{"id":46,"date":"2014-01-09T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/00981fc9-f093-4316-87f4-5eae686c9cfd"},"modified":"2014-01-09T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T05:00:00","slug":"on-the-importance-of-sleepenings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=46","title":{"rendered":"On the Importance of Sleepenings"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the Importance of Sleepenings<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

By<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Joseph Anthony<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p>\"\"<\/p>\n

Awakenings
\nare the spring of all things. Awakenings breathe out rebirth and entire fields
\nare covered with flowers.  Awakenings can
\nbe sudden, like lightning cleaving a tree. 
\nThey can be gradual, like an iceberg melting slowly over decades into a
\nroiling sea.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

When we have
\nthem we sometimes cheer, laugh, weep for joy, or melt into an embrace.  We are unloosened and free to move.  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Sometimes
\nhowever, things need to rest. We need to put things to bed.  We need to rest our minds, bodies, and even
\nhearts and souls.  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Let us call
\nthese rests: Sleepenings.  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

When we are
\ntangled in a skein of fear and doubt, let us try not to fight them.  Be still, rest.  Have a sleepening.  When we do, our breath slows, we relax, and
\nso when we do eventually awaken, the fear and doubt will be at our feet and we can
\nwalk unencumbered.  In fact, we can pick
\nup the muddle and wind it into a ball and then weave hope and wisdom out of
\nthose fears and doubts.  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

While working
\ntowards our dreams, fairly obsessed with the joy and excitement of the torrent
\nof creativity or the steady stream of ideas and inspirations, if we do not take
\nmoments to pause, then that self-same torrent will slow to a trickle, the
\nstream will dry.  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

We need a
\nsleepening.  Literally and
\nfiguratively.  A rest for our bodies and our
\nminds.  Let the torrent naturally slow;
\nlet the stream flow without us always splashing in it and muddying it up.  When we awaken, the torrent will be waiting,
\nand somehow refreshed with clear water. 
\nThe stream will be there, a crystal blue ribbon guiding us through the
\nforest of possibilities.  We needn\u2019t view
\nthe sleepening as if it\u2019s something wrong. 
\nWinter isn\u2019t wrong.  It gives
\nspring its juice.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Try putting
\nsome old fear to bed.  If you try to
\nfight it, it will grow.  Let it
\nrest.  Give it some time alone.  Give it some space. Turn your attention to
\nsomething else.  Consciously move your
\ngaze, your hands, your inner and outer attention towards something that gives you
\nstrength and courage.  Consciously
\nbreathe yourself into calm. And not just for two minutes.  Sometimes the sleepening needs to last for
\ndays or weeks.   Sometimes it needs to
\nlast forever.  However long it lasts, if
\nyou can turn your heart towards hope, towards big and little steps in another
\ndirection, then when the awakening happens, when the fear eventually rises from
\nits cold, dusty bed, it will be changed into courage, faith, a being of
\nlight.  And if it still looks like fear, you
\nwill be able to see through it, like a ghost, and keep moving.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

What things
\nneed to be put to bed in your life?  An
\nold idea that no longer makes sense?  An
\nold, limited belief (or a new one?) holding you back from sharing a talent,
\ninterest, or wild idea? What worries or fears need a good wintering?  What shames tucked away in the dark folds of
\nyour memories need to be laid to rest once and for all?  Try having a sleepening for each of
\nthem.  Honor them with sleep.  Give them the grace of hibernation.  When they awaken, they will be transformed
\ninto gifts for yourself and others.  They
\nwill be winged things or stories, songs, dances of healing and light, paintings
\nfull of vibrant color, hymns dripping with gratitude.  Whatever they become, they will no longer own or
\nterrorize you.  They will be harvests of
\ngrace meant to be shared.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

And in the
\nsame way that we do all sorts of wonderful, ritualistic things to help us have
\nawakenings, let us discover creative and healthy ways to have sleepenings.  We can sing our shame lullabies of
\naffirmations, rock our fears in the steady arms of faith, hand our worries over
\nto someone else, let them rock them to sleep while we find a place to curl up
\nand dream.  Light a candle in honor of a
\nlong held limited belief, say a prayer that it find its way home and when it
\narrives, pray that it is a new creature in God. Let your grief cry itself to
\nsleep in your arms.  Bear witness to its
\npain.  Tell your doubts a story of
\nhope.  Prepare a room for your financial
\nstress with the open windows of amends and restitutions and with the clean
\nsheets of thoughts of giving, sharing, and of abundance. Take some old unhelpful
\nidea about your body or sexuality and make a bed for it–a grand, welcoming bed
\nof satin and silk, dappled with roses and candle light.  Ravish that old idea with the kisses of
\nacknowledgement, awareness, and conscious presence, and then let it fall back exhausted,
\nchanged, breathing the deep breaths of blissful acceptance.  Not the acceptance of surrendering to it.  Let the old idea surrender to you, to the
\ntouch of your passion and desire, and tender openness to exploring new ways of
\nbeing alive.  Let it awaken in your
\nhands, and blossom before you as a new possibility shoot through and through
\nwith warm, luxurious amazement.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The more
\nways we can learn how and when to put something to bed, to let things have
\ntheir sleepenings, the more our awakenings can be full of light and gratitude,
\ncreativity, and clear, fresh energy.  And
\noften we need other people to help us know when we need to put something to
\nbed.  So often we are like children so
\nfrazzled with the activity of the moment that we forget what exactly we are
\ndoing and how to stop.  I\u2019ve been
\nthere.  Many times.  And were it not for mentors saying: \u201cPut it
\nto bed, slow down,\u201d I would not be here today.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The paths of
\nsleep and of awakening were not meant to be traveled alone.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Of course, I
\nam not talking about procrastination, avoidance, delusion or denial.  I am talking about releasing the tight grip
\nwe sometimes have on things that are actually unhealthy or unhelpful.  When we loosen our hold, allow ourselves to
\nbe held in the hands of another\u2014a mentor, for example, we can put those old
\nthings to bed so other things can wake up and smell the roses. <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

For all
\nsleepenings are really reawakenings and all awakenings are really
\nresleepenings.  With every awakening
\nsomething is laid to rest.  With every
\nsleepening something is woken within in us that says: \u201cBreathe.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

Thank you for your contributions to the Wonder Child Blog<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n\"\"
\n<\/form>\n

Copyright Joseph Anthony of the Wonder Child Blog<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the Importance of Sleepenings By Joseph Anthony   Awakenings are the spring of all things. Awakenings breathe out rebirth and entire fields are covered with flowers.  Awakenings can be sudden, like lightning cleaving a tree.  They can be gradual, like an iceberg melting slowly over decades into a roiling sea. When we have them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}