The above photo is a wall art hanging behind our dining room table that serves not only as a daily reminder but also as the inspiration for this week's discussion. In my blog post titled Healing is an Inside Job (11/4/2022), I spoke about creating an inner resource - a tool you can return to anytime life becomes chaotic. After that discussion, I left readers with a recorded meditation as an example of this experience. Open this link to return to that post. You may wonder, "How does this connect to Tim's wall art?" Let's venture forward.

My wellness plan addresses the mind, body, and spirit paradigm to include: exercise, healthy eating, a daily yoga practice, massage therapy, chiropractic care, reiki, and acupuncture. However, one source of frustration I encounter is lack of adequate sleep which averages 5 to 5 1/2 hours nightly. It has been over three years since I retired from the fire department, yet I have yet to reset my internal circadian rhythm that governs the sleep-wake cycle.

I was upset the other night when I slept just shy of four hours because of the chatter in my mind when I woke at 4 a.m. I got up, sat on the couch, and did a deep breathing exercise to calm myself. As I began the new day, I passed by the wall art, which reminded me that I had to create a more vivid inner resource to lull me back to sleep. I thought, "Jump Off Rock."

Jump Off Rock is a scenic overlook located in Laurel Park, NC, with an elevation of 3,100 feet. The town of Laurel Park created a public space with park benches and three hiking trails for visitors to enjoy all year. If you look 180 degrees in either direction from the overlook, you can see the mountains of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. The view is the most breathtaking I have visited in Western NC. This moment is my constant reminder of why Judy and I moved here, and it has now become the new inner resource that I can visualize when my mind becomes active in the middle of the night.

My call to action (for you) is to create the inner resource you can lean into whenever life becomes chaotic. Even better, take an opportunity to return to said area (when possible), and allow the experience to take your breath away. Returning to Jump Off Rock in the middle of the night is not feasible. Therefore, I will use visualization as I recall the sage advice from a former kundalini yoga teacher when she said, "The US Olympic Team uses visualization. If it's good enough for them then it is good enough for us."

I leave you with a montage of several trips that Judy, me, and Vino took to Jump Off Rock. Click on the images for a closer look. Until next time-

Namaste,

Tim