The problem is that an overactive mind is hard to stop. And regardless of how tired you are, if your mind is overactive at night, you may be in for a sleepless night, and then a rotten next day!
These nights usually happen because of some sort of stressor. It may be work related such as not sure whether you get the job or not, or you may have had a fight with your husband or wife. It may even be issues with your kids at school or with their peers.
These issues (stressors) are all things that clearly your mind wants to devote significant thought too, and of course, its going to do it at the most inopportune time--when you need to sleep!
When this happens, trying not to think of these things never works. Even trying to calm your mind or not to think of anything never works. In fact in the past whenever I tried to stop thinking about whatever was on my mind, I would find myself thinking about it even more!
You may have also heard suggestions such as counting sheep. Well in the past I've gotten as high as 800 sheep before I finally gave up and went back to thinking about whatever was bugging me.
The problem is that you can't stop a locomotive in motion without excessive force (sleeping pills). But with a much lesser degree of force, you can change the direction the locomotive is going!
The key is to allow your mind to continue to think away, but to give it a distraction that eventually wins out. When your mind is finally thoroughly distracted from the original issue that was fueling its busy thoughts, the fuel to the thinking process is shut off, and before you know it you're out like a light!
WHEN YOU CAN'T SLEEP, IS THIS HOW YOU FEEL?
If you have trouble falling asleep because your hamster is running away on the wheel and you just can't seem to make him take a break, I've got the perfect solution for you!
I'll admit this isn't some researched, scientifically proved solution, but I was prone to this problem falling asleep at night quite often, and this has worked every time in less than 5 minutes for me.
Do you know the colours of the rainbow? They are (R)ed, (O)range, (Y)ellow, (G)reen, (B)lue, (I)ndigo, (V)iolet.
The acronym to remember them is the proper name ROY G. BIV
So here's what you do. Don't try to stop thinking about whatever you've been lying awake thinking about, instead, just pretend that you're now looking at (or thinking about) the same issue but through a red pane of glass. So you can still see (think of) the issue clearly, but it's red now.
This might sound a little confusing, so let me paint the picture. Let's say that you're stressed out about the interview you had for a new job. Let's say that you keep going over in your head how the person interviewing you was looking at you when you answered a few questions. And that you're uncertain of whether or not you gave the answer they were looking for.
So what you would do is put yourself back in the office where you were having the interview, but everything is red. The walls are red, the carpet, the desk, the person who interviewed you has red skin, red hair, red eyes, is wearing red clothing, has a red cup of red coffee on the desk, etc...
So basically you overlay a red filter on everything you see. It may take a few minutes to be able to really see everything in red. I think it took me about five minutes probably of continuing to really try to see everything in red.
When you're finally able to really see everything in red, switch to Orange. Repeat the process in the same way. Then switch to Yellow, then Green, then Blue, then Indigo, then Violet.
I'll bet you don't make it through all the colours even once.
I'm not exactly sure how I came up with the idea of using colours, in theory I think anything that would distract you would work, but I found that trying to think of other things, just made me think of whatever was bugging me more. Whereas with the colours, you're not trying to stop thinking about the thing that bugs you, but you're just adding a distracting detail within the same environment.
Personally I find it challenging to overlay colour like this on my thoughts, and for this reason, I usually don't make it past Orange or Yellow. The first time I did it I got to Green, but haven't again since.
Anyway, before posting this I had brought the idea up to a few of my clients and family members who've come back to me very impressed and thankful, saying it worked very quickly for them.
So next time you're having trouble falling alseep because of the damn hamster on the wheel, give my colourful solution a try!
No comments:
Post a Comment