There are few things worse than trying to fall asleep and failing. Getting angry at not being able to sleep, which of course makes everything worse. And feeling bad for not getting all the nice sleep you scheduled after reading last week’s post.
I’ve been there.
In my case, it was made worse by a snoring partner (those days are gone, though), and by a lot of worry. I think worry is actually the thing that is behind most of the times when we cannot stop the brain from thinking.
My brain serves up anything from worry to character dialogue to old incidences that still bother me to imagined disputes with imagined people, trouble with the electricity company… you’re probably nodding because you know all this.
Well, most of that stopped after I discovered EFT.
Because that tapping is a fast way to relieve stress and calm the body and mind. It helps to regulate the vagus system (which is that part of the nervous system that rules over healing, digestion, sex and relaxation). The vagus system is turned off if you have too much adrenalin rushing through your body aka too much stress. Instead, you’re in fight/flight mode, which is anything but conductive to sleep.
Unfortunately, being worried can become quite a thought habit.
And if your busy, busy, busy all day long and manage to ignore all that worry in order to get stuff done, your brain catches up with the amount of worry due when you curl up in bed and try to sleep.
Which is why the EFT tapping phrases I’ll offer below are about reducing the amount of worrying in your life.
A special EFT trick can help.
But before I do that, I want to share a trick that I sometimes use when I have trouble falling asleep. It does require that you are somewhat familiar with the EFT points, so you might go and look at the tapping video again where I explain the points. (The Tapping Video)
Now, doing full tapping rounds while lying in bed is a tad annoying. If I need that, I do it in my mind, but that does take a bit of experience as well. The trick is much simpler:
Put two fingers on the first EFT point (Inner Eye) and take a slow, comfortable breath, as deep as feels good for you. When you’re done, move to the next point (Outer Eye) and repeat. Go through all the points if you can, but at least go to the Collar Bone one – the others are less easy to reach.
Do another round if you aren’t calm enough after the first one.
Usually, this calms down the mind, the body and allows you to fall asleep.
In addition, it really helps to develop a habit of thinking about something calming in bed, like imagining a lovely beach, a waterfall, a sunny clearing or something similarly soothing. (Yes, you know that, but it rarely works for you. Try that after the breathing exercise and make it a habit.)
The good news is that insomnia isn’t a fate you’re saddled with all your life. Now you have something you can do! And the next step is to release as much of the underlying worry as you can.
Here are your tapping sentences:
Even though I’m so used to worrying about everything in my life, it’s something I learned to keep me safe, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I choose to unlearn that old programming and stop that worrying right now!
Even though I was taught to worry and to expect bad things in order to be protected, I’m totally okay, and I now realize that this thought habit is not helping me at all, so I’m letting it go now.
Even though all this worrying keeps me from getting enough sleep and really makes my days harder than they need to be, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now choose to let go of that harmful thought habit and focus on nice things while falling asleep.
Your Turn:
What are your experiences with insomnia?
What do you routinely think about while in bed?
What happened while you were tapping?
And finally – what are you creating right now?
Please share in a comment.
Image Source: F. Moebius
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I read in bed. I read until I cannot hold my eyes open. It’s a good thing I’m retired, because to get eight hours of sleep I usually have to sleep in. Today, I’m running on six hours. It will be a long day.
Ah, to be able to sleep as long as you want. And reading in bed is awesome. 🙂