it can also provide illuminating information!
If you have an anxious awakening, you may be curious about any message it may hold for you. I’d like to share a PRACTICE I use and a GIFT I’ve discovered can come from an “anxious wake-up call” like the one I had last night.
THE TRIGGER:
GEORGETTE’S ANXIOUS NIGHTTIME “WAKE UP CALL”:
Earlier yesterday I spent some time with my 86-year old Mom, Shirley, who is safe and doing relatively well right now. Although this is true, witnessing her current physical and emotional challenges, her tenderness and vulnerability during our visit was upsetting to me. I quickly ignored my anxious concern for her. I also watched myself postpone talking with her about the real reason for my visit, yet again. I had planned to ask her for information regarding her last wishes, so that I can be prepared when the time comes for her to leave this world.
Thankfully, it’s rare that I wake up with anxiety. But when I do, I’ve discovered this practice to be very helpful and I used it last night. I offer this PRACTICE to you.
THE PRACTICE:
- If you wake up anxious and cannot get back to sleep: Get up, pull out your journal and begin a conversation with your Higher Self through writing. The silence and spaciousness of the night when others are sleeping will make it easier to focus within.
- Ask your Higher Self for understanding, liberation, and peace.
- Tune in and listen for the answers to your prayer until light from a Higher Perspective begins to shine through the physical anxiety.
- Allow yourself to recognize any EMOTIONS related to this information that you’ve avoided feeling, and let yourself feel them now. Let this emotional energy have the space and freedom to simply be present and move through your system consciously. Breathe. Transmute anxiety into free energy.
- Ask for insights about any situations and related ACTIONS that you may have been avoiding and write down this information.
- Go back to bed when your body is relaxed again and set the intention to enjoy a healing sleep for the rest of the night.
- Review your notes and insights over the next day or so. Interpret the messages. Embrace your feelings. Perhaps a plan to address this TRIGGER will unfold. Perhaps this PRACTICE can take place in the daylight next time!
THE GIFT:
In my case, when I created awareness and space for my emotions, initially I experienced an upwelling of fear I didn’t know was there, about my sweet mother’s future safety and health. I also experienced sadness in the knowledge that eventually she will have to leave this planet. As soon as the emotion came up and spilled out into my awareness, the anxiety in my body instantly began to dissipate.
The GIFT I received was liberation from the resistance I had to openly discuss my concern for her health and safety and most importantly, my desire to know her last wishes. This no longer feels so heavy and impossible. In fact, I’m sure we will find some humor and even laugh together about it all, as we always do! My prayer for peace was answered; my heart feels free and light when I think about my Mom now. I think this particular TRIGGER of mine can be laid to “rest”!
This nighttime task was difficult for me to put into words. Even as I struggled to describe my experience to you, I was admitting to the part of me still holding on to my MOM that it really is time to release her to her highest good. And it was time to free myself to enjoy whatever moments, days or years we have left.
NOTE: Occasionally, even when we “do the work” this PRACTICE describes, anxiety associated with a particular challenge does not fully resolve, even with our best efforts to transmute it into free energy.
If it seems like time to seek help….help with better understanding the TRIGGER, with gaining insights to why anxiety persists, and with what might make it more manageable, then please ask for it. Family, friends, and professionals in the helping fields might be the next best steps. The goal, as always, is to enhance your life toward its fullest potential. And, learning how to consciously process your emotions is one important aspect of your Life Purpose. .
We all know it can be common to resist some of the challenges we encounter on the path of life. We also know that our emotions related to these challenges cannot be successfully denied… for long! The Light of day often brings with it very full lives…..and our lives are greatly enhanced by peaceful, restful sleep.
It can be one of our most useful skills to transmute anxiety into free energy. Our life challenges require our attention and insights, our emotions need our recognition and embrace. And we need our sleep!
