Quote:
Originally Posted by alea
My schedule is about the same. At night after tucking my kids to bed, I'll drown out the voice in my head with netflix, social media, and this forum until fatigue takes over and sleep comes. Otherwise, if i lie in my bed waiting for sleep to come naturally, the condemning voice in my head will be too unbearable.
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We all have our demons.
I don't consider myself mentally unstable but I have reached the stage in my life when I have friends, classmates and acquaintances that have either died or have ended up bedridden from health issues.
Falling asleep used to be easy. My thoughts would revolve around planning for the day or week ahead. Now there are nights when I'm stuck with morbid thoughts about my own mortality and those I care about.
However I have found a very effective solution and it revolves around mindfulness and meditation.
If you have time you should sign up for classes which is what I did to start off with. I attended a 6 session course spread over 6 weeks and it did wonders. There is no stigma attached to mindfulness. Many CEOs endorse it and some companies have incorporated it into their staff routines.
If you want to do it discreetly there are many apps that have been shown to be effective too. eg headspace, sanvello, waking up etc.
Mindfulness involves nothing more than being in the present. It calms the mind and puts life into perspective.
We spend far too much time regretting the past and worrying about the future. In reality we only have the present. Nothing else matters.
When we are 21 years old we don't spend nights worrying about dying even though death is inevitable. We live for the moment and enjoy ourselves. Mindfulness trains the mind not to worry about death even when we are 70 and death may come tomorrow because the present is all that matters.