Dear Friend
Sleeping well is fundamental for healing. If you’re not sleeping well, it’s worth focusing on it right away.
As with the other 7 Lifestyle Practices, there are many ways to improve your sleep. Getting good exercise, getting off electronic gadgets a few hours before bedtime, and staying away from stimulants like caffeine especially during the second half of the day are beneficial.
Taking relaxing herbs or magnesium or melatonin or fish oil (in any combination) before bed may also help. Consult a good source on how much to take.
One important point about sleep is the power of dreams. Dreams are rightly called the royal road to the unconscious. Dreams are a powerful messaging system from the soul or the unconscious to our conscious minds. Keeping a dream journal is a truly beautiful way to learn to listen to the deep wisdom sources within each of us. It may take a while to learn to decipher the language of your dreams. But they can prove a powerful source of healing.
There’s a lot you can do to improve sleep. It’s one of the most powerful and important healing practices. So if you aren’t sleeping, I encourage you to keep working on it.
Wishing you well,
Michael
Learn more
Michael Lerner is co-founder of Commonweal and co-founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, The New School at Commonweal, and CancerChoices. He has led more than 200 Commonweal Cancer Help Program retreats to date. His book Choices In Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer was the first book on integrative cancer care to be well received by prominent medical journals as well as by the patient and integrative cancer care community.
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