Friday, September 2, 2011

Follow up How to: Handle Stress

Alright y'all so remember this post about how to figure out ways to handle stress? Well, thanks to Malory for contributing as requested. I'll have you know that I did in fact notice my breathing these past two weeks. It did help just to take a step back and get some good old oxygen in. But I thought I'd share something that I found interesting.
So I have a real hard time falling asleep. That's when my brain goes into high speed Internet mode. So many thoughts start running through my head. It's like a bad dream that when you go back and try to explain it to someone you don't understand how suddenly your mom turned into a giant teddy bear in your dream. So each night when I lie down I just got swarmed with thoughts. At times it leads to unwelcome anxiety. I've tried many things to calm me down. Music, a movie, book, saying a prayer, writing in my journal. All seem to help. But nothing really does the trick.
So the other night I am thinking about homework and all the stuff I have to accomplish in the next few days. And my heart rate rises and I feel it coming on and a thought comes to mind... "just embrace it!"  I thought, hmm. Okay I'll just think as hard as I can about all this and put all my frustration into it. So I did. I just thought and thought as hard as I could. I put all my stress into that thought. You know what happened? I fell asleep.
Not sure why this worked so well. But I'm sure glad it does. I tried it out a second time the other night. Same result! Finally after at least a decade of dealing with insomnia I've found a solution! Kind of weird... but let's be honest. It's me! Nothing new there about weird things.

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