Being able to access a sense of safety and calm so that you can get to sleep, even when the shit’s going down, is a very powerful skill indeed. It’s within everyone’s reach. Let me tell you about how I went from Panicked Nights to Peaceful Sleep with a guided self-soothing practice that I’m going to share with you.
I am not a naturally good sleeper, but I do need a lot of it. Even when I was growing up I always had to get up in the night to go to the loo. Post-endless disturbed nights since having kids,my nervous system is extremely sensitive. It can take very little to leave me wired, over-wrought and unable to sleep.
I know how important sleep is for everyone but for mothers it can be especially hard to come by, even once the little ones aren’t waking you up.
The cumulative physical and emotional stress of the day can leave you so wired you simply can’t switch off, and with good reason. Your system feels like it still has stuff to take care of because there are feelings begging to get out and be recognised!
So I made this audio for you to help you soothe yourself when your feelings threaten to keep you awake.
You can go straight to the audio here, or read on to find out more about how I learned how to do this.
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From Panicked Nights to Peaceful Sleep
There was a period about seven years ago when I was regularly waking in the night for a couple of hours. My father had died suddenly the year before and my mum – newly diagnosed with Parkinsons – had moved out of our family home of forty years and was staying with me temporarily.
I found the situation challenging, as I was also looking after my two young boys while my partner worked away, but it was at night that the feelings really hit home. I’d go to bed fairly fine, and pretty knackered, but around 2am I’d be wide awake, feeling panicky with a deep sense of dread.
I Had to Learn to Comfort Myself
Years before I remembered hearing some excellent advice about insomnia: if you can’t sleep, get up and do something useful.
Well, I was too upset to do anything useful in a day-to-day sense like write lists or do actual work, so I set to work in a different way. I began learning how to comfort myself. This was no mean feat.
Many of my strongest childhood memories involve being dreadfully upset while my grown ups either made fun of me or were harsh, shaming and shut down. I remember crying bitterly in the night and my parents simply ignoring me (even though I was in their room crying out to be comforted).
Healing the Mother Wound
By this time I was already immersing myself in learning about the mother wound and I knew that the healing was only going to come from learning how to comfort myself.
Now, I also enjoy allowing others to hold space for me – another way of internalising the Good Mother – through listening partnerships and this has taken me even further in this journey.
But at that point I felt too frightened of other people to open up these kinds of raw feelings in this way. It was much safer to learn to sit with myself. I had enough resources to feel that I could trust myself, at least. So for about four years, on and off, I learned that when I wake in the night, by far the best thing I could do was to get up, and comfort myself.
Eventually I realised that taking time before I go to bed to listen to how I am and tend to these feelings would ensure that I was much less likely to wake up.
The 20 Minute Audio to Guide You Through
If I’ve had a super busy day, not enough time by myself (I’m an introvert) or anything upsetting has been left unresolved, I’m very careful to tend to myself before I lie down.
If you want to have a go at this, the 20 minute audio recording guides you through the process of soothing yourself to clear anxious, panicky feelings or the over-alert state that keeps you from sleep.
You’ll find, if you do it regularly, that you’ll gradually clear out the tension, fear and anxiety which keeps you awake and the effects will carry over into the day, not just because you’re more rested, but because you’re actually emptying out your emotional “backpack” of stored-up, unprocessed stuff.
Click here to listen to the recording and start working with your body to comfort and soothe yourself, just like you’d soothe a frightened child.
Praise for Self Soothing Audio
"Thanks Alice. That audio came just at the right time when BIG stuff was arising. Managed to work through it without an LP just using the audio! Great resource! Thank you so much" – Jotipal
"Hello Alice! Just wanted to say thank you for your meditation once again! It helped me last night to calm down and sleep peacefully. More over it had the calming effect in the morning too. I am recovering from a bug and total system overload, so it helped me again, especially your soothing voice. It was like having a friend and holding your hand and just be with you through the difficult times. "
"Hi Alice, thanks again this is lovely....so warm and supportive and kind. A lovely audio full of love and integrity. Bringing a great lump to my throat listening to it."
“I slept like a log” – Jasmine
“Huge loving thank you for doing this meditation! It’s sooo soothing and kind and forgiving! I listened to it last night because I had neck ache. I slept well and was so relaxed this morning that it helped me listen to my son’s woes and cries this morning when he didn’t want to go to preschool” – Elena
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How much of this practice is enough?
For me I find that after a while there is a shift in my physiology. I’ll go from breathing very shallow to eventually sighing and then yawning a lot.
That’s when I know I’m mostly done and I can curl up again. This can happen after five or ten minutes. I’ll be completely honest, when I was learning how to do this and really going through it, I would often sit with myself for anything up to a couple of hours before I felt peaceful enough to sleep. But I always slept deeply again once I did.
I’d love you to hear this audio. It’s worth doing even if you’re not struggling with sleep. I’ve already had feedback saying that it’s really touched those who have listened, and they’ve slept like a log after.
Good sleep is so valuable but it’s also incredibly important to be able to comfort yourself when there’s conflict or things are particularly triggering in your day to do life.
Being able to access a sense of safety and calm in order to sleep, even when the shit’s going down, is a very powerful skill indeed and it is within everyone’s reach.