ONE simple step to improve your sleep and ultimately take your life to the next level
We live in a time where when something breaks, we throw it away rather than fixing it. We purchase the clothes that we would like to be a representation of who we are, we change it when it is not suitable anymore and we throw away items that no longer serve us or stand in our way. We decorate our house, garden and/or rooms. We manipulate our material world to suit the way we would like to be perceived or the way that suits our lifestyle - and most of us feel free to change any objects, decorations or arrangements if we, and when we feel the need to. BUT:
When it comes to our thoughts, emotions and state of mind, we have a much different approach; we identify! We express who we are by the use of words that describe emotions, state of minds or thoughts:
These are just a few examples of how we through our language identify ourselves as our current state of mind. We have all tried to be happy, sad, stressed, depressed or angry. So if these state of mind are changing, how can they be who we are? Does that mean that every time our mood changes, who we are changes with it? What do you think?
| ONE simple step to improve your sleep and ultimately take your life to the next level |
What if, our thoughts, emotions and state of mind are nothing but our mental environment, just like the garden, our home or the area that surrounds us is our physical environment? Just like we can influence our physical and material environments we can change and reorganise our mental and internal environment. If the colours of the walls in our house do not suit us, we paint. If we enjoy the grass freshly cut in the garden, we cut the grass. BUT when we experience a negative emotion, we have a tendency to sit down and say to ourselves and others: “I am sad”.
Emotions, states of mind and thoughts are merely passing experiences that we all have. They are passing energies that influence our experience and quality of life. If we hold on to these thoughts or emotions they fester in our body for longer periods of time, if we let them pass through, we are able to utilise the energy they came with, make a change, create passion and return to a positive state of mind.
Just like our material surroundings depend on us to paint, move or clean, so does our internal environment depend on us!
It seems to be that we live in a throw-away-culture when it comes to the material world, but for our internal world we live in a world of CLINGING, ATTACHMENTS AND LIMITED BELIEVES OF WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE ARE CAPABLE OF!
I reckon it would be helpful and environmentally friendly to swap those two approaches around so that we begin to fix and repair the material objects while we throw away emotions, thoughts and state of mind that is not leading us to a life of success.
The good news is, that when we experience that we are NOT our changing state of mind, nor the waving thoughts neither the current emotions, we are able to, (I am sure you’ve already guessed it): CHANGE! Now the only thing we need is the tool to make that change! And here I share with you ONE simple step to improve your sleep and ultimately take your life to the next level that I have utilised and are still practising in my everyday life!
The internet, libraries and media are FULL OF TOOLS TO HELP US WITH EXACTLY THAT - it is truly a treat to be surrounded by that much goodness AND! RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW I WILL SHARE WITH YOU HOW TO IN ONE simple step to improve your sleep and ultimately take your life to the next level!!!
Before we get there, I want to ask you: WHO ARE YOU? Are you the changing thoughts, passing emotions or your current state of mind? What do you allow to be defining who you are? Will you allow anger, sadness, frustrations or depression to decide who you are and what you are capable of in this life? NO! RIGHT! They are of course a key part in the experience of being you, but nothing more, nothing less! They are valuable thoughts, emotions and state of minds if we are able to take their energy they come with and change it into passion, active participation and change! AND YOU CAN DO EXACTLY THAT! I know it! Because I have been able to do that! I am as superhuman as you are, I am as beautiful, cool and powerful as you are! SO I KNOW, you are able to make the same changes as I did in my life! You are able to shine brighter every day and achieve more in your life that anyone ever thought was possible!
And with this POWERFUL ONE simple step to improve your sleep and ultimately take your life to the next level you are able to begin the path to a greater life.
| ONE simple step to improve your sleep and ultimately take your life to the next level |
As a pregnant woman, I have a vivid experience of HOW IMPORTANT AND GOOD NIGHT OF UNDISTURBED SLEEP IS! I am sure that you, perhaps as a parent to toddlers or being sleep deprived know this much more intensively than I DO! If we don’t get enough good quality sleep and rest, we simply don’t function. Because of many pee-journeys in the night and in general restless sleep due to this beautiful baby in my belly, I do not feel like myself at the moment. I truly experience that I am in a body looking out through incredibly tired eyes and carrying a very heavy lump of meat around the universe. I know most of you can relate to this experience, I mean not the pregnancy, but the feeling that occurs after days, weeks and months of bad sleep. Right?
Say you have a toddler or a few. You also have all these things that you would like to do in the morning, yoga, meditation, exercise, a good cup of tea, a quiet moment reading. BUT! life is unfolding in such a way, that it becomes more of a struggle for you to achieve your morning routine while getting everybody ready for their day. And sleep-wise, MUCH we can do to welcome a healthy sleep-routine into our life - but one important aspect of that, IS OUR APPROACH and PERCEPTION of the situation. Notice how you describe your experiences, as the descriptions give you a clue whether you are fertilising the internal environment for a NEGATIVE state of mind OR a POSITIVE STATE OF MIND!
or
Perhaps those descriptions do describe what happened to some extent, but I wonder if they are helpful to your growth, joy and life?
Would it be possible to describe the same experience in a different way?
YES! OKAY! I know it is EASY SAID! Difficult to get done, especially if its the one hundred and seventh time we go through this experience. BUT STILL, it is all about moving towards an approach that is empowering us rather than de-armouring us.
AND NOW WE COME TO THE KEY OF THIS BLOG POST WHICH IS:
How we in ONE simple step can improve our sleep and ultimately take our life to the next level
GRATITUDE!
Gratitude is THE one most powerful emotion and state of mind.
It has already been well established that gratitude is associated with greater psychological well-being and MOST LIKELY gratitude is also a key to strong physical health.
Gratitude is the antidote to ANGER and FEAR, the two strong negative emotions that take control of our life! FEAR and ANGER creep into our lives and influence our life quality, control how we make decisions and impacts what we think we are capable of. BUT! If we learn to cultivate the feeling of gratitude we are able to wipe away both FEAR and ANGER!
We are not our thoughts nor the creator of our thoughts BUT we are the cultivator of our thoughts! Fertilise and support the seeds of thoughts that EMPOWER YOU!
This is a little simple tool that has helped me to fall asleep and improve the quality of sleep as well (even if it is short). Our state of mind before we fall asleep affects our sleep. Are we worried, stressed, angry or sad, we activate the systems in our body that raise blood pressure, raise our heartbeat and get us into a state of fight and flight mode. When we fall asleep, the sleep will be coloured by the pre-sleep state of mind. Often we will have dreams where our pulse is high and we are in fearful situations. BUT! With a simple tool like GRATITUDE, we are able to combat that and ensure a much better sleep experience.
This is how it works:
| ONE simple step to improve your sleep and ultimately take your life to the next level |
When you are all snuggled up in bed, the lights off and you all prepped for a good nights sleep THEN:
1) Close the eyes and bring to mind your day. Begin with the first thing that comes to your mind that you feel grateful for, that can be a cup of tea at the right time, or a nice warm shower or something someone said to you. Anything, small or big that comes to your mind that you are grateful for from the day that is about to end.
2) Experience that moment that you are grateful for as if you were there for the first time and experiencing it again.
3) Once you’ve finished the first thing, bring your mind to the second thing that you are grateful for. Notice how it changes your facial expression, your breath and your whole body’s position and softness.
4) From the second thing, we go to the third, fourth, fifth and so on :)
TIP: it might come easy to you to think of things that you are grateful for, it might also not. As with anything in life, repetition is the key to mastery. Keep practising this and soon the gratitude list grows longer and longer. We all have things we can be grateful for: a breath and another, a beating heart, the sun, specific food or life itself.
The sleep will improve AND you are at the same time cultivating a state of mind that is helpful to ensure a life full of success! Success is measured in how YOU feel being you AND the smiles you gift and are gifted along the way in life!
