How I Turn Early-Waking Insomnia Into a Gift

I wake up early. Not by choice really. There’s not much to do at 4:30 a.m. or 5 a.m. but practice. I look serious here. But that’s the mood, the vibe, before sunrise. At least, to me. It feels like a time to consider and contemplate and journal. Life. God. Purpose. That kind of stuff.
This morning I contemplated the yoga terms abhyasa (practice) and vairagya (detachment). Abhyasa is often described as sustained, consistent commitment to practice over time. It is the effort it takes to repeatedly come back to the present moment, again and again.
Vairagya is the aspect of practice, the complement to abhyasa, and literally means ‘not getting stirred up’. Sometimes it is translated as detachment or letting go. The essence of it is the practice of not reacting to your perceptions, letting things arise in our mind and experience without a knee-jerk reaction based on our conditioning from the past. Vairagya is allowing life to unfold fresh and new in each moment without telling the same stories about it again and again.
Ok, time to walk Tommy. He’s tired of me being so serious for one morning.

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Brad Wetzler

Brad Wetzler is an author, journalist, editor, book writing instructor, memoir coach and mentor, and yoga instructor. His articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, GQ, National Geographic, Newsweek, Wired, Men's Journal, Travel + Leisure, George, Best American Travel Writing, and Outside, where he was a senior editor and contributing editor. His book, Real Mosquitoes Don't Eat Meat, was a collection of columns he wrote for Outside.Brad writes, teaches, coaches, and mentors from his home in Austin, Texas. His memoir, Into the Soul of the World, will be published in spring 2023.

Brad Wetzler is the author of Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing (Hachette Go) and Real Mosquitoes Don’t Eat Meat (W.W. Norton). A former senior editor at Outside, he is a memoir writing coach, podcaster, and yoga teacher. He writes books and pens the Enlightened-ish newsletter on Substack.com. He also hosts Enlightened-ish Podcast about adventure, healing, emotional wellness, faith, and spirituality.  He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

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