Have you ever had a night (or several) when your eyes pop open around 3 in the morning? Random thoughts and song lyrics or worse, your mind starts going doing the dreaded, ‘What if?’ road. You have no idea why? And you are unable to quiet your mind, tossing and turning, for about 3 hours?
As someone who has dealt with sleeping problems since 2017. Usually because I’d wake up in the middle of the night when my mind would just start going. It also happened when I’d wake up after sunrise.
Yeah, it sucks.
There are a few things you can tell yourself when your anxiety starts running the show.
#1. Taking the advise of a Psychology Today article, and telling your mind, “This thought can wait.” (1) Because odds are, it can. All you have is what you can do at this moment. And at times what you need to do is rest. Rest is a non-negotiable essential.
#2. Is a question from Mel Robbins. When the anxiety you deal with starts running rampant, ask yourself, “What if it all works out?” Repeatedly if need be. (2)
#3. As I have told my mind when it starts racing as soon as I open my eyes, “Can you not start when I first wake up? I promise you won’t be ignored, yet can you give me time to wake up?” (It works.)
Yes I talk to my mind and thoughts.
If your racing mind is like mine, that’s when I treat my mind like a toddler. There’s a time and a place for someone to be running and screaming like a toddler at a playground. It’s not at 3 in the morning.
If you are awake screaming and crying at anytime of the night, seek help. There is a problem. If you don’t know why, that’s alright. There is help for that. It could be unresolved trauma. From an incident you don’t remember. That your mind block for the sake of survival.
Another thing I’ve told my mind, after the second night in two weeks of poor sleep, as my mind didn’t want to settle, I said, “We are not doing this again.” Not shouting, yet firmly. Minutes later I was sound asleep.
Ultimately, what I ask myself, before even getting in to bed is, “What’s causing me to want to crawl out of my skin?”
Reinventing yourself 
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