Commentary by Kristen Boice
Are you stressing or worrying about your relationships, work, finances, your children or school? How do you manage your worries, stress, fears and anxiety? Does it impact how you fall or stay asleep?
We don’t want to worry or stress of things we feel we cannot control. We try to turn it off but don’t know how. The bottom line is that worrying is exhausting and doesn’t help us feel better. We end up feeling anxious, fearful and stuck. There is hope to start changing this pattern.
Below are some helpful steps to begin to sleep better at night.
1. Do some form of movement during the day. Take a walk, run, swim, bike or join a yoga or exercise class – even if it’s five minutes a day. Try and make it a priority to move your body to get move the anxiety out.
2. Explore how you manage your feelings. Do you feel them? Stuff them down? Do you numb them out with the Internet, social media, shopping, eating, drugs, alcohol or business, to name a few? If we don’t feel our feelings, we will stay stuck. We didn’t grow up necessarily with parents or society telling us it’s okay to feel. We were told to shake it off or pull yourself up by the bootstraps and get over it. Get curious about what you feel and allow them to flow.
3. No technology or TV before bedtime. Watching the news or watching something scary before bed and cause the brain to move into flight, fight or freeze. The body isn’t able to rest because the brain is trying to stay safe. Read something positive or listen to something inspiring or uplifting. This will help calm the brain and help the body to relax.
Kristen Boice is the owner of Pathways to Healing Counseling, LLC at 1212 Westfield Rd. in Noblesville. To contact her, email [email protected].
