Random bits and pieces before we get into the main topic:

• Pumpkin products and lesbian-spotting at Trader Joe’s

• The Autumn foliage show by the Pacific Northwest trees: it’s a free show and good for the soul: color therapy and nature exposure as medicine

• Dove shorts & Richard Simmons

What We’ve Done to Help Improve Our Sleep

• The #1 Tip No One Talks About: Don’t have kids 😉

• Guided sleep meditations. The one we’ve been using lately are on the Waking Up app (ironic title, eh?) by Sam Harris

• Repetitive worried thoughts? Here’s some imagination medicine Siena’s been using. Imagine: you put the worried thoughts in a box, close the box, and put the box up on a shelf. Toast observed that this is a way to follow some of the advice attributed to Jesus: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34

• Herbal tea for inducing sleepiness. And steep them properly.

• Hot bags! What are hot bags? Flannel bags filled with rice grains, heated in the microwave, put them at the foot of your bed to warm your feet

• Another thought to help you stop worrying: Life is living you; it’s why you’re alive in the first place, and sure, you could use that life to worry, but you don’t need to because Life obviously has a pretty good handle on taking care of living you; it doesn’t mean you’ll live forever or that your life will be easy; after all, part of a fulfilling life is growth, meaning change, meaning at least a little scary, but that’s part of what it means To Live: it means To Grow; also remember, you and your problems are just one little speck in the unfathomably large and unthinkably long Universe; remember: it’s an option to allow Life to handle “your” life; you have the option to not overstep and not try to overreach beyond your role in relation to the project of Life; maybe be more respectful and a better teammate, and stop over-worrying; when you over-worry, it’s a disrespectful way to treat the intelligence of Life, who’s taken it this far, and this long. After all, you only just got here yesterday.

Other Tips We Didn’t Mention But That Also Matter

• Exert yourself to a healthy degree during the day (mentally, physically, emotionally) and you’ll be a healthy kind of tired at night

• Get yourself exposed to healthy bright or natural light during the morning, or day

• Dim the lights an hour or so before getting into bed