Mental Gymnastics
Are you taking your mental gymnastics routine to bed?My monkey mind prefers to hold board meetings at a regularly scheduled time, beginning promptly at 2:47 AM (yeah, you read that correctly) and ending roughly around 3:47 - provided that I don’t jump out of bed in utter frustration, grab a cup of tea and head to my office. Prior to the departure from the cozy comfort of the king-sized bed with the down duvet, I call in all reinforcements – man, I’d count sheep if I knew it would let me rest my weary eyes and get back to the business of restorative sleeping.UGH, my shoulder and neck still ache as I toss and turn endlessly trying to get comfortable – and thus the parade of chatter rolls out, an endless cacophony: I should look that up in my Louise Hay book - I wonder what she would say is the emotion associated with that physical pain – I really need to change the copy on my website – Should I sign up for B-School - You know what, I should turn this into a blog post. And so it jumps around from there, bouncing off the walls of my mind and what feels like those of the room. Sometimes I get up, go to the bathroom, grab a glass of water, noting the beautiful shadows the moon makes illuminating the artwork on the walls. In between, I pray and I meditate and I toss and turn, right side, left side, flat on my back, curled up in a ball, and over again. Then I pray and meditate some more, I recite mantras, getting tangled in the sheets. And if I am lucky enough to have stayed the course and not departed the room – eventually there is a moment of brief heaviness, right before my body surrenders and I know – the meeting is adjourned. Victory – I fall to slumber, deep sleep.Maybe it’s the patterns of the moon or biorhythms, maybe I had too much wine or too much coffee or maybe my mind is just working on overdrive, anxiety driven. I recall my doctor once asking me during a routine checkup, if I was experiencing anxiety or difficultly sleeping – I immediately responded “No,” assuming that this was normal. But a mind on overdrive is anxious. So we need to find ways quiet it, to relieve if from it’s UBER responsible self…as if the problems of the world can be solved in the middle of the night by an overly exhausted mind. There are enough hours in the day to achieve exactly what we need to (this middle-of-the-night roll call is not one of them!). It’s time to enjoy the ride - even the ones with eyes closed, lost in dreamland.So Dear Anxious Self, effective today, you are being relieved of your position. Your services are no longer needed. You have carried some heavy baggage from long ago, chock full of limiting beliefs and preconceived notions. These are the ideas of the world around you, not of me – not my true essence. I have been working on overdrive to combat your noise and I just realized something. This is my life, my domain, my bed, my head – so exit stage left if you please. We are done. I believe in possibility. I believe in dreams come true and I want to live an impassioned life – so don’t lay your stuff on me any longer. There’s no room at the Inn for it. I will recite my mantras to reinforce what is truth until you no longer have power in this domain. Hasta la vista, baby! There’s a new game in town.Sweet dreams.