FRIDAY PRACTICE Breathe || A Breath Prayer for When You Can’t Sleep

There have been a few times recently where I woke up in the middle of the night and then struggled to fall back asleep.

The problem? My mind was whirring. One time my brain was focusing on conversation I needed to have about a potential conflict and started running (largely unrealistic) scenarios. More often, my thoughts have been occupied with details of projects I’m working on or things I needed to get done.

When I caught myself in an unproductive cycle, I forced myself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then I turned to this breath prayer as a way of entrusting my worries and preoccupations to the Divine..

As I inhaled deeply, I thought:

IN TRUST,

As I exhaled slowly, I thought:

I GIVE THIS TO YOU.

I repeated that pattern as long as it took to slow my heart rate, calm my mind, and feel the heaviness of sleep in my body. 

I’ve been using this at night, but you can use it any time you want to quiet your whirring, preoccupied brain.

🌱What keeps you awake at night?

🌱What do you do to help yourself fall back asleep?

I’d love to hear your responses.👇 Drop them in the comments so we can either commiserate or encourage each other.