Hopeful after Shifting a Core Distress
During the last trimester of my time in my mother’s womb, I was subjected to amphetamines that a well-meaning but uninformed male physician prescribed my mother when she complained about gaining weight.
Because of that, I experienced years of chronic lack of sleep. The sleep pattern involved waking up in a surge of adrenaline and then not being able to return to sleep, resulting in less than four hours sleep a night.
Last year it dawned on me [occurred to me] in a Co-Counseling session that the sleeplessness was stronger during the same months that I had been subjected to the drugs. My body was reliving the pre-birth distress and making it available for discharge.
I decided to take a few minutes out of every daily session to focus on helping my body release this lifelong distress. I’ve discharged by telling the story, looking at it from many angles, and shaking and yawning with attention. In the beginning, when I would wake up in that adrenaline rush, my direction was “I survived, I’m safe, and I can breathe.” Saying this helped me relax and fall back to sleep. The direction now is simply “breathe” (which is also helpful to say during the day when I notice a sense of urgency).
My sleep has gone from an average of four hours per night to more than six hours, and it is better quality sleep. I am also better able to stay relaxed with my own and others’ distress patterns, including “ancestral urgency,” a pattern many Jews pick up from their families.
I will continue the daily discharge. I’m quite hopeful that my sleep will continue to improve. Isn’t it great when we can notice that the discharge process works?
Rochester, New York, USA
(Present Time 208, July 2022)