A wise person once told me to place some treasured beautiful objects in my bedroom so I would encounter them first thing upon waking. This would help entice my spirit to come back into my body after traversing the astral plane during sleep, she said. Any sensorially pleasing stimulation in the morning can act as a reminder that being in a human body is ultimately a miraculous gift. Though we can also acknowledge the struggles of existing in a human body are ubiquitous. We all experience pain and suffering, and must grapple with the truth of our physical impermanence. Any joy and pleasure we have the fortune to access will ultimately end too. Perhaps it seems easier to try and feel nothing. Constrict your body to block both pain and pleasure, or check out. Plenty of people live their whole lives like this, though as Mary Oliver wrote, “Joy is not made to be a crumb.”
For some of us, the limitlessness of the spirit realm might seem way more appealing. We may feel pulled to live there, rather than deal with the limitations and strife of this earthly plane. Unacknowledged and un-grieved deaths within our ancestral fields can also lead us to live life with at least one foot out the door of our embodied human experience.
Sometimes this manifests as a heavy weighted pull in our bodies toward the ground, as if some part of us needs to lie down with the dead who have not yet been properly honored. An imbalanced pull towards the spirit realm might also manifest as an ungrounded, diffuse, spaciness. In either direction, a person is not living into the full “yes” of their life.
I’m offering this morning meditation for people who have an inkling they might need some extra help coming back from the astral plane into embodied presence. If you find it supportive, I encourage you to use it as soon as possible once you wake up in the morning. This transition from sleep to waking is precious, and the more consciousness and intention we can bring to it the better.
Additional suggestions for pleasurable sensorial morning stimulation include drinking your favorite tea; using essential oils; putting on your favorite robe; playing a favorite song; gentle movement or dance; self or partner massage.