Members are invited to contribute spiritual wisdom, teachings, channeled messages, uplifting content, healing sessions, and attunements to this network to bridge Heaven and Earth and unite Humanity as One.

Restful Insomnia?

Posted by Melodie Munro on October 6, 2011 at 7:13am
Restful Insomnia? posted by Melissa Breyer Jan 10, 2010 9:01 am Tonight, seventy-million Americans will battle insomnia. They will plump pillows, rehash arguments, fold laundry, take sleeping pills, watch TV. They’ll seek sleep but not find it. According to the National Sleep Foundation, up to a third of all Americans suffer from occasional or chronic wakefulness. Prescriptions for sleeping pills have increased 60 percent in six years, even though medical research (Journal of American Medicine, June 2006) shows that behavioral therapies are more effective for sleeplessness than pills. In her book, Restful Insomnia: How to Get the Benefits of Sleep Even When You Can’t (Conari Press, January 2010) insomnia expert Sondra Kornblatt shows us how to end the war with sleeplessness by learning to make peace with wakefulness. For many of us, that sounds easier said than done–especially if you suffer from what I call “midnight crazy brain” where small thoughts have the power to transform into nagging giants of mythological proportion. Kornblatt calls these thoughts, “Mind Eddies,” and tells us how to deal with them. “Mind Eddies are thoughts and stories that spin and spin,” she writes. “They have lots of current and get nowhere–just like those little whirlpools caught between mossy rocks at the edge of a river. A Mind Eddy might be repeating an argument that’s over and done. Or regurgitating what you coulda-woulda-shoulda done to avoid the discomfort you feel. Or anticipating an imagined argument the next time your sister-in-law phones about babysitting.” From the book, here’s how Kornblatt suggests tackling the Mind Eddy: Focus on sensations:• Focus on your skin, the air on your face, a little breeze running across your hands, the weave of the pillowcase on your cheek, the pressure of gravity holding you to the chair or bed. • Return your focus to one sensation, as in meditation. • Pay attention to the sensations that come from the Mind Eddy: your wrinkled brow, molars grinding, fists curled. Watch them ebb and flow. • Listen to external sounds, from the train whistle miles away to your heater clunking Disrupt the mental flow: • Sing. Singing disrupts the internal auditory channel, since the average person can handle only one sound track at a time. Try a song from childhood, an Ella Fitzgerald standard, a Christmas carol. If you’re concerned about disturbing a partner, whisper the song. • Imagine you’re in a theater, watching the movie you’re rerunning in your Mind Eddy. Now imagine that the theater rewinds the movie, that you can see and hear everything going backward. When the movie is back to the beginning, imagine putting an international “NO” symbol (the red circle with the diagonal red line in the middle) across the image. Then imagine leaving the theater. • Using all your senses, imagine a lovely, safe, relaxing place: remember playing cards with your grandmother, perhaps the green brocade of her couch, the edges of the deck as you shuffle, her voice asking about your day. For more information on Kornblatt’s techniques, visit her website at restfulinsomnia.com.

You need to be a member of The City of Shamballa Social Network to add comments!

Join The City of Shamballa Social Network

Tags: Insomnia?, Restful
Email me when people reply –
Follow