FlyLady - Pagan Style; Get Enough Sleep!

As you may have noticed, I have been posting the FlyLady 31 Baby Steps and my thoughts on them. I have been adding my thoughts on how cleaning your house, even the simple stuff, can be part of a spiritual devotion, and how the babysteps and the FlyLady program encourage you to think positive about yourself, your home, your habits - all to make life a little easier and better for you!

Today is Day 17 of the BabySteps! So far we have developed a few simple habits of things to do on a daily basis; in the form of simple morning & evening routines. Our goal is to make these routines a habit... if we do them consistently enough then they just become second nature!

Morning Routine

• Make Your Bed!
• Get up and get dressed to lace-up shoes; fixing your hair and face
• Look at your posted reminders in the kitchen and bathroom.
• Recognize the negative voices and change them. Remember, you are FLYing now!
• Put out your Hot Spots for two minutes
• Five-minute Room Rescue (pick any room in the house). Set your timer and go!
• Spend 15 Minutes decluttering each day. You can’t organize clutter!

Before-Bed Routine

• Keep your sink shining
• Lay out your clothes for tomorrow
• Put out your Hot Spot. It will make you happy in the morning!
• Go to bed at a decent hour!  Set a bedtime and stick with it!

For day 17, FlyLady wants us to think about how much sleep we are getting.  If we stay up too late and don't get enough sleep, we aren't doing ourselves any favors!  I know this is something a lot of adults struggle with.  For me, I tend to stay up late because after the kids go to bed is the only time I really get to myself!  Yet as much as I resist the idea, I know that getting a better night's sleep would be beneficial for my health!  I thought it was ironic that the "Motivational Essay" I just posted for yesterday's babystep was also about getting enough sleep!  Wait, not ironic... but obvious now that the Universe is sending me a message that I need to get more sleep!

From a Pagan/Witchy perspective, I think our time spent sleeping, in itself is a magickal thing.  It is a time for our bodies to heal and rejuvenate.  It is a time for our mind to rest.  It is a time for our spirit to be free!  Many magickal things can happen to our spirit while we sleep!  We can receive special dreams, we can have visits from loved ones or astrally travel to different places (even if we don't remember those, they happen!)  We sometimes receive spiritual lessons from our angels and spirit guides in our sleep!  Again, we might not remember these... it's like a file was downloaded to our system and then once we are awake, we have to be open enough to receiving the message before we can find the file!  Otherwise the "file" is stored for when we are ready!
If we aren't giving our self enough time asleep, what might we be missing?!
Last year I read this amazing book, called The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep.  It deals with some more complex aspects of Buddhism and Yoga, but it's written in a way that is easy to understand and gives some great insights as to how important our sleep cycles are and how to make our sleep cycles a part of our spiritual practice.

Here is a great video by the author of the above mentioned book!

I know as a Pagan, it's hard to set a regular bedtime also because so much of our ritual work is done at night time!  We wait until the moon has risen high in the sky to get the full energy effect of some of our rituals!  For Pagans, our spiritual time isn't at 10 am on Sunday mornings!  It's anytime.... but preferably at night for many reasons!!  So sticking to a regular bedtime just isn't part of our spiritual path... and that's okay!  The key here is to forgive yourself on the nights you DO stay up late, but on the nights you don't have to stay up, don't!  Don't just stay up late for no reason!  Recognize that sleep can be a magickal time as well as the times you are awake, invoking the moon!
Getting yourself on a regular sleep schedule can be hard!  But if you are consistent, you can reset your inner clock.  Part of what's great about the FlyLady routines is that you develop a routine of things you do before bed.  Once those routines are done consistently, your body knows that when these things are done, it's time for sleep!  Even if you don't do your before bed routine, just consistently going to bed and getting up at the same times will help you retrain your body, mind, and spirit!  I found this excellent article with some very practical tips on how to get enough sleep, it is worth looking at to see if you can make some changes that will help you fall asleep easier!
http://healthylifejournal.org/healthy-living/how-to-get-enough-sleep-at-night/