WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU WAKE AT NIGHT FROM A BAD DREAM

I usually don’t have bad dreams – you know, a scary dream – where at some point you are terrified and just want to escape. Last night was an exception. I woke several times in the night with anxiety and a tight jaw.

Perhaps the first thing is to place your hand on your heart and breath until your heartbeat stops racing. Notice where you are in your room. Take in your surroundings. Relax your face. Recognize you are safe and unharmed.

DROP YOUR WEIGHT

Relax your focus. Let your eyes soften and close, imagining them dropping back onto a dark velvet cushion where they can rest. Release tension from your tongue. Let it lie on the floor of your mouth. Feel gravity taking your weight through your body towards the ground. Let your weight drop with gravity into the lowest places. Feel the form of your body on the bed while slowing your breath and breathing into your whole body. Stay in this resting state letting your thoughts drift away without holding onto them, returning to the sensations of your body. Let your weight drop without holding onto it. Check that your eyes and tongue remain soft. Feel the support of the bed so that you can release the tension of the dream into the safety of your room.

CHECK YOUR ALIGNMENT

Where is your chin, your head and neck, in relationship to your torso? Where are your legs in relationship to your torso? Is your torso twisted? Stretch into a place where you feel connected and then relax and go back to letting your weight drop into the support of the bed again.

3-DIMENSIONAL BREATHING

Experience your breath. Is your chest expanding to the front, back, and to the sides? Feel your breath slide down the throat into the chest allowing all sides to widen simultaneously. Feel the release of the breath as your chest narrows. Stay in the rhythm of expanding and releasing without effort, following the breath in and out. Feel yourself here, breathing.

 BELLY BREATHING

Place your hand on your belly. Experience your belly expanding when you breath in and falling as you breath out. Stay with the rhythm of the soft, relaxed belly responding to the breath.

RESTING YOUR MIND

Notice if your thoughts are looping. Let your thoughts drift. Let the weight of your brain drop into the skull. Imagine thoughts as clouds dissipating into the dark of night. Soften the eyes and tongue. Let your thoughts drift by without attaching to them. Or if that is too difficult, write them down so that you can let them go and not need to remember them. Imagine your resting body softening and releasing into sleep. Imagine your thoughts puddling with your weight or drifting into space.