09 Mar 2008 03:49:55 | Remez Sasson
Do you fall asleep immediately after entering bed or do thoughts
and worries begin to flow into your mind, keeping your sleep
away? Do you find it hard to stop them?
When you are in bed at night there are fewer outside
distractions, it is quiet and dark, and therefore you are more
aware of the movements of your mind. You feel that thoughts are
attacking you, not giving you a moment's rest, especially if you
are experiencing some problems in your life.
If you are not healthy you will probably think about your
health. If you have problems at work, then thoughts about these
problems will probably flood your mind. A child will have
thoughts about his parents, teachers or examinations, and a
businessman about his work. Thoughts, worries and fears that are
usually repressed during the day surface up and swarm the mind.
What would be willing to do to free yourself from these
nibbling, restless thoughts that deny your sleep? Won't you be
happy to be able to silence all the thoughts that pop up when
you are in bed?
If you fight these thoughts and try to stop them forcefully they
will grow stronger, because you will be giving them more
attention. If you want to get rid of a tree growing in your
garden and cut it down, it will grow again quite fast, but if
you stop watering it, it will gradually wither. You need to
treat your thoughts in the same manner. In order to calm them
down you have to ignore them, which is equivalent to not
watering the tree.
How to ignore these nagging thoughts that escort you to bed?
Here are a few tips that might help you:
1. Go to bed at a reasonable hour, not too early and not too
late.
2. Lie down on your bed and relax your body.
3. For 2-3 minutes pay attention to every muscle in your body
from head to toe. If you find any tense muscle, relax it.
4. For about one minute, let thoughts come freely into your mind.
5. Watch these thoughts as they come and grow.
6. Tell your mind that if it has any important thoughts that
require attention, you are willing to discuss them tomorrow.
7. If one of the thoughts is too persistent, write it down so
that you can remember to think about it the next day.
8. Now try to look at the thoughts with lack of interest. Lack
of interest is the magic word when it comes to controlling and
silencing thoughts. Do not let your feelings to be aroused and
manipulated by your thoughts.
If thoughts still come, and they probably will, it is all right.
Don't fight them, but just try to ignore them by losing any
interest in them. An ignored thought ultimately goes away. Don't
worry if you fail at first. Keep on trying and the situation
will improve.
9. Watch the thoughts that enter your mind as if watching a
boring movie and they will lose their power.
10. There is another thing that can be done, and that is to
practice meditation every day.
After practicing meditation for some time it will affect your
sleep. As a by-product of meditation your mind will get
accustomed to being relaxed and at peace, and when you go to
sleep it will be much easier to ignore persistent and disturbing
thoughts. In fact, you might fall asleep immediately upon
switching off the light.
About Author :
Remez Sasson writes and teaches about spiritual growth,
meditation, positive thinking, creative visualization and mind
power, and issues a biweekly ezine, "Consciousness and Success".
He is the author of two books, "Will power and Self-Discipline"
and "Visualize and Achieve".
