The Good Sleep

Night sky setting stage for the 'good sleep.'

Sometime after turning fifty years of age or going through menopause we begin experiencing the need to get up in the night to pee, interrupting the ‘good sleep’ we had previously taken for granted. We know from nature that ‘good sleep’ is important to health and creativity.

 

Unfortunately, once we have awakened, it can be hard to get back to sleep. Thoughts and images intrude into our natural circadian rhythm. After years of ‘good sleep’ our brain/body has become wired for us to get up and start our daily ‘doing’ once we awake. So, how can we retrain our brain/body into going back to sleep? 

After a long winter sleep,
my red tulips awakened, yeah!

Here are some tricks I have learned:

 

Store a small container of almonds in the bedroom. After peeing, walk around eating a small handful of almonds. Since it takes the stomach longer to process protein than other foods, this tricks the brain/body into using energy, convincing it that you have performed the obligations of daytime work. 

Or have an eye pillow close to your bed. After slipping back under the blankets, cover your eyes with a gentle eye pillow. Take three slow belly breaths and keep your focus on a gentle in and out rhythm while counting backward from ninety-nine down to one. 

Surprise! After taking a break last year,
my Peony burst forth alongside the Verbena.

Another option is to begin practicing Yoga Nidra. Moving awareness to your ears, listen for the subtle buzzing sound of energy. Shift awareness to your mouth – upper roof, lower floor, and two sides, lips, teeth, and tongue. Next, shift awareness to your inner ears with their marvelous tiny crystals and hairs and then to your cheeks and nostrils. Pay attention to your breath, following the gentle in and out of sleep rhythm. 

If you have not yet fallen back to sleep, keep moving awareness to eyes, scalp, back of head, and down, consciously relaxing each body part, including each toe and finger. The part of your body that has been holding tension will amaze you.

Wow! Given a space in full sun, my Clematis
 keeps bursting forth with new blossoms.  

The best trick of all: Keep a pad and pen on a bedside table. Returning from emptying your bladder, thoughts may arise as you try to get back to sleep. If so, rise enough to write them on the pad. Ah, the brain registers that your body has performed a necessary function and allows you to go back to sleep.

If this is an early morning pee, you may be slightly aware of dreams and images. Capture them in a few words on the pad. These are seminal insights for where your life is trying to go and for creativity. Don’t let these pearls from ‘good sleep’ escape!

My Honeysuckle rested all of last year
but is growing now and going to town.

Here's to your GOOD SLEEP!

Drop the Disguise

 

What happened?

Drop The Disguise

Leah Early

 

Just as I threw my hands up and 

Surrendered

To living Winter in the Pacific Northwest 

f-o-r-e-v-e-r,

 

I became aware suddenly

That this year’s tree moss crop 

Ranks particularly plump,

Like dollops of bright-green snow caught in bare branches.

 

I remembered slipping and splashing through puddles, 

Walking on surfaces in squishing shoes, and very wet pant legs.

At times the soil’s thirst was so replete, 

The ground could not sip another drop of rain.

 

And yet, in all that grey gloom dressed as Winter,

Skinny daffodil stems (no chance of being “a host” yet) 

Stretched toward the warmth of sun rays.

A few brave bulbs nudged out to ask: “Is it time?”              

 

Oh, it is time, you bet!

It is time to drop Winter disguises in multiple shades of grey.

It’s time to grasp a vision of a harvest and

To move bravely toward blooming and bearing fruit.

 

Spring, please.

Don’t be bashful.

Come! 

 

Amazing!

My Fragile Nature

by Catherine Marsh

The Road Catherine Marsh 2024

Recently I was called upon to share what I had learned over the past three months, since the last meeting of the Learning Circle, a group of six women whose roots and sisterhood go back some 50 years. We range in age from 76 to 87 and meet to share and encourage one another to continue the path of personal transformation and growth as we progress towards our 80s and 90s.

 
Given that context, the learning that I articulated was, “The beauty of life lies in accepting its fragility.” As the youngest member of the group, my encounters with my own fragility have only just begun, but my recent hospitalization reminded me that over the coming years, as I struggle with macular degeneration and osteoporosis as well as other conditions that will arise, such encounters are not likely to diminish in frequency or duration. However, they do not need to diminish me.  Fragility is a part of my nature.

 
I have accepted that I am fragile, and like the delicate orchid, I require attentive cultivation if I am to continue to grow and blossom.  I am learning to handle myself with care.  I eat healthfully and strive to sleep at least seven hours a night; I work out three times a week, twice with a trainer; I have developed practices of writing daily and painting regularly; I walk a mile to and from my painting class each week; I receive injections in both eyes four times a year; I receive an annual infusion for osteoporosis.

Perhaps more than ever before, with intentional care of my body, mind and spirit, I am living a bountiful life. My children are just a phone call away, and will come if called, but I have learned that I also have wonderfully caring neighbors that only need to be asked to help. I zoom monthly with old friends who live far away. Nearby friends join me on excursions into Chicago to participate in many of the wonderful cultural opportunities that exist close to home, and I have decided to stay planted in Evanston – what a wonderful place to call home.

I recently encountered work colleagues that I had not seen since retirement. They all seemed quite shocked and commented that I was aging in reverse, that I looked better than ever. One even used the word, “beautiful.” Ah yes, I noted to myself, I have accepted my fragile nature.
 

 

 

 

 

GIVE AWAY

Last night at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, after cracking jokes about his age, President Joe Biden heralded the importance not only of a free press but the necessity of an informed public.

Despite Michelle Obama's dislike for politics, she has always understood and encouraged everyday citizens to VOTE, underlining their freedom and responsibility as citizens of a democracy. She was the inspiration for my creation of VOTE / HOPE teeshirts in 2016.

Women's Tee Back LiDoña Wagner 2016

Women's Tee Front LiDoña Wagner 2016

As part of my participation in ensuring democracy I am giving away my three remaining shirts, two XXL and one XL. I will mail one to the first three persons to send me their address and size choice.

As citizens women understand that our freedom requires that we make our own decisions about our bodies.

YOUR VOTE MATTERS!

SEEDS OF THE NEW

In a recent NPR TED Hour, health professionals talked about the importance of WALKING. Speaking of the health dangers that our sedentary work and entertainment patterns have produced, they recommended that whatever you are doing, stop every thirty minutes and walk around for five minutes. It doesn’t matter if you stroll, walk briskly, wave or pump your arms, just get up and move. 

The main thing is that humans evolved as walkers and our bodies require this activity to maintain optimum health.

What are you doing to be the walker you were born to be? 

If we are going to return to being walkers, then we need walkable cities for home, work, and play. During the same TED Hour, town planners spoke about a movement for walkable cities. To be walkable, cities and towns need to be safe, useful, comfortable, and interesting. So, planners strive to design spaces that have people present around the clock, i.e. with housing, shops, restaurants, parks, gardens, areas for play and entertainment. 

How is your town becoming more walkable?

LiDoña Wagner SEEDS OF THE NEW March 2024

I have been intrigued by YOUR BRAIN ON ART / How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross. By two neuro researchers, this book shares research on the healing power of each and all of the arts. 

How are you incorporating play / art into your life?

 

What's up?

LiDoña Wagner January 2024

LiDoña Wagner February 2024

LiDoña Wagner February 2024

Here are three centering mandalas done since the beginning of 2024.

From what you learned about shapes in last month's blog, 

what do you think is going on in my life?

 

Where Are You in Your Life Now?

Our lives are permeable, we do not know our future selves. We live in a setting, an environment that includes parents, siblings, neighbors, a specific culture, a nation, the natural world, and planetary forces. All of these are constantly interacting, making for ongoing shifts and change. You cannot know the future you because you are always making choices, creating paths that disintegrate in the face of new realities. 

That means that despairing about the past or worrying about the future will get you nowhere. Focus on now, this moment in time. So, let’s check in with our unconscious to get some clues about your present situation. Anthropologist Angeles Arrien did extensive research into universal symbols. Her award-winning book, Signs of Life shares a diagnostic tool to give you an intuitive sense of where you are in your life now. Try it out now.

 

Study five universal shapes below.

  

 SIGNS OF LIFE by Angeles Arrien
                                                                                            

Which of these shapes do you like most? Put a #1 beside that one.

Which shape is your second most liked? Put a #2 beside that one.

Which shape do you like least? Put a #5 beside that one.

Examine the two remaining shapes. Which do you like more? Put a #3 beside that one.

The remaining shape is now your second most disliked? Put a #4 beside that one.

 

Examine your choices. Do the numbers feel correct? If not, change the numbers now.

 

What you have put in first place is where you think you are now. Your number two choice indicates a strength that others see in you, but you may not be aware of. Your number five choice represents old, unfinished business in which you currently have little interest. The shape you put in fourth place is a past challenge that is motivating your current process of change. The shape you selected for number three reveals where you are now. Let’s look at your number three choice.

 

If you chose the circle for number three, it suggests that achieving independence will bring your natural creative abilities to all areas of life. If the equidistant cross was your third choice, you will discover your originality and regenerative power through a relationship process. If the square is your number three, you need to stabilize and implement your creative endeavors and have the energy to do so. The spiral as your third choice shows that by trusting change and variety you can release your full energy. If your number three is a triangle, now is the time to envision and actualize your dreams, be inspired.

 

Now, make it personal. Take a moment to reflect on the intuitive meaning of the shape that was your third choice. What comes to mind when you read the sentence about your number three choice? Are you surprised? Does it bring up memories or forgotten visions? Does it feel right? If it irritates you, ask yourself why? Has it brought up something different than you expected? Is anyone else involved? Is it suggesting an action that has been outside your conscious awareness? What are you going to do with what has come up for you? 

 

Write a few sentences about how your number three selection mirrors what is taking place in your life now. Are you curious about your other choices? If so, the appendix provides descriptions of your number one, two, four, and five choices. 

 

You have accomplished your first lesson in being an artist: playing with visual symbols!