Falling asleep is a wonderful way to avoid yourself

Today, we're delving into a topic that's both intriguing and often misunderstood: falling asleep during healing work.

Have you ever found yourself drifting off during a therapy session or energy healing session? Perhaps you've felt the heavy weight of exhaustion pulling you under, or maybe you've struggled to keep your eyes open despite your best efforts.

In my years of practice as a somatic practitioner, I've encountered countless clients who have experienced this phenomenon. And through these experiences, I've come to realize that falling asleep during healing work can reveal deeper insights into our physical, emotional, and energetic states.

In this blog post, we'll explore three possible interpretations of why you might find yourself nodding off during a session:

a) Your nervous system is craving rest: After prolonged periods of stress or trauma, our nervous system can become dysregulated, leaving us in a constant state of fight or flight. Falling asleep may be a sign that your body is desperately seeking rest and restoration.

b) You're avoiding your emotions and traumas: Sometimes, the urge to fall asleep during healing work is a subconscious defense mechanism—a way of avoiding uncomfortable emotions or buried traumas that we're not yet ready to confront.

c) Your energy body is asleep: In the realm of energy healing, falling asleep can indicate that your energy body is dormant or inactive. This could be due to a lack of awareness or connection to your energetic self, preventing you from fully engaging in the healing process.

By understanding the underlying reasons behind falling asleep during healing work, we can begin to unravel the deeper layers of our psyche and energy body. So, if you've ever found yourself dozing off during a session, rest assured that there's more to it than meets the eye.

Are you Sleep Walking through Your Life?

How does falling asleep relate to various states of consciousness that we find ourselves in throughout our lives? According to Robert Edward Grant, who developed the model of the three stages of consciousness Involution-Evolution the first stage is, believe it or not, called 'Asleep State'. This is where we often find ourselves before the healing journey has begun.

This state is marked by survival instincts and a restricted awareness. From my perspective, this limited awareness is confined to the immediate physical reality and realm of thought. In other words, when someone is in the asleep state—literally asleep—their inner world and alternate dimensions of consciousness are inaccessible. Even when they emerge from this state, such as during healing sessions, they may drift off again. Their nervous system and energy body haven't been trained to maintain alertness but rather to remain still, relaxed, and unaware.

ASLEEP STATE: Limited Perception (ONE Truth; Either/Or):

Duality, Judgement, and 'my' choices are RIGHTEOUS, a world of survival instinct, self-preservation, victimhood, suffering and endless karmic loops, scarcity-based, fear-based, and time-limited decisions and experiences, seeking the outside world for "educated" answers to provide meaning in a Telestial, meaningless, competitive and lonely world. The Dualistic separation of Consciousness into the Persona (mask) and the Shadow (subconscious mind).

2. AWAKENING and AWAKENED STATE: Expanded/Expanding Perception (NON-Dual Sentience):

Edging toward Non-Duality; less judgement, Personal responsibility for experiences, limited perspectives and even the 'News' are more 'opinions' than factual realities. Objective truth becomes subjective to the Observer's 'partial' truth. Seek the inward journey while living in a Terrestial world. Synchronicities and patterns emerge into consciousness, Forgiveness of Self and Others (and judgements of self and others) transition to conscious acceptance and love. 'Suffering' lessens and the path toward abundance in all things ensues, the Eternal Now, Empathy and Compassion rises. Competition to confluence. The emergence of Heart-Brain consciousness through the balancing of Feminine and Masculine energies--the recognition of the complementary and necessary role of both the Conscious Persona and the Subconscious Shadow.

3. ENLIGHTENED STATE: Divine Omniscience (Omni-Sentient);

The sum of all perspectives is the WHOLE Truth. There is no entropy, only limited and/or expanded perceptions. Synchronicities turn to magical and miraculous moments. Realization that you are the Creator of all your experiences. Pure Acceptance of the Whole Truth. Love and Compassion reign. Non-judgement. 'Celestial' experiences. One with the flow of the Universe. Love for EVERYTHING and EVERYONE around us, even TIME itself. Feels feelings deeply but not overrun by emotional reactions. Expanded multidimensional experiences through TIME dimensions. 'Super' or 'Unity' Consciousness.

Below is a case study of a client of mine who kept falling asleep in his cranio-sacral therapy sessions.

What happened: Client, let's call him James (name changed obviously) falls asleep just 10 minutes into the session. This happens every week for several weeks.

What I probably should have said: I'm wondering if there's aspects of this that you might be finding it difficult or uncomfortable to stay awake?

What I actually said: '

'Where are you?'

Silence

'Are you there?'

'....yes....I was just asleep'

'It's very interesting how this happens isn't it'

'How what happens?'

'How you fall asleep in our sessions'

'It's just sooo relaxing...'

'I'm glad you feel relaxed. What else are you feeling?'

'I just feel relaxed'

'What does feeling relaxed allow you to avoid having to feel?'

'Errr....I guess it means I don't have to feel the stuff I don't want to feel'

'Falling asleep every session is a wonderful way to avoid yourself isn't it?'

'Well, yes, it works...'

'It does work. It works so well that you don't have to. So if you're not here working on yourself why are you here?'

'I just let you do your thing I'm happy to be asleep'

'And I'm asking for your participation. Do you want to participate?'

'I guess so, I don't really know what to do'

'That's because you're asleep.'

'So what do I do?'

'First start by trying to stay awake and let's see how things go'

'Ok i'll try to stay awake'

What happened: The client would fall asleep after just 10 minutes into every session and would have no recollection of anything that had happened during the session. There was also a distinct lack of curiosity or reflective capacity on waking up. In the meantime the emotional turbines were actively moving through him but were not being allowed to be processed by his body. By staying asleep he was keeping himself in the same realm of awareness. Avoidance was the elephant in the room in our sessions and the elephant in his life, which was finally addressed by just putting it out there in the field. This meant we were able to incorporate the avoidance into the session, and other events that had led to an avoidant tendency or behaviour. This is a key element of shadow integration.

What the outcome was:

Could stay awake for longer periods of time during our sessions
Could now describe with impressive detail what was happening in his body
Started to understand how his body and mind were connected
Recognised that various conflicts within were not going to just disappear if he fell asleep and ignored them.
Started to develop more authentic self awareness and personal disclosures increased session to session
Was able to joke about falling asleep to avoid his stuff!! :D
Experienced deeper somatic releases
Was able to stay present while his body released trauma and emotional pain
System began to deepen healing and enter deeper states of consciousness
He became more of an active participant in his own healing
Started to recognise his own power to heal himself