Chapter 7.2 - Waking Up

"A while ago I had trouble sleeping… Not actually sleeping but waking up. I would open my eyes and have this terrible feeling, the same one I had when…" She paused to swallow, as if to gather courage to open herself up. "I died. So, to overcome it, the monks taught me a method to calm down. They told me to find something, an object I cared about. Then, before going to sleep, I would have to put it close to me. And when the angst hits in the middle of the night or when I wake up, I should hold that object and squeeze it while focusing on the sensation of having it in my hand. How heavy it was. The temperature. The feeling it had against my skin—things that were real and palpable. And it worked. Morning after morning it helped me accept the reality I was in…"