I used to have a problem for a while falling asleep at night. I would just lay there looking like I was asleep but the thoughts in my head were like they were on a hamster wheel just churning away. What did I not do that day, what do I have to do tomorrow, what I should have done differently. Have you ever been there? Frustrating, right?
Did you know that stress hormones, especially cortisol, can stay in your body for up to 12 hours? In fact, there are up to 1400 neurochemicals, like cortisol, that get dumped into our bodies when we get stressed. And when we re-hash an argument, a meeting, anything that gets us stressed again, those same chemicals get dumped into the body. And they can last for 12 hours. No wonder we are chronically stressed and can’t fall asleep.
But you change this pretty easily. How? By flooding your body with revitalizing and relaxing neurochemicals. It’s like a see saw. The stress chemicals go down as the relaxation ones go up.
So, how can you do this while laying in bed staring at the ceiling? Gratitude!!
When I get like this, and it’s usually when I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, I pull up people in my life and send them gratitude. I am grateful for my daughter, I am grateful for my sister, I am grateful for me. I name them specifically, see their face and send them gratitude.
This will change your body’s internal state. The more often you do it, the easier it will become.
I invite you to try it the next time you can’t fall asleep.
Check out the video here