Your Subconscious and the Wonders of Sleep

As a child, when I was in middle school, I used to have a really hard time sleeping. I had just started middle school, life was changing, and a recent kidnapping had been very prevalent in the media.  A girl about my age had been taken from her bedroom. I remember laying in my room for hours staring at the posters on my bedroom walls, the flickering of the TV keeping me company as I lay awake. I would play a game each night of who would let me into their bedroom. I would go crawling into my parents' room and when they sent me back to my own bed I would try to join one of my sisters. In the mornings I would be cranky, tired, and despise going to school. I would start a fight with my mom over how my hair looked or something along those lines and even though we lived across the street, would end up late to class.

In this chapter Murphy discusses how important it is to get sleep. Our subconscious never turns off. It works every hour, minute and second of the day. It keeps our lungs expanding, our hearts beating, and follows out the orders that we give it.

Sleep can be a very powerful thing because your conscious mind is no longer in the way during these hours of rest. In this chapter Murphy shares several accounts of people who received messages or ideas from their subconscious minds while they engaged in a peaceful slumber. Murphy himself received a warning to not go to Japan just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and Robert Louis Stevenson used his sleeping hours to receive the storylines of his newest book. When you are away from the everyday hustle and bustle, when you are quiet and relaxed, that is the time that your subconscious mind can come through the strongest.

Throughout this book we have learned that whenever you want to deliver a message to your subconscious mind, or whenever you are working on a manifestation or prayer, the first step you need to take is to become quiet and relaxed. Sleep is a deeper level of this and whatever message you deliver to yourself before you fall asleep will be carried out by your subconscious mind.

A section of this chapter explains how prayer can be a form of sleep. It is vital to us as human beings that we withdraw ourselves from the objective world and give undivided time to our inner wisdom. By doing this we will tap into the infinite knowledge that is within each and every one of us. When you enter a deep bout of prayer or meditation you become asleep to the materialized world.

When you realize how important your sleep is you can use it more wisely. I know that many busy parents out there do not get enough sleep and often wake up tired and groggy. This is why the coffee and energy drink industry has had such incredible success. However, sleep needs to be a priority. Taking care of ourselves needs to be a priority. Too often we treat relaxation and quiet time as a luxury rather than a necessity.

Eventually as I got into high school I outgrew my sleeping issues. ( I actually sleep better than ever now that I have started teaching Kindergarten). One of the things that I did to rectify these sleeping issues was to change my surroundings and create an area that was conducive to peace. I moved bedrooms when my older sister went off to college and turned my bedroom into a sanctuary. I kept the walls free from band posters (backstreet boys, to be specific) and instead replaced them with peaceful, positive, art. I kept my bedroom very tidy and minimalistic. I also made sure I had the comfiest sheets, pillows, and blankets to lay in each night. I made this a priority.
The last thing I did, which I think many people may need to do, is that I gave myself permission to sleep. Our brains go 100 miles a minute during the day with checklists, social interactions, thoughts, ideas, etc. It can be very difficult to turn these off every night. You may even be hanging onto these things so that you don't forget what you have to accomplish the next day.

Give yourself to permission to rest. To let go and know that everything is going to be ok. It is your time to enter a peaceful zone away from this busy, wonderful world. Pick something each night that you would like to hand over to your subconscious mind. It can be something very simple as the fact that you are going to have a wonderful nights sleep. Envision each part of your body relaxing and quietly whisper your message over and over to yourself like a lullabye. Drift off and let your subconscious mind follow through. I promise you will see wonders happen.

"Sleep in peace tonight, for God is bigger than anything you will face tomorrow." 

Other important messages from this chapter: 

*"If you are worried that you will not wake up on time, suggest to your subconscious mind prior to sleep the exact time you wish to arise, and it will awake you. It needs no clock. Do the same things with all problems. There is nothing too hard for your subconscious.

*"Your subconscious mind never sleeps. It is always on the job. It controls your vital functions. Forgive yourself and every one else before you go to sleep, and healing will take place much more rapidly." 

*"You are spiritually recharged during sleep. Adequate sleep is essential for joy and vitality in life." 

* "Your future is in your mind now, based on your habitual thinking and beliefs. Claim infinite intelligence leads and guides you and that all good is yours, and your future will be wonderful. Believe it and accept it. Expect the best, and invariably the best will come to you." 

* "If you are writing a novel, play, or book, or are working on an invention, speak to your subconscious mind at night and claim boldly that its wisdom, intelligence, and power are guiding, directing, and revealing to you the ideal play, novel, book, or revealing the perfect solution whatever it may be. Wonders will happen as you pray this way."