Siin on Nostr: One thing that's been unexpected but wholly fulfilling and important as we take this ...
One thing that's been unexpected but wholly fulfilling and important as we take this week to prep for our unorthodox Dia de los Muertos event has been cleaning.
For maybe 8 weeks, I wasn't getting any cleaning done but the basic laundry/dishes/spot sweeping, and dust and bloodstains and residue from the heightened emotions were gathering in corners, across floors, and under furniture.
I don't think that we realized the magnitude of what this meant. We kept giving ourselves the space to let things go, and I think that in those moments we needed that space to just let the balls drop. But this week, it became apparent that it was more than just dust accumulating in the corners of our household. Our daughter, who's been sleeping through the night since she was a year old, stopped sleeping. Everyone was cranky, not working cohesively, inexplicably frustrated at all the little things. I was constantly feeling overstimulated, overwhelmed, and was picking up feelings and thoughts that didn't feel like my own, but was trying to just force them out and push through.
One night, after trying for five hours to get my daughter to go back to sleep, I woke my partner and told him that it was his turn, that I needed some sleep. When I woke in the morning, he told me that when he asked her what she needed she wouldn't sign like normal, she would just point to different spots in the room repeatedly. He had the thought to smudge the room with some sage we have from a friend's garden, and he said that she fell asleep right after.
So Tuesday, I deep cleaned the interior of the house, threw open the curtains which had remained closed for weeks, recharged the saltwater & palo santo charms I keep on our front altar and in the hallway to the bedroom, and re-arranged and recharged elements of both altars.
And then we spent Wednesday cleaning the patio, hanging our new sign, cleaning the outdoor bathrooms, sweeping and picking up the studio.
And then, last night, our daughter finally slept through the night again. Our actions have been more cohesive, our patience less thin, and overall the house feels lighter, brighter, more positive.
It made me really stop to think about the influences behind our feelings and actions, and how infrequently we think below the surface or the story we're telling ourselves. Cognitive behavioral therapy tells us that the way we feel about things and react to them is largely shaped by our childhoods and specifically our childhood trauma, but we rarely stop to consider the ways in which other external forces influence our behavior in ways we might not realize at first.
So, as we push forward through this most liminal of weeks which, for most, ends tonight, but which, for some, keeps going through the 6th, I challenge you to sit and meditate on the things that may be influencing your mood, your stress, your sleep patterns, your reactions.
#Meditations #Mindfulness
For maybe 8 weeks, I wasn't getting any cleaning done but the basic laundry/dishes/spot sweeping, and dust and bloodstains and residue from the heightened emotions were gathering in corners, across floors, and under furniture.
I don't think that we realized the magnitude of what this meant. We kept giving ourselves the space to let things go, and I think that in those moments we needed that space to just let the balls drop. But this week, it became apparent that it was more than just dust accumulating in the corners of our household. Our daughter, who's been sleeping through the night since she was a year old, stopped sleeping. Everyone was cranky, not working cohesively, inexplicably frustrated at all the little things. I was constantly feeling overstimulated, overwhelmed, and was picking up feelings and thoughts that didn't feel like my own, but was trying to just force them out and push through.
One night, after trying for five hours to get my daughter to go back to sleep, I woke my partner and told him that it was his turn, that I needed some sleep. When I woke in the morning, he told me that when he asked her what she needed she wouldn't sign like normal, she would just point to different spots in the room repeatedly. He had the thought to smudge the room with some sage we have from a friend's garden, and he said that she fell asleep right after.
So Tuesday, I deep cleaned the interior of the house, threw open the curtains which had remained closed for weeks, recharged the saltwater & palo santo charms I keep on our front altar and in the hallway to the bedroom, and re-arranged and recharged elements of both altars.
And then we spent Wednesday cleaning the patio, hanging our new sign, cleaning the outdoor bathrooms, sweeping and picking up the studio.
And then, last night, our daughter finally slept through the night again. Our actions have been more cohesive, our patience less thin, and overall the house feels lighter, brighter, more positive.
It made me really stop to think about the influences behind our feelings and actions, and how infrequently we think below the surface or the story we're telling ourselves. Cognitive behavioral therapy tells us that the way we feel about things and react to them is largely shaped by our childhoods and specifically our childhood trauma, but we rarely stop to consider the ways in which other external forces influence our behavior in ways we might not realize at first.
So, as we push forward through this most liminal of weeks which, for most, ends tonight, but which, for some, keeps going through the 6th, I challenge you to sit and meditate on the things that may be influencing your mood, your stress, your sleep patterns, your reactions.
#Meditations #Mindfulness