Jessica Porter (0:11)

Hi, I'm Jessica Porter, and welcome back to Sleep Magic, a podcast where I help you find the magic of your own mind, helping you to sleep better and live better. Hi, everybody. Thank you for being here. Tonight's episode is dedicated to a listener who reached out to tell us a very personal story. Her name is Sandy, and she's from Alabama, and she was recently in the hospital with an issue. I won't go into details, but the doctors wanted to do a certain procedure, but before they did, she asked her husband to go get her cell phone, and she put on Sleep Magic. So she relaxed really, really deeply, which is what we're all practicing here every night. And the issue she was having with the rhythm of her heart resolved itself, and the nurses came into the room so excited to see that she had turned it around by herself. And thank you so much, Sandy, for letting us know. Like, wow. I am always so happy and humbled to hear stories like that, because it's really about the power of our minds, the power of relaxation, and fundamentally, the power of nature that we tap into when we allow ourselves to come back into balance with it. I mean, we're not gods, and we can't do everything. And I don't want this story to be some idea that relaxation fixes everything, but we are much more powerful than we know, and when we relax, things generally get better. So thank you, thank you. Thank you, Sandy, for showing us the magic of your own mind and the power of relaxation. I'm so grateful for your health and grateful that you reached out. If you have a story you'd like to share about relaxation and the practice you've picked up here and how you use it in your life, please feel free to share. You can write a review on whatever platform you're on. You can reach out to me on my website or through Instagram. And I really, really always love hearing these stories. So thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. Thank you, Sandy. Before we get started, let's hear a quick word from our sponsors who make this free content possible. Have you ever gone through something like a breakup, burnout, big life stuff, and thought, I wish I had someone to talk to, someone trained to really help? I've been there. And what I love about Rula is, is that they've made therapy so much easier to access, especially when it feels hard to start. Rula is a healthcare provider, not just an app, and they help match you with a licensed therapist who takes your insurance. You can schedule sessions that work for you, sometimes as soon as the next day and the average cost is just $15 per session. And Rula doesn't stop at matching you. They check in, support your progress, and really stay with you on your mental health journey. So if therapy has been on your mind, or if you've ever thought I could really use someone to talk to, this is your sign. Thousands have already trusted Rula to support them on their journey toward improved mental health and overall well being. So head on over to rula.com sleepmagic to get started today and after you sign up, they'll ask you where you heard about them. So please support our show and tell them Sleep Magic sent you. Go to r u l a.com sleepmagic and take the first step towards better mental health today. You deserve quality care from someone who cares. This is the way it feels to move through summer in Lululemon iconic aligned softness. Without the front seam for our smoothest look and feel ever, Summer won't know what hit it. Stretch your limits in the nonstop flexibility of the new Lululemon Align no line pant in select stores and@lululemon.com and speaking of gratitude, tonight we're talking about the power of gratitude. If you've been listening to Sleep Magic for a while, you know I'm a bit of a gratitude junkie. I even made a little podcast during the pandemic to help myself feel okay. To help myself keep my head on straight. All about gratitude. And my relationship to gratitude isn't some Pollyanna ish attitude or virtue. I mean, I love dark dramas and weird crime documentaries and I can swear like a sailor at times. But what I've learned over the years is that gratitude is powerful. It's a tool, an extremely simple yet potent one for increasing the overall quality of one's life. It's also cheap, easy, and always available. I mean, who needs expensive vacations when you have gratitude? Well, technically you can have both, but you know what I'm saying. So we all have minds, and they're buzzing around inside of us all day whether we like it or not. They even buzz when we're asleep. And most of us don't really think about harnessing that buzz or directing our own minds. So instead we let our minds just react to what's outside of us and we're at the mercy of the news or that annoying person at work, or our own fears and bad memories. So the mind sort of drags us around and we can be dragged down by all of that. And we wait around for something good to happen, hoping that it will make us feel more positive, but it only lasts as long as that external thing does, and often not even that long. In fact, over time, our minds, if we don't direct them, can turn something good into something negative relatively quickly. But we can always take back our minds. And the two most powerful things we can do to take back our minds is A, slow them down, and B, direct them. Because wherever you point your mind, your life follows. So when we slow down our minds and direct them toward gratitude, our whole body begins to feel good, which obviously feels good. And when we feel good, we tend to attract and create good things in our lives. It's a positive cycle. I know it sounds super simple and it is easy, but the continual aiming of our minds in a positive direction takes willingness and commitment. It's a practice. But one of the great lessons I learned when I did that little podcast during the pandemic was that simply hearing someone else describe the things they're grateful for elicits good feelings in the listener. You don't even have to think this stuff up yourself. So that's what we're doing tonight. I'm going to tell you what I love about summer, and it will help you to feel good. And if your mind wants to remind you of what you love about summer, or join with me in that appreciation, it will, and it will feel good. And what a fantastic way to end the day. So get yourself into a safe and comfortable position, and let's begin. Allow your eyes to close easily and gently as you bring your awareness to your breath. Your awareness, which has been outside of you all day, doing things, thinking things. Your awareness is your mind. That little laser beam of your mind moving around all day. And now, just as I was saying before, we're gonna slow it down, bring it home, and ultimately direct it. So as you allow your awareness to come back first to your breath, just hanging out on the wave of your breath, it's beginning to slow down. Good. As you bring your awareness now up into your eyelids and imagine that your eyelids are feeling very relaxed and sleepy and heavy. As you allow this heaviness to take over your eyelids, I'd like you to imagine that this heaviness, this sleepiness in your eyelids is very, very heavy. So heavy you cannot open your eyes. And in a moment, I'm going to ask you to test your eyes to make sure you can't open them. And if you're new here, we're just pretending. I want you to pretend you can't open your eyes. I know you could if you wanted to. So Testing your eyes is wiggling your eyebrows, just letting them move around while your eyes remain closed. So now pretending your eyes can't open, let's wiggle your eyebrows. Just for a minute, a second. Really good. And now you can relax again. It's this wonderful relaxation around your eyes. It feels so nice, that heaviness. So this lovely heaviness that you have around your eyes is the same quality of relaxation you will soon have throughout your entire body. In fact, let's begin directing this relaxation. And in a moment, I'm going to ask you to take a few nice deep breaths. And with every exhalation, I'd like you to imagine this wonderful relaxation around your eyes, moving back into your head and then whooshing down your entire body, just letting it sweep down and through your body, all the way to your toes. And again, we're just pretending. But we can move the relaxation around just by pretending. So let's take that first nice deep breath. And now imagine the relaxation moving all the way down your body, all the way down into your toes. Good. And I want you to be able to breathe at your own rate. We'll do two more breaths at your own rate. For me, it's an inhalation. And now imagining that wonderful relaxation moving all the way down my body, all the way down, up to my toes. Good. And now one more time at your own pace and imagining that relaxation moving all the way down the body, all the way down to the toes. Good. See, as you slow down your mind, as you direct your mind, you can do anything you want. Good. So allow your head to feel nice and heavy on the pillow. As the muscles of your face are softening and letting go. And your shoulders are melting into the bed. Just let your shoulders melt. Just give them permission to let go. Let go of the responsibilities that they carry during the day. Whether you know it or not. All the stuff you're carrying in the world, just let it all fall to the floor and you can pick it up in the morning. But for right now, you're free. You're free. As you embark into this natural experience of sleep. Just as every creature lets go into sleep, you're allowed to let go. It's okay to let go. As the relaxation moves down your arms. And your arms are feeling nice and heavy. Hands, fingers feeling heavy. And you notice that the relaxation is causing your torso to relax deeply into the mattress. Muscles you may hold in your belly during the day are softening and relaxing. The muscles of your back are taking a nice, well deserved rest. As you Imagine the relaxation now inside of you, spiraling around your heart. Just imagine a mist of relaxation surrounding and supporting your heart. It feels so nice to hold your own heart as all emotional tension disappears, as the relaxation moves down your legs now, and your legs are feeling nice and heavy, heavy like marble. And the heaviness is moving down into your feet and your toes. And any sounds that are going on around you are simply taking you deeper and deeper into this wonderful, soft, safe relaxation, just as the sound of my voice is taking you deeper and deeper. Good. I am grateful for raspberries. When I was a kid, I went to summer camp in northern Ontario, and there always came a time in late July that the raspberry bushes would explode with ripe berries. My friends and I, in between whatever activities had been planned, would sneak off the trails hunting for them. And it was a type of hunt. Scanning through the light green leaves to spot that bright crimson orb made from tinier orbs. I remember pulling them easily from the bush and sticking them straight into my mouth. They were soft and had a lovely combination of sweetness and tartness. Some looked perfect and some were a little disheveled. But they all tasted fantastic, their tanginess heightened by the thrill of our hunt for them. Every time I see raspberries now, the good feelings of those hot days at summer camp come back. I'm grateful for raspberries. I'm grateful for late evening light. I love that the evenings come late in the summer, the day stretching like a cat in the sun. It feels like there are endless possibilities. I love starting dinner late and eating at twilight. I'm grateful to feel relaxed and warm all day for the extra time to walk and relax and just be. I think the days lasting longer gives a signal to my brain and my body that it's safe to relax, that time is abundant, the sun is abundant, my brain gets plenty of light, and there's enough light for everyone. I'm grateful for late evening light. I'm grateful for the sound of the crickets, their hum playing like the soundtrack to the summer. I love the pulse of their sound. It's rhythmic and ancient. And it's not only a sound. Crickets create a feeling, a buzz, and it brings us all together in their vibration, whether we know it or not. There's a magic in the crickets, and I love that the cricket sound often goes unnoticed. They sneak up on us and just do their thing behind the scenes. And even though they are the backdrop of summer, they are affecting us nonetheless, like we're affected by the sounds, the waves Against a beach or the whisper of the wind. We are moved by these sounds. They not only enter our ears, they enter our bodies and we align with them. We are part of a whole. Grateful for the sound of the crickets. I'm grateful for the grass. I love the feeling of my bare feet on the grass. I like touching the cool blades of grass, soft and slightly waxy, and they reconnect my body to the earth. I love sitting down on the grass and smelling its distinct scent. Reaching out and touching it, grabbing it, playing with it, even tearing some of it, and smelling it in my fist. The grass of summer is soft and welcoming, and there's so much of it, thousands of blades of grass in every square foot. Nature is so abundant. I'm grateful for the grass. I'm grateful for a beautiful, beautiful slice of fresh watermelon. Mmm. I love its almost neon pink color against its bright green rind and that strip of white in between. And, of course, its elegant black seeds. It's a beautiful design. I love slicing into a big, heavy watermelon. The sound of the knife entering like a drum. I love the texture of watermelon. It is unique among the melons. Sort of grainy and watery. My mouth can't catch it politely. It always leads to a bit of a messy experience, the juice dribbling down my chin. It's a food that says, let go. Join the fun. I found a recipe with once for watermelon soup. It contained cold watermelon chunks, some apple juice, ginger and fresh mint, all pureed in a blender and then chilled in the fridge for an hour. That soup is so cooling and relaxing, such a perfect balance to a hot summer day. The body just surrenders to it and smiles. It should be called smile soup. I'm grateful for watermelons. I am grateful for summer thunderstorms. I love the way the air changes, becomes electric before the storm. How the heat builds, the sky turns gray, and then the rain falls hard and fast, cooling everything. I love watching the lightning, never knowing where it will appear and the cracks of thunder that follow. I love watching nature's drama. It reminds me that life is full of surprises. I love the smell of the rain on the earth after the storm. I love the feeling afterwards, like we've all been cleansed in some way. I'm grateful for summer thunderstorms. I'm grateful for sleeping with the windows open in the summer, especially up at my family's cottage in Ontario. An open window brings in the circulation of air from the forest and all the smells that it carries. I love hearing the sounds from outside and feeling connected with to nature and yet protected from it. I hear the call of a loon and the creaking of the trees and the very gentle night waves kissing the shore of the lake. They're just a whisper. I'm grateful for sleeping with the windows open at night. I'm grateful for the shade. I have fair skin and I haven't sat out in the sun to get a tan since I was a teenager. And that never worked anyway. There's something so luxurious, so perfect about the shade. Under a big tree or under a beach umbrella, I can enjoy the sun without being in it. The temperature is lower, like natural air conditioning. The shade feels good. Glamorous and mysterious and romantic. What would summer be without shade? I'm grateful for the shade. I'm grateful for picnic tables. They have such a simple design that works perfectly. I love the wood they're made of and finding the messages other people have carved into them. I love spreading them with a feast. Sandwiches, salad, corn on the cob, on paper plates and feeling connected to the people next to me and across from me. There's no pretense at a picnic table, no hierarchy, no rules to be followed. I'm grateful for picnic tables. I'm grateful for campfires with their sparks rising up into a dusky sky. Everyone sitting around on logs, feeling the heat on their faces, the fire glowing against their cheeks and reflected in their eyes. Watching a campfire is so hypnotic and peaceful and the crackle of the burning wood sounds so nice. I love the smell of the smoke. I love roasting marshmallows over the fire on sticks. I like the charred skin of a burnt marshmallow and sliding it off itself, soft and melty center, licking my sticky fingers. Such a simple thing that gives such happiness. I'm grateful for campfires. I'm grateful for lakes, especially swimming in lakes. Ontario has over a quarter million lakes and in the summertime they soak up the sun. The cities of Canada empty into the lakes in the summer and people bust out their canoes and rowboats and speedboats. Lake swimming is nice because the water isn't salty. From a canoe looking down into the lake, it can look greenish or brownish or blue. But dip in a cup and it comes out crystal clear. Where my family goes, the lake water can get almost warm, especially later in the summer. There's a nice smell to lake water. A little seaweedy, a little muddy, but soft and inviting. It takes me a while to get into the lake, unlike the Kids who just jump off the dock. I take my time walking in from the shore, letting the water slowly move up my body until finally I slip in and feel the delightful weightlessness and slowed down movement in the water. I feel safe and held. The sun reflects off the water into my eyes. I close my eyes and take a nice deep breath. I hear the kids splashing nearby. I submerge my head and the sounds change all around. Softer, deeper bubbles moving up. And then I come out and my hair is plastered to my head and shoulders and the air feels so light and I lie back and float. I'm grateful for lake swimming in the summer. I'm grateful for ripe peaches. They have fuzzy skin and golden flesh with flecks of red and the skin basically slides off. Peaches remind me of my step grandmother who came from Hungary. Her name was Maria and she was a tiny elegant woman, like a princess. She always wore her hair in a bun and I remember her always standing at the big window at the cottage working on a puzzle. She was endlessly patient with puzzles and completed really difficult ones. I met Maria when I was five and over the years she taught me things like a dumbed down version of bridge, double solitaire and how to cut a peach. I remember her showing me like it was yesterday. It was in the middle of the summer up at the cottage, just when the Ontario peaches were coming in. I watched her as she did it. With her small hands and manicured nails she held the peach like a globe and made a deep slice along the north south meridian all the way into the pit. And once the knife had hit the pit, she maintained the pressure and twisted the peach so that the knife sliced all the way around, slicing from the North Pole to the South Pole and back to the North Pole. Then she turned the peach 90 degrees and did the same thing again. So the peach was cut into quarters but the flesh still attached to the pit. Finally she turned the peach and made a similar slice along its equator, going all the way around. Now the peach had eight sections, all sliced evenly and perfectly. And with just a little bit of pressure, pressure from her fingers, they all dropped off the pit. Perfect bite sized chunks of ripe peach. Sweet, juicy and delicious. I think of Maria every time I cut a peach. I'm grateful for Maria and for peaches. I'm grateful for hammocks. There is a hammock at our cottage strung between two trees right off the path between the cabin, the lake. When I swing in this hammock I look up at the canopy of maple trees their branches swaying gently in the breeze. I am far enough from the cabin to enjoy my privacy, but close enough to hear the opera my father is playing. I'm close enough to the lake to see its silvery surface between the trees and to hear the swimmers, but far enough away that I am undisturbed. I love the gentle sway of a hammock, so easy, so primal and hanging above the ground. It's like being in the woods without touching down on the earth. I'm grateful for hammocks. I'm grateful, grateful for naps in the summer. Sometimes the days are almost too long. There's so much to do. And yet my body is also slowed down by the heat, soothed by the season. So I love lying down in the afternoon and letting my whole body relax. I turn off my phone, close the door, turn out the lights, bring down the shades because it's so bright outside. And I let go. I close my eyes and my mind is soft and warm and ready for this pause. And as I go deeper and deeper, my body becoming loose and limp like a rag doll, my mind sinks deeper and deeper into that warm summer place inside of me. And I let go. I just let go, knowing that the summer is holding me, that there is more life to be lived, more sensations to be enjoyed. But for this moment, I let go. As I drift and float and dream it, it, it, it.