I was chatting with a person and his statement was I am having trouble sleeping and he ended by saying that he wished I did not have Insomnia.
“The most powerful relationship you will ever have is the relationship with yourself.” ― Steve Maraboli
Back in 2018, I was literally saying this statement to myself every time I had trouble sleeping.
I would like to quote the way our brain works from my all-time favorite Ted talk by Marisa Peer(if you have never watched it. Please watch it you will not be disappointed) :
1. Your mind does what it thinks is in your best interest. If you are not getting what you want, then you are not in collaboration with your mind.
2. Your mind is hard-wired to move towards pleasure and avoid pain.
3. All your feelings are down to two things:
· The pictures you make in your head
· The words you say to yourself.
4. Your mind loves the familiar. If you want to succeed you have to make what is familiar, unfamiliar, and vice versa.
Correlation with this talk:
Point 2 states that our mind is hard-wired to avoid pain. When I listened to Ted Talk that sleeping less causes pain. My mind was in overdrive to fix the pain.
Point 3 states that feelings are related to words you say to yourself. I was saying things like “I have trouble sleeping”.Point 4 states that the mind loves the familiar. Having a racy mind always worried about sleep was familiar and my mind kept on being in this state.
How did the change happen:
Point 4 states that to succeed you have to make the familiar, unfamiliar.
I invested time in relaxation, meditation, and several other lifestyle changes. So what happened was relaxation started becoming familiar. Words I said to myself were “I am relaxing”.
The brain now had no need to worry because there was no fear and there was pleasure because I was relaxed and that is how change happened.
I know some people need help in making the familiar pattern of being worried and ruminating on worry. You need to make the worry unfamiliar and relaxation familiar. Once you do that you will not have trouble sleeping.
In case you need help in making the familiar pattern of worry unfamiliar don’t hesitate to mail at manohar@manohargrandhi.com 🙂