Does Stress Keep You Awake At Night?
Are you exhausted through the day and wide awake, tossing and turning all night?
Do you wish you could wake up feeling refreshed and ready to seize the day with joy and enthusiasm?
Today I’ll share the #1 way to calm your mind and take back the night.
Stress related sleep disorders are common outcomes of our modern day life-style.
Not long ago, it was rare for people to admit they had stress or couldn’t sleep at night. It indicated something was wrong, stress was considered a mental health issue by our medical professionals and stigmatized as an inability to cope in life and a major impediment to professional growth.
Since the late 80’s, stress, chronic anxiety, and loneliness became more mainstream, (especially with youth who didn’t know any other way) as systems became more automated, picking up the pace of society in general, and our options in life and business became unlimited, less frame-worked and focused.
So It’s no coincidence the movement to un-stigmatize mental health issues, including stress have gained momentum, as the amount of people suffering from stress now represents the majority instead of the rare minority.
So much so, its been proven that 85% of modern day illness and disease is stress related, or psychosomatic.
Not getting the sleep you need, undermines your work performance, relationships and creative expression.
Left unchecked, it unfolds into chronic neck and shoulder pain, poor digestion, weight gain and obliterates your immune system.
Because sleeplessness is rooted in societies new norms as well as your lifestyle habits, it takes resolve to turn it around.
That said, the solutions are really very simple. A few simple tweaks to your routine will break through this cycle of frustration for once and for all.
Ritualize Energy Management
There are principles informing stress management.
They go far deeper than the vitality you get from cycling, running trails or even doing most modern versions of yoga.
That’s because no matter how fast or far you run, your mind can travel faster… much faster.
I know plenty of entrepreneurs who run or go to the gym regularly and still have tight muscles, achy joints and difficulty getting a good night’s sleep… due to racing thoughts that unfortunately, they can only control by self-medicating with alcohol, drugs or overeating.
It’s all about energy management. Having control of your BOS (basic operating system). Controlling your basic body and brain functions through your energy system.
Being able to manage your brain waves as well as your body functions.
In the Tao Leadership Arts there are 3 principles, we call “principles of energy” to master your brain, your body and your life.
Learning about the 1st principle, “Water Up – Fire Down” will introduce you to exercises and lifestyle habits that release stress and restore your vitality.
According to this principle, warm fire energy, produced in your heart, should travel down to your abdomen. Cool water energy, produced in your kidneys should travel upward through an energy channel along your spine.
Good health is characterized by a warm belly, which is good for your digestion and abdominal organs, and a cool head, equated with a clear mind.
Negative physical and psychological health consequences occur with reversed energy circulation.
When the energy center in your lower abdomen is weak, it’s hard to hold fire energy in your abdomen. Poor stress management constricts the chest and forces fire energy back up toward the head.
Symptoms of this reversed energy flow include a warm head, a cloudy mind, headaches, irregular digestion, anxious thoughts, neck and shoulder tension, lower back and joint pain…
And this reversed energy flow (which doesn’t flow) is the root of anxiety, insomnia, lethargy, depression, and most disease.
Take Back The Night
Unless you are practiced, it is challenging to quiet the mind using your will alone.
Especially for us “Human Chimps” who understand the world through story and try to rationalize everything uncomfortable, instead of looking straight at the discomfort to process and alleviate it.
This is why eastern practices like my Qi-Energetics classes and SMART Entrepreneur Empowerment Systems use the brain to train the body and the body to train the brain.
Your energy system (life force) is the conduit as it forms the bridge of communication between the two. They restore your integrity as they integrate body, mind and spirit.
Most full body exercises will temporarily release stress and settle your mind.
That said, effective energy management and deeper healing requires the ability to settle your mind at will.
So you can manage your time and energy well and clear the sub-conscious fears that get suppressed by your “busy-ness” through the day.
If you don’t, they will rise to the surface to dominate you during downtime or when it’s time to sleep.
A little guidance and practice and you will get the sleep you need and not just release stress. You’ll repel it like water off a duck.
Now, I want to hear from you… scroll down and comment below. Are you getting the sleep you need, and if not, why?
Now, let me ask you another question …
What if you woke up well rested everyday, filled with enthusiasm?
What would it do for you?
