Sleep: the descent into ourselves

Sleep is the process where a person's qi retreats from the world into the inner cycle of five. The outer cycle is about interacting with the world, but the inner cycle flows through the body alone.

When we fall asleep, the energetic flow contracts into the body. We close our eyes to fall asleep and then our senses dull while we're asleep. Loud lights or noises can intrude into us, but we stop seeking connections and energetic input from the outside world. Wood, which normally pushes out into the world, settles into itself, content with just pushing up within the body, but not above it. During this time, the Wood and Metal cycle through the earth of our body to aerate and clean it.

Fire, which is connected to the flow of qi in the world around us, connects instead to ourselves. It sinks down from our heads, and above our heads, into our physical heart and connection with ourselves. In our hearts, we also find a connection to God. Our dreams reflect ourselves, though some dreams go beyond ourselves through our internal spiritual connection to God.

Metal descends qi and moderates barriers to the outside world. When we are falling asleep, deep breathing helps us to descend into ourselves and fall asleep more easily. Lying down changes the orientation of the descending qi so we are no longer descending into the Water roots of the ground beneath us, but our whole body sinks as one. We sleep not connected above and not connected below, but flowing gently through ourselves.

When we wake, our bodies are contracted, our spines are shorter than at the end of the day. The transformations that normally extend us above and below are just starting again to connect us fully to the world.

Photo courtesy of onkel wart