Hushed

Style 1:

Autumn will soon take its reign,

The shift rooted within my bones. 

The wind whispers its sweet name,

Filled with craving, it aptly moans.

Cool air caresses my face,

Sneaking through the window.

Filling every inch of space,

It rests beside my pillow.

Crickets' chirping fills the air,

Their chorus ever-ceaseless.

To the world they boldly share,

Their deepest darkest secrets. 

Above, the sky softly weeps,

Her tears descend with poise.

Falling on the Sycamore leaves,

They produce a sultry noise. 

It's early morn', the world's asleep,

Dark has yet to turn to light.

Soon the sun will start to creep,

To this moment I hold tight.

Here exists neither future nor past,

No yesterday or 'morrow.

A place to attain some peace at last,

No anxiety or sorrow.

              

-b.m.

Style 2:

It's the end of summer. There's a chill in the air as the weather starts to shift. The window is wide open, allowing a cool breeze to dance around the room. It's early morning, before the sun wakes and stretches her light across the earth. Rain lightly taps on the rooftop and bounces off the leaves of the trees standing outside. The world feels soft, hushed, as though time itself has paused for a moment to savor the peace of it. Sleep could not keep me from the sensation. The aroma of serenity. Nothing else exists outside of this space, for the moment. There is no past, no future. Only present. All of the noise in my mind is quieted so that the only noise to grace my ears are the chirping crickets and soothing raindrops. 

Drip. 

Chirp.

Drop.

Chirp.

 My eyelids begin to fall. Eased into rest, I allow myself to let go. 

Let go. 

Let go. 

-b.m.

Bedtime Bliss

Good evening, Moths!

Hope everyone had a lovely Saturday! Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, which means good company and delicious food. But let's focus on the here and now and leave tomorrow where it belongs: in the future. Maybe you're a college student reading this from the comfort of your dorm room, or a mom of three unwinding from a busy day, finally getting some time to yourself. No matter where you are reading this from, or what your situation is at the moment, I think we can all agree that night time is a magical time. It's a time to reflect on everything that has happened that day without having to expend anymore energy, and a time to feed your exhaustion with delicious sleep. It's a special intermediate zone between the sweet ending of one day and the fresh beginning of another. Sleep can do wonders for the body--when you get enough of it--and it is filled with that magical (I know, I said it again!) thing called dreams. Dreams are our subconscious playing out scenes from deep within our mind where anything is possible, like a film being projected directly from our imagination. Some people can recall the most specific details from their dreams (like my mom), while others lose the memory of them as soon as their eyes open and their senses are awoken (like me). Either way, we're all dreamers. We all dream of something while we sleep, whether we remember it or not.

My eyelids are drooping just typing this post..
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One of the greatest feelings in the world is waking up in the early morning hours thinking it's around the time you need to be awake, only to find that it's three in the morning and you have several hours until your alarm will ring. I am a very restless sleeper (probably due to all of the technology I look at right before going to sleep..) and almost every night when I inevitably wake up, I check the time--I somehow always remember that time the following morning--and it's such a scrumptious feeling knowing that I can drift right back into blissful sleep. Sleep itself is such a weird thing. Our body goes into a stasis of sorts, where our breathing is low and our muscles are completely  relaxed, not needed for the coming hours. Complete darkness. Time is such an interesting component of sleep because we have absolutely no concept of it when unconscious. Similar to getting anesthetized for surgery: you count backwards from ten for as long as you can hold on, and in a blink you are awake and the surgery is over with zero recollection, in some cases of the hours it took for them to complete it. While our brain is still active, our senses are muted and the world is silenced. That statement is what makes up the difficult debate over a patient in a coma. While the physical body may be immobile, the mind still has the ability to be conscious. Can they hear someone that is speaking to them and comprehend it, but simply be unable to respond? That's an interesting discussion question, but let's leave that for another post.

Let's return to the present moment. Are your eyelids feeling heavy? Is your body sunken into the mattress beneath you? Let go. Let go of all of the stress, all of the thoughts, all of the activity that today brought. All that happened today belongs in the past and cannot be changed, no matter how much you think about it. Let it live in the past while you allow your body and mind to rejuvenate itself for the new day ahead. Let every single muscle in your body let go of any tension. What I like to do is listen to a guided mediation (for example: Guided Sleep Meditation) which I find to be highly successful in helping me to focus on falling asleep and quieting the activity of my mind. What I love about the one I attached a link to, besides his voice, is that he talks you through every muscle--from your toes all the way up to your scalp--so you can identify what parts of your body are holding the most tension, and ease them to relaxation. Everyone has their own experience when meditating, but I get this warm, almost tingly sensation that moves up through my body like a wave of comfort that simply washes over me, leaving me numb and completely at ease. He counts down from ten towards the end and I almost always fall asleep before reaching one (which I know because the next morning I can't, for the life of me, recollect what number he got to before I fell asleep). If you've never listened to a guided meditation before, I highly recommend you try implementing one into your daily regimen. The app Buddhify is my #1 favorite guided mediation supplement and it is perfect for beginners! It may feel silly at first listening to one, but they are so spiritually healing and buddhify is broken up into different categories so you can listen to one no matter what you are doing at that moment--anywhere from eating, trouble falling asleep, difficult emotions, or even walking in nature!

That's all I have for tonight, I really hope you try guided mediation for yourself if you've never done so before, especially the one I attached a link for in this post.  It's one of those things that is tailored to you, and is completely different from one individual to the next. There's no right or wrong way of doing it. Some people love it, some simply don't have the patience for it, but you can train your mind by listening to them, similar to how you train your muscles by lifting weights. If you decide to try it for the first time, comment on here and share your experience! I would love to hear how it went and how you feel about it.

***It's that magical time!!***
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Well, go on.
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Let go
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Relax
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Dream
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Sweet dreams, Moths. xoxo