SLEEPING, Part Two — Can I just say how much I love you guys? Thank you fo…

SLEEPING, Part Two —

Can I just say how much I love you guys?

Thank you for the fantastic, funny and caring response to my desperate plea yesterday for answers as to why I wake up in a panic every day at 5:30am. I read every single answer, and with a notebook by my side to write down all advice, which included, but was not limited to:

Meditate (WHAT DID I TELL YOU PEOPLE ABOUT THIS?)
Have sex (that's better)
Look into hormone therapy
Visit a sleep center
Stay away from electric screens at night
Check your email if you're having insomnia
Check your cortisol levels
Check your thyroid
Check into your past lives
Get heavier curtains
Write another book
Take a shower
Visit a Chinese healer to find out why your liver is imbalanced
Take a vacation (perhaps, as someone cheekily suggested, to Italy, India and Indonesia?)
Try Melatonin
Try smoking pot at night
Try Islam
Try Ayurveda
Try Valerium
Try EMDR therapy
Try the Sleep Cycle App
Try Access Bars
Read the tax code to put you back to sleep
Take a nap in the afternoon
Don't take a nap in the afternoon
Get up and eat some bacon then go back to bed (I love you Jody Aberdeen)
Accept yourself as you are
Don't accept yourself as you are
Embrace the morning
Screw the morning

You know what I love? I love the idea of trying ALL OF THIS. Because that's the exciting part of solving a problem, I find…the unthreading of it from a hundred different directions, using every bit of wisdom you can find along the way. I am so grateful, in all seriousness, for this advice. I think you are all wonderful and wise.

Mostly, though, I loved the response from Crys Galivan, who quoted to me a poem by Rumi which I had found and loved many years ago, but which somehow had slipped off the table of my memory of late. Thank you, Crys, for returning these perfect words it to me. Maybe this poem is what I have been missing for these last few wakeful years? Maybe I've been waking up so early because my heart has been searching for this poem? So here it is:

"The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don't go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don't go back to sleep!"

—Rumi

It was that line, "You must ask for what you really want", that helped to start me on the journey that ultimately became "Eat, Pray, Love." In return for all your generous help, I send out to you these words on this fine Saturday morning: "You must ask for what you really want." I hope you are all well-rested enough to honestly ask yourself what that might be…I will do the same. I will ask the same.

What I really want is to someday sleep as soundly as my cat Zipper, pictured below.

That, and world peace. And enlightenment. And bacon.

Blessings to you all!
Liz

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

A flower-festooned HAPPINESS JAR!

A flower-festooned HAPPINESS JAR!

Thank you for the inspiration!

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHO IS WAKING ME UP AT 5:30 AM? Good morning everyone! (…

QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHO IS WAKING ME UP AT 5:30 AM?

Good morning everyone! (Or good evening, other side of the world.)

I have a question.

Is there anybody else out there wakes up every single day at 5:30am, as though electrocuted or slapped? No matter what time you went to bed? Anybody else but me? Because seriously, every single morning of my life, I wake up in a flash of total shock at 5:30. No alarm clock needed. I AM the alarm clock.

WHAT'S WITH THAT?

I will admit that it is sometimes a good thing to have this clanging inner alarm when I'm actively working on a book, because that weird adrenaline rush at dawn propels me out of bed and drives me to start working. (See attached photo that my husband recently took of me working on "The Signature of All Things". Forgive the poor light, BUT IT WAS 5:30 IN THE MORNING.)

But mostly, I am not working on books all the time.

And mostly? I would love to sleep in one of these days. I would love to not wake up with a sore jaw from grinding my teeth in sleep anxiety as the dawn approaches. I would love to wake up relaxed, like "Ah…another sweet day…" I would love to not wake up sometimes at 5:35 with the panicked thought, "OH MY GOD, I'M ALREADY 5 MINUTES LATE!!!"

But five minutes late for what, Liz? Five minutes late for waking up five minutes earlier? For no reason? Because I am SELF-EMPLOYED, my friends! I am not a nursing mother! I don't need to be waking up at 5:30am!

Sometimes I think my early morning freak-out is just a residual panic from having been raised on a farm, and from having generations of farmers in my past. Maybe it's imprinted into my DNA: "WAKE UP, GODDAMN IT, OR THE ANIMALS WILL DIE AND THE CROPS WITH WITHER AND YOUR CHILDREN WILL STARVE AND YOU'LL LOSE THE FARM!"

But it's kind of weird to wake up in New York City, for instance, panicking about losing farms my family no longer owns? Right?

So…any thoughts?

Love, Liz

PS — And don't you dare tell me to meditate, people. I'm serious. I don't want to see the word "meditate" in any of these responses. I could no more meditate at 5:30 in the morning during a state of total panic than I could perform an elegant ballet. I love spirituality and all, but I would be more welcoming of suggestions along the lines of, "Why not smoke some pot for breakfast, Liz?" Or whatever. Brainstorm here. You guys know stuff, right? Please share.

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall