Ewe won’t believe this!!
Here’s what I found out: If you don’t get up and do something with your messages (or at least honor the messengers,) then you are just dooming yourself to more sleepless nights. More bleary-eyed days with nothing to show for it.
For a long time, I resisted this truth. Even though I believed it 100%.
The night is your shadow. It’s your dark side. It’s the piles of unconscious genius you’ve been ignoring in favor of the ordinary.
If you can’t sleep you are up for a reason.
I have a bad track record with sleep. I guess the night has always been my cave, my true home. But even as a newborn, I never slept. Not just colic. Just not a sleeper.
That’s my neuro-divergence and I now longer try to fix or feel bad about it. You shouldn’t either. Maybe it’s your nature and anyway an eight-hour mono-sleep is not the normal human pattern – not for our cave-dwelling ancestors or anyone else throughout history.
One problem with sleeplessness isn’t only the frustration. It’s the fear.
If you’re like me you’ve spent nights frozen in fear of the dark. I’d stare into my room until the shadowy shapes started to look like people and it got even harder to close my eyes and doze off. Things would bump and creak and I’d search my brain for their source. But I never could identify any. I can sleep once day breaks (or more accurately at 2:00 in the afternoon.)
But I was up for a reason and once I got a hold of that – everything changed and now I perk up and pay attention to things that scared me before. And, I stopped being afraid of all the doom and gloom about dying young and getting fat if you can’t sleep at night, too.
But spiritually it was even more profound than that…
Now I know the shadows and messengers and the night itself were calling me to get up and DO something. (Since I’m a writer, I wrote.)
And, three times, entire books have come out of it. Now I know that insomnia is the SIGNAL: Message coming in! I better listen to – or more insomnia is my reward.
Your house isn’t haunted.
Or maybe it is. But YOU yourself might be haunted if the night is keeping you up. It’s the shadow side of you trying to get your attention. It’s the archetypes of Goddess Nyx, the guiding stars, the sounds of crickets and owls. It’s your unconscious, the things that are trying to help you make sense of your crazy, screwed up life! It’s the shadowy crone at the crossroads, pointing to the right choice, or direction.
Things gestate in the dark. And there are things you should be doing: writing, planning, creating. Get up and give birth to them already!
Until you get up and do the thing that calls you, you’ll never sleep through the night without melatonin, hypnosis, or medication.
Sleeplessness might come in waves and cycles. If you miss it, you may never get it back: that inspiration that could have led you to write a bestseller or invent the next million-dollar Shark Tank investment.
It may not be fun.
I have been the recipient of scary, unclear messages I could not interpret. That’s frustrating I will admit. The most surreal sign came one night when I was lying there, eyes burning, staring at the wall. Three lights suddenly appeared, hovering over a dresser. They were yellow, green and orange (I figured that was probably spirit’s version of red.)
So it was like a stop light, I guess. And I mean, they were there, undeniable. I scooted over closer to my sleeping spouse and prayed for the lights to go away or at least not to come any closer. They didn’t feel ominous except for the fact they didn’t belong there but I was terrified!
I frantically tried to figure out the source but there was no way they came from anywhere but thin air or Spirt (or a spirit guide of some sort – one of whom has since become more of a companion, but I can’t blame him for the lights. But I wouldn’t know any of my spirit guides if it weren’t for being up in the night.
I never saw the lights again but they came during a stall during writing this book: Midnight Pages. www.themidnightpages.com . If I had to interpret (guess) I’d say the message was,
“You believe the night has signs and messages and you’re even writing a book about it. And you’re lying there? Trying to sleep? Don’t’ be a hypocrite! Get the heck up and write!”I stopped stalling after that.
Yes, I get messages in the night and Midnight Pages is the result: a book about stopping fighting your night owl tendencies and making it an adventure. Maybe you’ll become someone who says, “I do my best work at night.”
What I know is if your day is wrecked by how little you slept the night before you might as well have something to show for it.
So, if you are a writer, a journal keeper, a spiritual seeker, a creative or someone who believes imagination is key to life, the night has something to tell you and if you’re awake already, don’t just lie there. Get up and listen. Like Rumi says, “Seeker, don’t sleep.”
Mystical Inspiration and Writing Prompts for Writers, Insomniacs, and Night Owls
by Diane Riis
Feb 2, 2022
Genre: Nonfiction, Self Help, Writing, Journal, Workbook
Publisher: Earth and Soul Publishing
ISBN: 9798985131000
Number of pages: 370
Word Count: 25,000
Cover Artist: Book Designer: Andrea Schmidt, a-schmidt.com
The night has something to tell you.
Midnight Pages is a workbook of magical prompts and creative writing exercises. It is also the antidote for anyone who has ever tried (and failed) to get up early to write morning pages.
Embrace your nature! Whether you do your best work at night or you’re going through a bout of insomnia, you will deepen your writing practice and learn to listen to the voices of the night.
WRITING PROMPT From Midnight Pages:
Close your eyes. What do you hear, smell, taste? What do you sense at an energetic or intuitive level? Spend some real time. Find at least twenty-five things. When it gets hard to add to the list is when it gets interesting…” Excerpt:
VIGILANTIA
Vigilantia: lying awake, sleepless, vigilance. The silence and stillness of midnight might feel suffocating, dense, and thick—heavy with foreboding. It might have you lying in bed, heart pounding, afraid of the dark.
Under the cloak of night, your hearing is heightened. Sounds startle you awake as you drowse. Your mind can ramp up: haunting memories, recriminations, regrets, and stuck thoughts keep you from your rest. Some “insights come up as well and sensations: the surge of adrenaline, pricklings on your neck. You might feel the weight of the dark bearing down on you or you notice movement in the shadows. Maybe you have the sense you’re being watched. Something lurks in the dark that’s imperceptible during the day. You might feel like you are not alone, and that subtle presence over your shoulder seems familiar. You wonder if it’s been there before, maybe even always. During the day, with music blaring and people talking, you just don’t perceive it. Ask what message all this has in store for you. Don’t reject what you hear. Don’t dismiss. Allow.
Night belongs to the spirits. –Proverb
Diane Riis is author of five books and owner of Earth and Soul Coaching and Publishing which works with Indie authors, writers and magical practitioners who want more joy in their lives. She is a metaphysical minister and witch offering spiritual direction (which is a process of reflecting on your journey and learning to observe how you participate in your personal spiritual framework.) She offers writing coaching and classes as well as High Vibe, Soul Deep writing workshops and retreats for women who understand the power of the collective. Rev. Dr. Diane owns and operates a remnant flower farm on Long Island, NY all the while raising dogs, cats, chickens and a boy.
Tweet:
Some writers do their best work at night. Rather than worry that you’re not getting enough sleep, let your insomnia be your writing prompt. Get up and listen to the night. https://www.themidnightpages.com
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