(video 4:26m) In his book, Restful Sleep, Deepak Chopra mentions that when we lay down to sleep the mind and body will bring up all of the things from the day that haven’t been finished… All of the thoughts & feelings you haven’t had time to complete are brought to the surface for finishing. Interrupted conversations, unsent emails, brainstorming ideas, unfinished emotions, aching muscles needing stretching all rise to the surface. Instead of falling asleep, you get going!

This is the opposite of what you want when you want to go to sleep and yet it is natural and best of all, if you relax and just let it happen, all of this will complete and then you can go to sleep.

I realized as I was reading this idea that this happens when we stop to meditate as well. We pause to get calm and instead, our minds race, our emotions well up and our aches and pains come to the fore. We want calm and we get chaos.

As soon as we realize that this is a natural part of resting, this processing of everything that needs to be unwound before we can relax, we can relax as it happens knowing that it will soon be over. If we fight it, getting upset that we’re not getting calm, we’ll be adding more fuel to the fire… we’ll be increasing the amount of thoughts and emotions that are happening and we’ll never relax!

Next time you pause to meditate, and your mind starts racing, notice if it is your mind unwinding and letting go of whatever it needs to let go of so that it can rest. If so, see if you can relax and allow that process happen. If you can, I imagine you will get calm much faster!

Enjoy your practice whatever happens!