On shifting your perspective

For a couple of years, I have been really frustrated with the fact that I wake up several times every night. Usually I go back to sleep pretty quickly, but other times I don’t. So this was a source of some annoyance, a thing I thought I needed to fix. (If you’ve been following along, you know I have a need to fix everything that comes along.)

Then I read a news article that explained how researchers had determined that people who are light sleepers (such as me) recall their dreams, whereas heavier sleepers do not.

Of course this makes sense but I had never recognized the connection before. I love my dreams! I love remembering my dreams! In fact, a yoga teacher once told me that if I did yoga regularly, I’d stop having dreams, so I stopped doing yoga. I’ve written entire novels based on compelling dreams I’ve had. (The Achilles Project and Children of the Wolves are just two examples.)

So I want to keep my dreams. Waking up a couple times a night seems like a fair exchange in order to get them. So I’ve stopped being frustrated by this fact. All it took was just making a connection and I shifted my perspective—just like that, no further effort required.

Have you ever experienced something like this, a moment where your understanding opened and a thing that had been a source of frustration just stopped being a source of frustration?

###

Dojo Wisdom for Writers, second edition, now available on Amazon in print and ebook! (Nook and other ebook versions here)
Catch a Falling Star (by Jessica Starre) and The Matchmaker Meets Her Match (by Jenny Jacobs), two of my favorite novels.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter on my home page! You never know when I’m going to give away random good stuff.