Sound Mind, the Last Steps

I am eager to get to the Sound Sleep portion of this book as there are some hands on tricks to hacking better sleep (nasal sprays, nasal strips, sleep studies, etc...). I will be setting quite a few reminders for myself for this section. My alarms are getting crazy.

I find the synchronicity to be beautiful and amazing. Home organization: reduce, let go, simplicity. Time management: reduce, let go, focus on what you are doing at this moment, simplicity. Raw foods: simple foods, let go, simplicity, be at peace and learn to let go. Better sleep: process immediately what you are experiencing so that you can focus and let go, simplicity, reduce, beautiful and perfect! There is a theme to becoming healthy.

1) Let go 2) simplicity 3) focus on the moment 4) tranquility (be at peace with yourself and life around you).

Maybe it should be a new mantra for myself? Release, Simplicity, Focus, Tranquility. Again, beautiful!

Let's move on to the book and the mind hacks:

"Make six observations a day. Here’s a BEACON to light your way for when to do the steps:

1. B = in Bed, right after waking up in the morning;

2. E = Eating breakfast but before drinking caffeinated beverages;

3. A = shortly before A.M. ends (before noon), during a lull;

4. C = usual Catnap time, one or two hours after lunch;

5. O = Over the dinner meal;

6. N = early in the Night, one or two hours after dinner.

On each occasion, ask yourself the next eight questions. Once you get the hang of things, it takes less than a minute to run through them all. During the first few trials, please walk or crawl through the questions, which could take five minutes.
• Do I feel sleepy? Could I actually fall asleep or doze off if circumstances permitted?
• Do I feel tired? Am I feeling low energy but without the desire to sleep?
• Do I feel fatigued? Can I distinguish between chronic tiredness (fatigue) and being tired after, say, cleaning the house or mowing the lawn?
• Do I need to take action for any of these feelings? If not, what happens to these feelings during the day?

Nearly all poor sleepers attempting these steps will experience some sleepiness. However, if you cannot tap into this precise feeling, chances are you turned sleepiness into feelings of tiredness or fatigue. This mystery is deeply entwined in the special feelings called emotions, which, if left unsolved, push you to believe that pills are the best insomnia therapy."

Krakow, Barry (2007-09-28). Sound Sleep, Sound Mind: 7 Keys to Sleeping Through the Night (pp. 131-132). Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Processing emotions can be a very tricky thing for many people. Krakow recommends seeking out a therapist if your emotions become overwhelming, if you have experience trauma, pstd, or suffer from nightmares. Here are some unhealthy ways that we hide from our emotions: television, reading (definitely me), self medicating (most commonly food and alcohol), promoting one emotion to hide another (anger, sex, etc...), somatizing (when your emotional pain becomes physical pain), talk therapy (when you talk and talk and talk about it without resolution), medication, talking too much, fantasy, directing emotions into activity, and becoming mired in emotions.

Really become aware of your mind and body and what you are experiencing and any ways you might be hiding your emotions in unhealthy ways.

Krakow believes that laughter is very vital in emotional expression and recommends watching one laughter inducing video/movie a day.

Crying is another excellent way in which to express emotions (the good ones and what we may consider the bad ones as well).

"After you complete a good cry, notice how:
• your neck, shoulders, and chest feel more relaxed;
• you breathe easier and stand up straighter; • racing thoughts diminish;
• imagery is more accessible;
• long your emotional well-being lasts.

Never underestimate the power of crying. One good cry per week markedly enhances the balance in the TFI System. Crying releases much emotional tension without necessarily going in depth through all the emotional processing steps. Although you want to work at higher levels of emotional precision, use a good cry to your advantage as a reasonable and excellent way to move toward that goal. Finally, next time you hear someone say “I almost lost it,” now you know they almost lost their version of control over their emotions. However, after a healthy cry, you might find yourself one day declaring “I found it” when you discover heartfelt and invaluable Intel from your emotions." (p. 161).

Next Step:
When a minor issue arises follow these steps:
"You need ten to twenty minutes for the whole practice, although many discover that five minutes are sufficient. Once skilled in this technique, a minute is adequate. First perform pleasant imagery for a few minutes to activate the system positively. Then open your eyes and reconfirm in your mind or verbally the nature of the minor issue. In other words, be clear about the problem.

Now close your eyes and picture a pebble dropped into a pond of water. Once the pebble hits the water, see the water rippling outward. Here’s the most powerful step: avoid engaging too much self-talk; just picture the ripples of water, because if you see ripples, new images usually pop into your mind’s eye. These images are often new insights to solve the problem.

The images may provide a clear picture that offers an obvious solution; or they may spur you to change or transform your original feelings or reconfigure your thoughts. When a new idea or thought emerges, it does not feel like the usual self-talk or chatter; it possesses more clarity and a feeling of value, like a “lightbulb” effect. There is nothing hokey about this skill or about the capacity of your brain to function in this way. Your brain has the knack to solve problems rapidly using imagery, similar to bringing up a map in your mind’s eye to give directions." (pp. 172-173).

Again, I highly recommend reading this book as there are more tips and tricks that he mentions as well as thoughts on nightmares, stress, anxiety, and other common maladies that get in our way of a good night's sleep. I am just listing the ones that I am trying out as well as any thing I find intriguing.

So now that I have 6 more alarms on my phone, lol, we get to try these out before moving on to some physical tricks. woot!