Falling Back to Sleep: Learning From The Animals
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Hi, I'm Jessica Porter and welcome back to Sleep Magic, a podcast where I help you find the magic of your own mind, helping you to sleep better and live better. So thank you everybody for your really interesting and cool reviews. I want to give a shout out to AJ who says, ever since I started listening to Sleep Magic, I've fallen asleep in minutes before I laid in bed and looked at my ceiling for hours.

I'm sorry, AJ. No ceiling is that interesting. And I'm really glad it's helping. Also, I heard from nine-year-old Felicity, which is not her real name. It's her nickname. And she wrestles with anxiety and ADHD. She goes to bed at 7.30, but often doesn't fall asleep until 11.30. But since she's been listening to Sleep Magic, she says she can already tell that it's helping a lot.

Before we get started, let's hear a quick word from our sponsors who make this free content possible. I love that. Thank you so much. It's a great honor, really, to be able to help people in this intimate place inside ourselves. Sleep is so personal. So yeah, I really appreciate everyone's feedback. And by the way, tonight we're doing...

an episode about falling back to sleep. This will be our second falling back to sleep episode. And if you have any of your own little mental tricks or metaphors that you would use for falling back to sleep, you know, the first episode was about like getting back in the river of sleep.

Tonight, it's about sort of entraining and connecting with animals. If you have any of your own ideas about falling back to sleep or just want to say anything you want to say to us here at Sleep Magic, you can leave it in a review on your podcast app. You can also go to the Ask Me Anything feature on the Supercast link in the episode show notes. And you can also reach out to me on Instagram.

So let's stay connected. And thank you everybody for listening, subscribing, reviewing, rating, and falling asleep. That's the most important thing. Thanks for just being here to be in like the big sleep magic vibe. I love this vibe. Okay. Tonight, falling back to sleep. And this version is about learning from the animals. I've said it before, but I like to observe nature and find patterns.

or examples of things that we can use. And I'm not the first person to do this, obviously. But I think we as humans can get really complicated and stressed out. And then there's nature doing things in a very orderly fashion and generally quite peacefully. And when it comes to sleep, let's look to the animals.

Someone told me once that if I wanted to understand the relationship between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems, to observe a cat. Now, when my cat Cher is napping, she is very, very relaxed. Almost liquid in her relaxation. It's like she's a puddle of fur. A puddle of sleep. And when she's asleep, she's functioning from her parasympathetic nervous system.

But if a truck comes barreling down the street outside, she instantly snaps to attention. And I mean attention. Eyes wide, ears up, whole body awake. That's her sympathetic nervous system response. But as soon as that truck is out of earshot, boom, she sinks right back into the puddle.

There's no thinking, no tossing and turning, no worrying. Am I going to get back to sleep? That switch flips instantly and decisively. Boom, she's back in. She demonstrates how cleanly we can shift from one nervous system response to the other. Now, we too have parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.

We too can wake up in the night sometimes, maybe because of a sound. Or perhaps we naturally alert between sleep cycles, roughly every two hours. And we do do that. But sometimes we have a hard time melting back into that puddle of sleep. We get worried and start thinking and forget it's entirely natural to flip that switch easily, quickly, and decisively.

But you too can melt back into the puddle of sleep. It's there, waiting for you, just like it is in a cat. So tonight we're going to learn from the animals. I will actually be having you connect with an animal. And if you're a cat person, like me, imagine a cat. If you feel more connected to dogs, imagine your favorite pooch, or any other animal that you felt close to in your life. You've seen them sleep. You've felt their peace.

We will align with that tonight so that you get better at falling back to sleep whenever you need to. So get yourself into a safe and comfortable position and let's begin. Allow your eyes to close easily and gently. And bring your awareness now to your breathing. You don't need to do anything fancy with your breath. Just your awareness is settling now on your breath.

It's all about reeling in your awareness and letting it settle. Now, awareness never really settles for long, but we're training your awareness to come back home to your body, to come back home to your breath. And now I'd like you to bring your awareness up into your eyelids and imagine that the little muscles of your eyelids are feeling loose and limp and relaxed. Allow your eyelids to get nice and heavy now, sleepy.

comfortable. And as your eyelids are getting heavier and heavier, you accept the suggestion that your eyelids are so relaxed they simply will not open. And now I'm going to ask you to test your eyelids to make sure they won't open. Play this little imaginary game with me. Imagine that your eyes can't open and just wiggle your eyebrows while your eyelids stay shut. Just give them a tug. Good.

Now you've opened up this big room of your imagination as you imagine this relaxation around your eyes moving back into your head. Let's feel that warm mist of relaxation moving back. That mist of relaxation taking over every single cell of your brain. And now your head is feeling heavy on the pillow, the muscles of your face,

becoming soft and relaxed, your jaw letting go. As you imagine warm waves of relaxation lapping up against the beat of your mind. Feel those warm waves of relaxation lapping up against the beat of your mind as all mental tension disappear. As you allow that mist of relaxation to move down now into your shoulders.

The muscles of your shoulders becoming loose and limp and relaxed. And as your shoulders are relaxing, all of the responsibilities you carry in the world on those shoulders are falling to the floor. The responsibilities you feel to your friends and family. The responsibility you feel to your work and to the world at large. Responsibilities you feel to the future. And even responsibilities you feel to the past.

They've all fallen to the floor and you can pick any or all of them up in the morning. But for right now, your only responsibility is to yourself. As the mist of relaxation moves down your arms now, allow your arms to feel nice and heavy, like they're made of marble. As the mist of relaxation moves down into your palms, into your fingers, everything feeling heavy and totally relaxed. Now as you take yourself deeper and deeper tonight,

You may remain aware of some of the sounds going on around you. That's okay, because from this moment on no sound that you hear will bother or disturb you in any way. Because you're using your magic mind, all the sounds going on around you are causing you to go deeper and deeper into relaxation. You're making the decision to allow that to take you deeper. Those vibrations pulling you deeper into relaxation.

And that feels so good and so cool, fun. The only sound you're paying any attention to is the sound of my voice. And the sound of my voice is also taking you deeper and deeper. And soon the sound of my voice feels like it's just this weird river of sound in the background. As you go deeper and deeper on your own personal journey of relaxation. As you drift and float and dream.

Allow that mist of relaxation now to move down into your chest, down deep into your torso and deep into your belly so your whole torso is feeling heavy on the bed. Your pelvis feeling heavy on the bed. The muscles in your belly letting go. Your buttocks relaxing. As the relaxation moves down your legs, now allow your legs to feel nice and heavy like they're made of marble.

And the relaxation is moving down now into your feet and your toes. Everything totally relaxed. Totally relaxed. And as your body is relaxing, your mind is relaxing. And as your mind is relaxing, your body is relaxing. And as your body is relaxing, your mind is relaxing. And as your mind is relaxing, your body is relaxing.

Now I'd like you to imagine an animal next to you. Maybe it's a cat or a dog. Maybe it's a rabbit or some other type of animal that you've known in your life or have a relationship with now. It can also be an imaginary pet. Just allow yourself to choose. There's no right or wrong as long as you feel comfortable with this animal. I'd like you to reach out and touch this animal.

Feel its fur. What does it feel like? Smooth and silky or sort of thicker and a little more coarse? What color is the fur? Pet this animal like you have in the past. Feel the muscles beneath the fur and the warmth of this body. Notice any bones you may feel in the legs,

or along the spine or in the tail. Feel the paws of this animal. Now caress your pet's head. Scratch around the ears and under the chin. Look into the eyes. What color eyes does your pet have? Notice how this animal is responding to this attention. And as the animal relaxes, are relaxing.

and smell your pet. Really drink in its scent. Allow yourself to connect with this animal. As you imagine this experience, you are becoming entrained with this animal. To the subconscious mind, there is no difference between fact and fantasy. Now that you're so deeply relaxed, your imagination

feels real. And as you connect with your pet, your nervous systems are both relaxing and you are exchanging energy with one another. You trust this creature and it trusts you. There is a connection and this connection is simple but strong. No words, no thoughts,

Nothing owed or demanded or withheld. And as you relax, you are secreting your own happy chemical. You feel peaceful and safe. It feels good to connect. As you go deeper and deeper into relaxation, your pet is feeling happy too, enjoying its connection with you. If it's a cat,

You feel it purring. If it's a dog, you feel its excitement and see its tail wagging. This connection is real and profound and shared. You feel relaxed and any pent-up energy from the day is being released into the ether as you go deeper and deeper into relaxation.

Deeper and deeper, the animal is getting comfortable next to you, settling in, finding its spot and relaxing. Maybe it's in the crook of your arm or behind your legs and as your pet closes its eyes, you relax. Something inside of you lets go easily and naturally.

You connect with this animal. And as it rests, you rest. You settle into this state so easily, so comfortably. It's like there's a channel in your brain, the sleep channel. And as you see your pet sleep, you switch easily to the sleep channel in your brain. Effortlessly. It happens automatically.

With every breath you take, you're going deeper. Now that you're using sleep magic, you slip to the sleep channel in your brain more and more easily, more and more natural, quickly. You've been on the sleep channel thousands of times. It's easy to come to. It's easy to switch to the sleep channel.

And as you connect with your pet, watching them sleep, feeling them sleep, you've switched easily to the sleep channel. From now on, every time you think about this animal or feel the connection between your body and this animal, feeling its weight and its warmth, if you want to,

you will slip easily to the sleep channel. Just like the animal. It's so easy. It's so easy. By imagining the sleeping animal, you take yourself into relaxation easily. Connecting with the relaxation in the animal. Every time you imagine this animal sleeping,

you instantly go deeper and deeper and deeper. Just imagine now that the animal alerts, wakes up, looks around, stretches, changes position, and now is sinking back into the puddle of sleep, switching back to the sleep channel, going deeper and even deeper than before. You too

can alert in the middle of the night, stretch, yawn, change positions, or go to the bathroom. And then you sink back into the puddle of sleep easily and quickly, switching back to the sleep channel, going deeper and even deeper than before. It's easy. It's easy. It's easy. You move easily

and peacefully between your waking state and your sleeping state. You move seamlessly between the two states like an animal does. If you wake up in the night, you make your adjustments and relax and slip back into sleep, switching easily to the sleep channel. And every time you think about your sleeping pet,

You go deeper and deeper. Now all you have to do is think of this pet sleeping peacefully. You fall asleep peacefully as you go deeper and deeper. As you go and deeper. As you drift and float and dream.