Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Holy macaroni – I got seven hours of sleep last night. That basically never happens. I try to get at least 6 1/2 hours of sleep every night but usually wind up with around 5 – 5 1/2 hours/night. Mainly because around 4am every morning I seem to have to go to the bathroom and when I do, my fast mind jumps in and starts thinking about the six million things I seemingly have to get done on any given day. And on most days I can feel the fast mind waking up and I have an internal knowing that I’m screwed, I’ll be out of bed by 4:30am. I talk a lot about the fast mind/slow mind connection in my book Feed Your Angel. The fast mind is the insane lunatic who narrates our lives. Can’t ever shut the fast mind off. Go ahead and try right now – don’t think any thoughts at all for a minute. Impossible. Even “I’m not thinking any thoughts” is a thought. We are in constant contact with our fast minds every waking moment. But really, who we are is behind that mind watching. Our slow minds can be reached via prayer and meditation. Introspection. Most of us have nowhere near as much contact with our slow minds as our fast minds, but if we leave the fast mind alone it will take over and create worry, anxiety, guilt and despair. Nothing is ever good enough. The fast mind can never be satisfied. And it will seize every opportunity to creep in whenever it can. Like at 4:00 in the morning when you get up to use the bathroom – perfect time to begin the mayhem. And once it’s been successful on any given day, it’s easier to succeed again and again and again… but last night I remembered how to shut it down. As I was returning to bed and the fast mind was making its move I remembered – the ultimate control lies with me. I decided right then and there we were not going there this morning and let my slow mind pull me back into sleep. Instead of an inner knowing that I was going to lose the battle to my fast mind, I had an inner knowing that I was going to win. And… 1 hour and 40 minutes later I woke up at 5:40 am more refreshed than I have been since our vacation in March. Sleep is so important. I’m hoping that going forward I can continue to slow my mind down and put together a streak of 6 1/2 hour + sleeps in a row here. Just need to maintain that contact with the slow mind. The thoughts behind the thoughts. The second person in the room when you argue with yourself. Your conscience. Your soul. Our essence. We are a cup of water in the ocean of spirituality. Everything is awesome if we see life that way. We’ll never see it that way when our fast minds are in control.
