Daily Meditation: Cyclical Thoughts
Do you sleep through the night?
Me neither.
When you wake up in the middle of the night, is it because you’re so excited about what’s going to happen the next day, like a kid before she goes to Disneyland for the first time?
Sometimes, that’s the case for me, usually right before I travel.
Usually, I’m thinking about all the stuff that’s stressing me out.
(Sometimes that’s travel, too.)
Recursive thoughts, or the 3 am thoughts, as I like to call them, are those pesky memories and worries that sneak into your subconscious and just won’t let go.
They wake you up in the middle of the night because your body, in its 2 hour sleep cycle, hit a spot where some of that stress was stored.
Your body feels that stress, and your brain, to protect itself, starts thinking all these thoughts to explain why you woke up.
In the vulnerable darkness of sleep, it’s easy for those recursive thoughts to sneak in and set up camp.
This is a simple breathing and observational meditation to help you when those thoughts settle in.
Let them be.
Then let them go.