This is THE mountain I will die on.
March 2024
Interrupting my normal schedule because we aren’t even two weeks into this and I’m miserable. Yes, it’s Spring in the Northern Hemisphere but I hate every moment of it EVERY year. It feels so disjointed and false. I write this same thing to myself EVERY year as a reminder to myself.
My least favorite time of year…where my body wants it to be earlier and the clock says it is later. And the sun definitely does NOT match the number on the clock.
I am NOT a fan of Daylight Savings Time. I don’t protest or make my opinion known about much but for THIS I would stand on the side of the road and accost random strangers to sign a petition. I mean I hate it DST but if it gets us to stop switching the clocks all the time…I don’t know…it might be worth it.
The fact that sunrise happens at 8 am is just crazy and I don’t need light at 9:30 pm when I need to go to bed.
Sleep, circadian rhythms, daily rhythms, listening to your body – all of that has become mainstream now. Which is good. We are realizing that maybe just because we figured out how to do things 80 years ago, it might not work for us now. (And I’d argue it didn’t even work 80 years ago – there were just other forces that were stronger.)
Still, now we’ve come up with schedules, tips and tricks for sleep and our body.
And once again, we’ve all missed the point.
Rest and sleep (shall I even take a leap and say work and living?) are NOT one size fits all, life-hackable things.
The tips and tricks are things to try? Yes.
But to schedule and run our lives? No.
I know some people who need 6-7 hours of sleep. Any more and they feel awful.
Give me 6-7 hours of sleep and I. Just. Can’t. Function. At all. 8-9 hours of sleep is my sweet spot. And don’t tell me all these tests, studies and articles tell me I’m wrong. My body knows.
How do you get back sleep and rest, for yourself?
First: Try the things, see what works, keep what does, discard the rest
Second: Listen to your body
Third: Repeat. Constantly. For the rest of your life.
So simple, so much work.
The first step is fine. It’s the second and third that trips us up. We all didn’t come with manuals like we are an 8 in 1 oven that shows the dials to move and the buttons to push when you want to air fry instead of bake. As if we could move our arms and hold our tongues to get us to fall asleep! (Wouldn’t that be awesome?)
It requires each individual, taking the time and space to listen to their body, mind and soul for what they need. Listening and then trying to honor the request.
As I’ve gotten older, my body sometimes doesn’t even take the time to tell me things anymore (usually because it knows I’m not listening, so why bother). It just shuts down completely. I can’t do anything besides lie down – even that is sometimes a challenge and can feel like too much.
We think the signals we are getting are just early information. Sometimes though, those signals mean that we are stressed too far already. Think about it? When you are on track, usually you don’t get a warning signal or reminder pop up. You just move along. (Unless you have notifications on your phone in which case we need to sit down and have a serious talk.)
Most of what we are all experiencing has nothing to do with “short quick hacks that can make you feel better.” We are all collectively healing from trauma – physical, mental, emotional, cultural, societal, political, medical. Worldwide our societies are responding the same way our bodies are to us: breaking down, fear, anger, desperation and isolation.
There is not a quick fix. No 1 hour video/podcast, no technique, no mindset change, no affirmation, no learning that can get us (individually and collectively) where we need to go.
Doing the difficult, messy, emotional but inevitably healing work of listening to our bodies, of resting, of sleeping, all in ways that make sense to us individually, that will take us down the whole living path.
It’s not fun. It’s not pretty. But it is the YOUR way is the only way.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/astronomical-clock-in-prague-820735/