Are you afraid of the dark?
The longer nights of fall and winter, for most parts of nature, encourages hibernation and more rest to prepare for spring.
Fall and winter are times to reap and to rest.
But our society doesn’t allow us to adjust properly to seasonal shifts. Work hours, for example. don’t change with the seasons, and aligning with unnatural schedules of society instead of with seasonal schedules, can cause or worsen seasonal depression.
It doesn’t help that so many in this society are afraid of the dark.
I know I have avoided wearing black because I was taught dark colors absorb negative energies, while light colors reflect them.
But during this time of year, I’m realizing how integral darkness is. No, not darkness - like anything "vile" or "evil." Darkness being associated with evil is an inversion.
I'm talking about a darkness similar to the depths of soil that nourishes a seed.
I'm talking about a darkness similar to you finally, after a long day, being able to close your eyes to rest.
The long nights... the darkness of winter is critical for restoration, regeneration, and transmutation.
The Importance of Sleep
Anagram for dream is RAMed🐏, a nautical term meaning having the frame, stem, & sternpost adjusted.
This is exactly what happens during a good nights rest.
Your body rejuvenates, heals, processes, and prepares for a new day. Sleep is critical for restoration, regeneration, and healing.
But one thing restorative sleep needs? Magnesium.
Magnesium is required for over 300 bodily functions.
Magnesium activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for keeping you relaxed - I discuss this more in this article. By calming this system, magnesium can prepare the body for sleep.
Your body also needs magnesium to produce and regulate melatonin. Melatonin is the sleep hormone, and is critical to the body’s sleep-wake cycle and according to our body’s internal clock or circadian rhythm.
Ensuring your diet has a healthy amount of magnesium on a daily basis can help alleviate multiple imbalances in the body.
You can also supplement with topical magnesium.
Spraying aromatherapy magnesium oil at the bottom of your feet can help encourage better sleep, while also helping reduce menstrual cramps or muscle pain from a tough workout.
You could also soak your feet or your whole body in a bath of aromatherapy magnesium salts to help you have more restful sleep.
Because bright lights can delay the release of melatonin and throw off your body’s circadian rhythm, you should also avoid being on your phone or similar device late at night for most restful sleep.
Try these before opting for melatonin, or sleeping pills and see if you notice a difference on your quality of sleep.
Deeper Than Sleep
While sleep is important for rest and rejuvenation, the brain is actually very active during sleep.
NREM is critical for storing, solidifying, and strengthening new information received when awake. REM helps to connect the new with the old, making connections with experiences with new learnings.
This is why dreams can often have an interesting blend of old places and people with new concepts and understandings. It is critical for ideation and can help your ability to problem solve.
While we sleep, spinal fluid washes toxins from the brain. This spinal fluid is made in lateral ventricles of the brain (which coincidentally look like ram horns).
Main function of cerebral spinal fluid is provide buoyancy to the central nervous system so each part remains without excess waste.
Beyond the physical aspects of this, there is a esoteric meaning to this process of removing waste to be buoyant.
Buoyant means to be light-hearted, to float, to be resilient. It reminds me of the story of Ma’at, who weighs hearts to see if they are light as a feather.
We want to be free of excess weight. We want to be free of unnecessary emotions, undeserved guilt, weighted shame. We cannot float, we cannot be resilient, we cannot be light as a feather if we are bound to things we must let go of.
Our goal is to find the true dream state. This is the net zero, the balanced heart that is light as a feather.
We find this state when we are free of debts, guilts, shame, and doubts.
If you are too afraid of the dark, how will you have the power to let go of what is weighing you down? If you are too afraid of the dark, how will you have access the power to neutralize, to remove, to let things rest?
Don’t be afraid of the dark. Don’t be afraid of the winter.
Embrace this time of rest, short days, and longer nights.
Use the darkness to find your net zero, your inert state of balance, so you stay buoyant.
Dream Time Playlist:
Enjoy the longer nights by mixing some of these dreamy tunes into your nightime mix!
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Kaleidoscope Dream, Miguel
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The Night Song, Ravyn Lenae
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Dim The Lights, Dwele
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(A Dream, DeBarge
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Curious, Midnight Star)
