If You Havent Slept Well Since November

[babylonsister]

https://johnpavlovitz.com/2017/09/29/havent-slept-since-november/

If You Haven’t Slept Well Since November
September 29, 2017 / John Pavlovitz


snip//

I didn’t sleep well on November 9th—and I haven’t slept well since. I’ve either found myself struggling to fall asleep wondering whether Trump will Tweet us into nuclear annihilation; awakened during the middle of the night, terrified of sick people I love losing their healthcare; or shaken awake in the morning by the sickening thought that “Yes, that monster is actually the President,” and freshly grieving that my children have to see him at all.

Each day seems to bring another real or manufactured emergency, tearing through our latest attempt at normal and demanding our immediate, undivided attention. Each night we put our heads on the pillow alongside a heavy sense of dread and sadness. We are fully and perpetually tired.

And this is all by design. This is how terrorists work. They rely on unpredictability, on continually creating chaos, on altering routine, on robbing their targets of safety, stability, and mental rest until they relent. It’s impossible to sustain a level of urgency required to combat all the sewage we are immersed in without losing our minds—and so we need to step out of it for sanity’s sake.

This is why, as we fight these repetitive atrocities, as we rally against legislative nightmares and civil rights violations, as we pushback against the relentless flood of horrible—we need to fight for ourselves. We need to guard our bodies, our minds, and our souls, because that is the one war we cannot afford to lose. When we’re no longer fully available to the people who love us, when we’re too tired to create or laugh or feel joy, when we become hopeless and bitter—the terrorists have won.

snip//

It’s okay to be exhausted.

It’s alright to be weary and frustrated and burned out; to admit when you’re too tired to keep going and you need to step away and pause and breathe. That’s the way you survive and outlive your terrorists: by refusing to become as miserable as they are.

Today, maybe give yourself the gift of logging out, of shutting down, of not fighting; of taking some time to paint, take your dog to the park, or lay in the grass and watch the clouds. It isn’t irresponsible to do this and it doesn’t mean you aren’t compassionate or woke or invested—it’s caring for your soul and yourself and those around you, so that you’ll be here for a long time.

If you haven’t slept since November, get some sleep. Others will fight for you while you do. That’s how this works. We carry each other through these days.

Yes, sometimes you need to change the world—and sometimes you need to take a nap.

Maybe today, do the latter.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

1. Yep. Here I am on the East Coast Saturday morning, not up early,

just haven't been to bed yet. I've always had a very hard time getting to sleep and waking up at normal hours, but since November, it's been a walking nightmare.

Still, I'm going to heed the advice and go lay down and listen to an audiobook (escapist, not political.) Maybe I'll catch a few hours of rest. Thanks for the post.

[babylonsister]

2. Great! And don't forget...

music soothes the soul.

[LuckyCharms]

3. Big K&R. Thank you for posting. Crippling insomnia last 4 months...

Can't sleep more than 1 hour at a time, with 4 hour breaks in between sleep periods. Starting to manifest itself physically.

Never had insomnia before Trump.

[Martin Eden]

4. Yes, that monster is actually the President,

I am deeply ashamed of my country for elevating this monstrosity to the presidency and terribly concerned for the future.

I thought we reached the bottom with GW Bush, but Trump is subterranean.

[nancy1942]

5. So true.

I am just so tired.

[shenmue]

6. I've been very depressed and slept badly since then

[mountain grammy]

7. Exhausting and depressing

and it gets wose every day.