The Twilight Zone

DEAD CALM

The dead of night comes in that quiet time, at around 1-3am. When most are deep in sleep, the conscious and subconscious mind will be working on the events of the day to make sense of them, categorising and storing fresh memories. It's also known as the twilight zone.

“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.”

While The Twilight Zone is also an American TV series that ran from 1958-2003, it is also a time in the still of night when we can wake from sleep feeling confused, anxious, afraid or sometimes, if we're fortunate, calm and with a clarity of thought that helps us to make sense of the moments we've missed or misunderstood from the day. This can even bring up regressed and forgotten thoughts from much deeper in our past too. These 'penny dropping' moments can bring about life-affirming revelations and wisdom. Often, any troubling thoughts/problems we've been dealing with on a subconscious level, can rise to the surface where we 'discover' them. This phenomena occurs while our conscious mind and ego - which has been masking these thoughts, is dozing, and therefore at that moment unable to hide them from us any longer.

We need good quality sleep to allow the brain to function well working on these subconscious thoughts and without the intervention of our ego. Sleep runs in cycles where we allow deep sleep and REM sleep to help make the necessary repairs to body & mind. Having adequate time for quality sleep, will allow us feel physically rested and help to sort information/store memories for better brain function. 

According to Chinese Meridian Medicine, our bodies also have times in the day when our organs make repairs. It's around 1-3am that the liver will purge itself. Hence why eating certain types of food or drinking alcohol, can affect our sleep patterns and why we sometimes find ourselves awake in the dead of night feeling anxious.

Fears & Confirmations

It's ok to come out of our sleeping cycles, providing we can get back to sleep again. Eating certain foods can incite more lucid dreams or wake us to an altered and hyper aware enlightened state. Identifying the right foods for creating a peaceful and wise mind state, will help connect with the subconscious like I did in this most recent experience. Last night, after a light meal of grilled Salmon and stir fried vegetables (which contained fresh chilli's - a stimulant), I woke to some thoughts that have been playing over in my subconscious. 

Exactly a week ago after consuming a lot of alcohol, I woke at this time but with bouts of anxiety. But on this occasion, when I woke, my mind was calm and clear. I realised that my fears of last week - the fears of:

– Not being able to take this year's daily findings which I've learned about myself, anywhere beyond this blog - ie. successfully pass on to others and write a book. 

– How my friends and family are perceiving me - all waiting patiently for something amazing to materialise from this exercise or my return to the previous life - one of normality and conformity.

My fear of failure. The fear which stops us from even trying. That voice which says 'Who are you?' and what makes YOU so special? These fears, are still there with me - as they will also be with you too. They are the same fears that faced me at 5am with a blank page on the first day of 2015 and have whispered to me every morning since - yet I have continued to take the blind steps every day into the unknown.

So my calming thoughts at 3am last night were confirmations. They told me that it's not a race - it's a journey that will take time. It might take me a lifetime - as it did Nelson Mandella to transform himself from an angry man to one motivated by love and a leader who understands the importance of humility. But, I have realised this anew and will write this into my affirmations journal, which I carry with me at all times, to reassure me on the next dark night when fearful thoughts arise again. It's also taught me that any failures of mine along the way (my Yoga 1 course that needs redoing), just as those who failed the SAS training at the last hour in the Channel 4 series that I watched this week tell me - you have to pick yourself up and keep going forward. No retreat - no surrender!