Moving to a Better Place: Pillow Talk

The physical act of moving to different places this year, has illuminated so much for me. Moving to a better place in your life is just not an easy process. But it does take changing, either your mind, your circumstances (not always), your environment, your thoughts, etc.

The bed I sleep in at this house I'm renting is really comfortable and the room is dark and cozy. I don't know how good the mattress is, but it has a cushioned mattress pad on it, that makes me feel like I'm sleeping on a cloud. But last week I decided to get my down comforter out of my storage unit for the winter. Well, last night I put the comforter on, and between the cushy mattress and the comforter I felt like an angel enveloped in a cloud. It was magical how good I felt!!! What a wonderful nights sleep I had, but then it does make it a little harder to get out from underneath all this softness in the morning. :)

So many people have trouble sleeping, but most end up by just taking the quick fix - a pill. If you want to try a more effective, but maybe more difficult process, take a good look at your mattress and sleeping environment. What could be changed for the better? If you don't see anything immediately, just change everything. The position of the bed, the furniture in the room (definitely no clutter in the bedroom), the mattress, the wall color, the curtains, the smell, the rug, the pictures on the wall. If you just want to try changing the bed and don't want to buy a new mattress, here are the smaller things you can buy. New pillows. Many people are sleeping with a dead pillow. Yes, it is (was) your favorite pillow, but it has lost what originally made it your favorite, yet you won't let it go (this could be true of a lot of things in your life). So, I won't tell you to throw out your favorite pillow (yet), but go to the store and feel some new pillows. Buy 2 or 3 different ones and bring them to their new home. Surround your head and body with the new pillows. If you have someone you share the bed with, ask them to give you a night alone with your pillows. They should not be jealous, and if they are, then that could be another one of your problems :)

It always feels good to have a pillow between your knees if you sleep on your side, or under your knees if you sleep on your back. And then try holding onto one pillow (maybe your favorite dead one as you say goodbye to it).

The other thing to buy would be a new mattress pad, either feather, down or synthetic (if you have allergies) but the cushier the better. You might have noticed that many hotels use them now.

If you don't think you will like a comforter (and you don't like change), borrow someone's for the night. Just know that comforters come in all different varieties; feather, down, and all kinds of hypoallergenic materials. They also come in various weights and patterns. The diamond stitched or square stitched comforters hold the down in place so it doesn't shift all to one end. I highly recommend these. If you have a favorite blanket, you might just get a light (summer weight) comforter to add some cushiness to your sleep. Comforters still provide comfort when used with other blankets. The word "comfort" is what it's all about.

Some people don't know that they are not comfortable, because being uncomfortable is all they have ever known, and they accept that as the norm. We are all creatures of habit, but those people are particularly adverse to change for the better. This is because if they change one thing, they might see that their whole life needs some change and it probably does. If you are happy, but you make everyone around you miserable, you might be one of these people.

But let's just get back to sleeping. If you sleep with someone who snores, smells, thrashes around, gets up and down at night, falls asleep with the light on, or gets up and reads in the middle of the night, it might be time to opt for separate bedrooms. You probably aren't having much sex anyway. Very few people are sleep compatible and this is really O.K. I understand if you have kids it might be hard to have a separate bedroom, but I'm just trying to shake up your world. More about this another time. I need to go sit in the sun for a few minutes.

That would be a good name for my book "Shake Up Your World!!"


Create a garden
Create space
Sit on the floor
Go anyplace new!
Turn off the TV or Computer
Learn something new
Meet someone new
Read
Play
Move
Move
Move

"The Books Never Written"

I woke up this morning after a very long nights sleep. Near the end I was dreaming that I was teaching a spontaneous yoga class. It started with two people. I told them I would be right back as I had to get some music and water. When I returned the room had been taken over by another group. So we found another room to use. By now I had run into people in the hall who wanted to join in. I started teaching and more people started coming in. Suddenly Rodney Yee was there and he asked me why I was yelling and shouldn't I use a mike. There is one right here he said, but I told him I didn't know how to use it. All of a sudden I had this room full of people who were talking to each other or distracting me from teaching. I could not get back control. People started leaving. I tried to get everyone back on track, leading them through some poses. But no one could keep with it. Then I saw something wrong with my car far away by a pond. I went to do something with the car and when I returned all the students were gone. I felt like such an idiot and a failure.

So now I am awake looking at a similar life. I have noticed through experience that it is extremely difficult to get "type A" personalities to slow down to the pace of yoga. I, of course, think I should take on the most challenging people to teach. So I'm thinking I should start a course called "Yoga for Type A people".

This has been one of the dilemmas of my life. If I teach or help people who want to be taught or helped, it is easy and satisfying for me. But if I try to teach people who are resistant, when I fail, I use that against myself. So why and what should I do about this? Part of me does not want to sing to the choir. I see the resistant people as the most in need of what I teach. I would love to get my hands on the Taliban!! Just kidding. But whether it is the Type A personalities, ultra conservative Republicans, religious fanatics, drug and alchohol addicts, why do I think it is my job to take them on? Well enough of that, I could surely write a book on this.

So, along with that I woke up pondering how I am constantly coming up with titles for books I could write and often start writing them in my head. But I lose it when I try to put things on paper. Wow I doubt young people say "put things on paper". I am part of a rapidly changing world. I have lots of excuses, but the fact of the matter is, there are no books written by Catherine Crocket. I don't even like my name. I used to think I would have to change my name to become famous.

I read this morning that we went from 5,000 websites in 1994 to 400 million (and more every second) today. It is humanly impossible to keep up with everything at our finger tips. So now with things like Twitter and Facebook, we are becoming "sound bite" people. More and more we are disconnecting from each other, from the earth, and from our own selves. More and more we are living in a virtual world. I could go on and on regarding this subject and surely write a book.

So, you can see how my mind jumps around and explores multiple issues in life. This is just the first hour of my day!!!!! I have real work to do, like finding new health insurance, and working on my credit and financial problems. Anything to distract me. I am also fighting off either a cold or yeast infection in my body. I really should just rest. Welcome to my world!!!!

Where I Ended Up

After looking at many, many places, I finally decided to move to the quaint little town of Marion. I need a place to hibernate, yet not feel isolated. In this little village I can ride my bike, walk or run for miles without a lot of traffic around.

I will still be going back and forth to Connecticut to keep an eye on Mom, but will have a place to retreat to and have my privacy.

I want so much to write, read, and complete the projects I haven't finished. My goal is to tie up many of the loose ends of my life by the end of the year. I have a strong desire to get smaller and smaller. The stuff of life overwhelmed me and was pulling me under. Now, as I let go of more and more material possessions, I feel freer and freer to be who I was meant to be. I will turn 60 next year and it is time for me to stop sabotaging myself and fly.

At the moment I am sabotaging myself with sugar. I can feel the yeast taking over my body. Can I find the discipline to say NO to sugar. I have done it before, but it feels harder this time. Always, I need some distraction. For now I will just rest and get settled in this new place.

I am working to make each day, each moment, the best that it can be. More and more anyway. Finding peace from within.

Where to Go?

This is a most unusual place I find myself in. I don't know where to go. I decided to rent my house out for two years and at the moment I am a bit lost. Where does one go when you don't have a job, a spouse, children or anything really to provide you some direction. I am so confused at the moment, my head is aching. Although the headache could be from the Cosmo and bad food I ate last night. I remember from workshops done in the past, that things can feel pretty awful right before a major breakthrough, so I hope this is the case. It hurts my head to even write about where I am.

So, Catherine, take a breath and write down all the options you are looking at.

1. Move back to Connecticut to be close to my 90 year old mother, and live at my friend Cindy's house until she sells it. It is currently on the market. Can't bring the cat. Don't have any clients there. No ocean close by. Conservative thinking people there.

2. Move to Marion, MA to try a new area, and be close to 495 for driving to my mom's, and closer to Providence for some social life, and maybe Swing Dancing.

3. Move to a cute little cottage on the beach in Duxbury for the winter.

4. Move into Lori's condo here in the Pinehills until she is able to sell it.

5. Move to Priscilla Beach area or Manomet to a winter rental.

It is amazing how when I write things down, there is a definite feeling that I get when reading each statement, that is definitely clearer than when everything is kept in our thoughts.

So, now that I wrote this much down I am going to take a break and come back and look at it again. More later.

Filling in the gap

I started this blog last summer, and then stopped like I always do with my journaling. Don't know why exactly. So, now I am starting again. I won't worry so much about having pictures or not having something to say. I will just write when I can. Perhaps what I have to say will be interesting to someone else, but it is enough to write for me. It helps me to get to know myself. The thing is, I have had a very interesting year which would have been good to write about so I could see how far I have come. The name of this blog "Dancing on the Branches of Life" continues to be an appropriate title.

I might fill in some of the gaps of this past year and even publish things that I wrote during this time. Here is a brief overview of my year. Last December I started my 200 hour yoga teacher certification, spending two weeks at Kripalu in the Berkshires. I completed the final two weeks of training there at the end of January into February. It was a challenging but worthwhile experience and it feels good to have this certification now.

In March I decided to try renting my house out since the selling market was so bad. In a matter of three days I had someone who wanted to rent it for two years. They wanted to bring their own furniture, so I had to move out completely by May 15th. I managed to get rid of quite of bit of my stuff, put some in storage and am now living the life of a gypsy.

I found a room to rent from a woman on Cape Cod, but that did not go well. I moved out on my birthday, June 13th and stayed a few weeks with my friend Paula. Then I found a place to stay till the end of the summer. So, here I am at the end of the summer trying to decide where to go next. The summer has flown by as usual, but I found time to bike, golf, and even kyack over the course of the last two months. I continue to drive to Connecticut to check on my mom every other weekend, which is where I am today. The amazing thing is that I am learning more and more how to be content and even happy wherever I am, even at my mom's!

Well this is a start. Hopefully my writing will get more interesting as I go along. As famous yoga teacher Pattabhi Jois always said, "practice, practice, practice.