What to Do When Despair Wakes You in the Middle of the Night

In our third chapter of Life, we naturally notice the risk of despair.
(And for the younger among us, you old souls, you know the drill.)
The younger ‘us’ avoids with busyness and purpose.
But now we can’t dance, run or schmooze that fast or that long.
We tend to wake at around 3 AM, right?
And that’s when the mind gets into it. Ugh.
That’s when scrolling tempts us. Or pacing, in exchange for the leisurely stroll we did not take yesterday.
So…
If we are going to learn to sit squarely with our loneliness and fears, we need support.
It is recommended to have handy a book of May Sarton, or Mary Oliver, and the like, on your bedside table.
Even, if it helps, the Psalms, or Proverbs, or better, one of the small books by the mystics, those simple, deep people who wrote down their sublime ecstasies, their agonies. Some Saint Teresa of Avila, or Rumi, or, if you need a companion who shows you light in the midst of great darkness, Etty Hillesum.
Make a comfy spot for the middle-of-the-night stroll the mind needs.
Keep your journal and a good pen nearby.
And a small, low light, not so bright as to wake your head up too fully,
Because you may well fall fast asleep after you do this night-work.

And perhaps, browse the wisdom of Maria Popova’s digest, the Marginalian!

Here is her recent installment of The Marginalian.
I suggest taking comfort and delight in her work, a digest and a meditation on the necessity of facing despair with hope, faith and self-love.

She is my contemporary hero these days.

”Good” night to you!

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