Be Still and Know by Coach Faith

My journey with sleep has been a long one. My relationship with sleep, a complicated one.

I have tried remembering how I slept in my youth as a child, only vaguely recalling that in early adolescence I had developed headaches that were frequent enough that I concocted a visualization method in my mind to cope with them, at twelve. As I moved into high-school they seem to have gone dormant until returning with a vengeance after having my 2nd child. As a mother, the idea of needing to 'address sleep' really was not on my radar. Even prior to having children, I can recall my career drive in both the airline industry and corporate world having me proud to 'run on fumes' most of the time, working 60-70 hour weeks, traveling and burning the wick from both ends and feeling almost a thrill in doing so.

Having children should have been my nudge to slow it down, in some ways it did, in others I continued to keep that over-achiever mindset. Determined to still be 'on top' of everything while nursing and growing and developing tiny humans. Always the first one up, and the last one to bed, my 'drive' was really a form of control, the compulsive need for control is very much a sign of fear/anxiety, no matter how 'self sacrificing' the wrapping paper it comes in. The concept of taking care of me just wasn't there. I even took the thing I was doing to fill my cup, my yoga practice, and turned that into a profession, turned it into an obligation. The irony of that pathology is not lost on me!

Hindsight can be a humbling companion.

Fast-forward to more than ten years of broken sleep, a plate always full of obligations and responsibility, my 'fixer' brain was always taking on new problems to solve. Creating solutions inspires and motivates me, and without that motivation kept in check, it turns into obsessive behavior. I don't believe I had slept more than 4-5 hours in a single stretch in the span of a decade, and no matter what I did to my diet, my level of movement or activity, my health was deteriorating. Fast.

Since October of 2020 my mindset has shifted from that of over-correction to a seeker of rest. This is not a straight line of growth, taking a life-long momentum and bringing it to a halt was impossible, but I can honestly and gratefully look now and see that sleep and stress were the key to my undoing as well as the key to my healing.

After spending nearly two full years with my primary focus being on sleep hygiene, stress management and healing of my adrenal and endocrine systems, I can say with full confidence : The Ultimate Key to Sound Sleep is to seek out Peace. You can tweak a dozen environmental contributors and move the needle in big ways, many of these methods are woven into our Empowered Living Rebuild program and without those steps and practices I would definitely not been able to find my way here. The thing about true rest is, if you aren't at peace, you are never going to find it.

I sit here today and can smile at my former hectic, frantic mindset of doing and achieving and 'fixing'. Every step in my life has brought me to this moment I am in, I would not change any of it. What would I whisper in the ear of that girl I was running around seeking that all she needs is to be still in the knowledge that peace comes from knowing truth, and that is the key to everything. That is the reality that provides true rest.

-- Faith