Snooze

Around the last week of school, I completely screwed up my sleep schedule. It was a combination of things. The stress and anxiety of whether or not I was going to get through all of the paperwork in time and some reoccurring back pain. Not being able to simply fall asleep is miserable. Both the actual not sleeping part and the anticipation of how completely dreadful the next day is going to be. I try not lie in bed and stew in the anticipation which only leads to frustration. Instead I read, watch-tv, sort laundry, surf the web, etc, etc. During one of the sleepless nights, I accidentally unplugged my alarm clock while trying to plug in my heating pad. And I haven't plugged it back in since. Crazy, right? At least I think so. But, it's summer vacation; a perfect time for this experiment. I always read in women's magazines about respecting your body's natural sleep schedule and roll my eyes. Don't the editors realize that if women could actually make that happen they would? Do they think that we want to wake up each morning to the annoying honking of an alarm just to down a cup of coffee and race to work? Not so much.

But I get it. There is something really nice about not knowing what time it is when unable to fall asleep (or in my case, back to sleep). And not forcing myself to jump out of bed just because I glanced at the clock and felt like I was supposed to wake up. I'm not crashing at three i

n the afternoon or "resting-my-eyes" at six. I'm feeling just right. And the credit can't all go to unplugging the alarm clock.

My friend AKG is a craniosacral therapist who does amazing work with my body.

Now if you know me, CST is totally not my bag. It's a little bit out there for me. Color me surprised when I finally let AKG work on me last year and discovered the difference that it made. I have a very complicated set of circumstances that make up my body, it's aches and pains, it's weaknesses, and it's strengths. And it really overwhelms me at times, often leaving me hopeless and frustrated. It is the one area of my life that I struggle to put words to. Which is what the CST has helped me with. AKG

somehow taps into my body, listens to its needs, and translates them for me. The information that she shares always seems to validate me. Understanding pain is so elusive and something that I struggle with; to have someone understand that and talk it out with me is beyond helpful. Maybe it is the energy work that AKG does with my body or maybe it is the way in which she quiets my mind that helps me to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

My experiment comes to a close as I have company coming for the weekend and summer school starts next week, but I am a strong believer that gleaning new information is always helpful in making future decisions and choices.