3 techniques to fall asleep
Hello dearest,
I heard you cannot sleep, tossing and turning in bed, swollen with worry about the future, the survival, the global catastrophe coronavirus brought to the world.
I know you need to be strong and sharp to face this challenge so I want to share some techniques I successfully used throughout my life. You may remember, I experienced some pretty tough situations, perhaps not the lockdown, but on the apocalyptic scale for sure.
1. The Metal Doors
The Big Boss technique, I found it the most powerful. Suitable for any situation you have no control over, strong emotions, disasters, heartaches, hurricanes of the mind.
Go into your inner space and imagine two huge metal doors, strong and thick. Look at them. What can you see? What colour are they? Are there any decorations? Are they guarded? Those doors keep inner peace and tranquility, they protect you from unpleasant invaders that take away your relaxation and power. Open the doors, hear the thunder of their movement. Put your thoughts, your worries, your heavy heart behind them. Then close and lock the doors. While doing that say to yourself that you acknowledge your emotions, situations and troubles, but at the moment you cannot do anything about them. Locked behind impenetrable doors, they don’t disturb you this night.
Once done and said, feel the comfortable darkness and emptiness within. If you have any thoughts coming up, just shove it behind the doors. Do it every time you struggle to fall asleep and soon the doors would turn into a protective structure within your mind.
2. The Boxes
Suitable for issues that are currently bothering you and need dealing with, but at the moment you do not know what to do. For instance: lack of money, argument with a loved one, job issues, problems with parents etc.
Imagine that inside your mind you have a room with shelves where you keep empty boxes. Put the thoughts about the subject that is disturbing you into a box and close the lid. Tell yourself that you are parking “The argument with Jack” in a box, you are not ignoring it, but are leaving it there until you are capable of properly dealing with it. Leave the room and close the door behind you. You will open the issue whenever you’d be ready to mule over it and find a solution but at night you will be freed from the need to solve anything.
3. The Blackboard
This method is suitable for a huge to do list and booming deadlines.
When you head is buzzing like a beehive, it does not stop in bed. So, when you are safely tucked in, I suggest closing your eyes and imagining a blackboard in front of you. Write down 3 most important issues that you are dealing with right now. Then opposite the 1st issue right down the time and date that you dedicate for thinking about it. Do the same with the other 2. Our mind needs a structure, and we need to indicate to it that there is a space in our schedule to deal with an important task, but it does not have to be right this moment. Now our task is to switch off and rest.
Look at the blackboard and tell yourself that you have completed your to do list for today and have a plan of action for the nearest future. Then wipe everything off and while you wiping your words from the blackboard imagine that you are wiping them from your mind. Enjoy the silence within. If after this you’d still have other thoughts popping up, imagine them appearing on the board and while you are wiping them off remember you are wiping them from your mind for the night.
I hope you’d find my experiences helpful.
I would also like to recommend the article How to Fall Asleep in 10, 60, or 120 Seconds printed in healthline.com.
The article gives The military method, 4-7-8 breathing method, Progressive muscle relaxation and other useful advice that hopefully would help you to safely enter the land of Morpheus.
Take care and sweet dreams.
Your Oksana xx
