Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign what's Worthwhile Healing Mind, Body and Spirit I'm Ramsey Zimmerman. I choose peace of mind, vitality of body, and joy of spirit over stress, exhaustion, or overwhelm. Together, let's explore and pursue the many ways to build holistic health and wellness.
[00:00:31] Hey there, it's Ramsay here.
[00:00:33] Lately I've been waking up before my alarm. Not on purpose. Around 5:20 each morning, my new dog comes over to the side of the bed and gives me the look.
[00:00:43] Not barking or whining exactly, just a steady insistent gaze and breathing.
[00:00:49] I pretend like I don't see him. He waits.
[00:00:53] Then when I so much as shift my body or open an eye, he takes that as confirmation that I am in fact awake and it's time to get up.
[00:01:01] I'm not mad exactly. He could do a lot worse. But here I am, awake before my alarm again.
[00:01:10] Dogs seem to have a much simpler relationship with sleep. They don't agonize over it. They do not count hours or track cycles or wonder if they are getting enough.
[00:01:21] They just stretch out in a patch of sun or curl up on a chair and that's that. When they're tired, they sleep. When they're rested, they get up. No drama.
[00:01:31] Humans, on the other hand, we have a much more complicated deal with sleep. Seems like the more we want it, the less we get. We look forward to it all day long, but then can't catch it. Instead laying in bed wide eyed, replaying everything that happened or imagining everything that could have been. I dream dreams but always wake up confused.
[00:01:52] We long for rest, but wrestle with how to actually find it. And when we're too worried and stressed out to sleep, then we worry and stress out about not getting enough sleep. We wonder what the lack of sleep will do to us, how we will survive the day ahead.
[00:02:07] So sleep becomes one more thing to manage, optimize and monitor. We check our health apps on our smartwatches to grade ourselves on how we did one more metric on the dashboard of our already overloaded minds.
[00:02:22] But sleep isn't supposed to be a performance.
[00:02:25] It's a process, a rhythm, a gift. Not something we can force.
[00:02:29] Falling asleep is like landing an airplane. You can't land an airplane on a driveway and expect a good outcome. But that's what a lot of us are doing at the end of the day. Sprinting through our evenings, snacking, scrolling, rushing, then collapsing into bed and expecting our bodies and minds to immediately shut down. It doesn't work that way. Sleep requires a Runway. We need to begin slowing down long before we want to fall asleep. Dimming the lights, turning off the shows, the videos, the endless pings and scrolls, stopping the snacks and alcohol a few hours before bed. Especially high carb snacks and desserts, which can spike and then crash our blood sugar, waking us up in the middle of the night. We need to give our body space to settle and give our mind space too. That might mean journaling, breathing, prayer, gratitude. Or maybe there is this ancient technology filled with hundreds of thousands of tiny printed characters arranged in intentional sequences.
[00:03:31] Fully portable, silent, has this great tactile experience where you can flip through it with your fingers, no batteries required, capable of transporting us through time and space.
[00:03:44] Yeah, books. Books are actually not lame.
[00:03:48] And finally, the best way to wake up in the morning is to fully enter the waking world with a big glass of water, deep breaths, moving and stretching. Step outside and feel the sun or the rain or the wind. Whatever the day has to offer, let your body sync with the rhythm of the world. Again.
[00:04:08] That's what I've been doing. Taking the dog outside first thing in the morning.
[00:04:12] No, come to think of it, he's been taking me out first thing in the morning. I should probably thank him. He's a good boy.
[00:04:20] And for today, that is enough.
[00:04:24] Where to Go from here? Visit whatsworthwhile.net to learn more about me, Ramsey Zimmerman. And please reach out to me and let me know what you think. I don't want this podcast to be some message in a bottle thrown out to sea. I want to hear back from you. Please send me a message or an email or hit me up on X, LinkedIn or Instagram. And please leave a rating and review for the what's Worthwhile podcast on Apple, Spotify, Iheart, or Amazon. Thanks, Sam.
