At three o'clock in the morning, unless you are working the night shift or you have a newborn who needs to be fed, there is one place you are supposed to be: in bed, asleep. But at three in the morning, we are just as likely to be wide awake and worried.

We may get up and check that we turned the stove off. We may get up and make a snack. We may toss and turn and worry about how to resolve a complicated issue. The troubles of the world may weigh down upon us. At three in the morning, how do we get back to where we are supposed to be, in bed and asleep?

Because counting sheep makes me think of work that will need to be done in the morning, I sometimes try a form of meditation. These are also daytime practices that help me reach inward for balance and clarity, but they also help calm my mind at 3 am.

Sometimes in my head, I sing a favorite chorus over and over. I choose one with calming and reassuring words. I let the sense of music and the focus draw me away from the worries back toward sleep.

Back when I lived in Montreal, I worked for and attended the Anglican Cathedral, but I also attended a Benedictine monastery for meditation. The abbot had learned from Hindu tradition a practice that used a mantra to focus the mind. The mantra he chose was "maranatha" meaning "Come Lord." The meaning seemed appropriate. The word itself with peaceful sound and a soothing rhythm helped calm the mind. Silently, sitting on the ground with legs folded, in our minds, we would repeat "maranatha" while breathing in and out. Other thoughts would come, but always we would go back to the word.

Hindu practice talks about the monkeys of the mind, with thoughts tumbling and jumbling all the time. The mantra helps draw back the concentration of the person. We would sit for half an hour like that with a group of 50 plus people around us. There is an incredible stillness that comes with that much time, surrounded by silent people.

The practice asked us to meditate for half an hour twice every day, and I had a couple very good friends who did just that. I managed once a day a few times a week. When I moved to this area and did not have the encouragement of the abbey, I drifted from the daily practice, but I go back to it at times when I find I am jumbled up and torn in every direction the monkeys think of. At 3am, it is a way to get back to where I should be.

More recently, I took up Tai Chi, a moving meditation. In this practice, there are set moves done in harmony with a group. Movements are designed according to Chinese medicine to activate the bodies energy. The person becomes attentive to how the whole body moves in every moment.

Being in step with people around helps still the chaos, creates a sense of peace. Repeating motions brings our attention to the place we are. Moving in specific ways with clear, simple actions, draws us inward. Again, the mind may drift off to the to-do list, but the next action pulls thought back to where hands and feet and weight are.

These days at three in the morning, I walk through a sequence of the moves in my mind, thinking how each hand moves, when each foot turns, how my weight shifts. Some nights I realized that in certain parts of set, I had no idea where one hand was. Or I didn't know which foot moved first or how my weight shifted. I made note of these as a question to take to the next class and shifted to a different part that I do know in order to calm my mind to sleep.

The purpose of meditation is focus, balance, seeking God's presence, seeking inward peace. And during the day I will choose to practice meditation for this kind of purpose. But it is also useful in the middle of the night to recover sleep. And maybe that isn't really cheating because meditation is a way to be where we are, where we need to be, and at 3 am where we need to be is asleep.
Cathy Hird is a farmer, minister, and writer living near Walters Falls.