I didn't sleep well the other night. Unresolved problems and worries kept me restless. But I discovered something interesting that helped. It was related to the story onsymbols I spoke about last month.

So here I was, tossing and turning. The more I tried to still my thoughts the more tangled they got - emotions, thinking, trying to stop, not being able to stop. Counting sheep wasn't working, so I decided to see what this mental and emotional mess looked like symbolically.

I stilled myself and let an image float up. What appeared was a tiny, wiry, very bad-tempered, snarling, growling little creature, about the size of a hardball. A nasty little piece of work, yet oddly vulnerable at the same time.

I didn't expect it to seem so alive, but the symbol couldn't have been better. It reminded me a bit of a small version of the cartoon Tasmanian Devil.

Well no wonder I couldn't sleep.

So, to put this worry to rest, I asked for another symbol to represent a safe haven for the creature for the night - close enough to be acknowledged, but

far enough away to be, well, far enough away. A basket appeared filled with cotton, and the creature seemed to snuggle down into its softness, still snarling and grumbling, but settling down.

Just doing this little exercise put me in a more restful mental state. I had to still myself to get started. That was calming in itself. Letting symbols float up to the surface is more passive than building an image using rational thought. That is calming, too. And it's fun to allow symbols to bypass the usual habitual thinking and allow my inner world to be seen in another way. Anything fun is calming, too.

So at this point I was falling back to sleep.

I woke up the next day feeling rested and cheerful. When I checked, the creature was still there, but it had quieted down through the night. It opened an eye, looked at me and then closed it again, snuggling back down into the basket, not too interested in leaving its cozy nest.

Later that day when I checked in again it was still at rest, purring like a kitten.

I won't deceive myself that all insomnia will be cured by this little exercise. But I was grateful the other night when this tiny, bad-tempered creature allowed me to settle it down enough that we could both get some sleep.

(in Starry Night Ezine 2008-10-25 http://www.janetdane.com/sn.htm)

Back to Janet's website