I got asked this morning about how to lull back to sleep if you wake up in the middle of the night and your mind starts racing…. So here is a great way to deal with such and get back to sleep.
One of the big issues I have found with people who have trouble with their sleep patterns and habits, is that if they wake in the night, their thoughts prevent them from getting back to sleep.
There are a number of techniques and strategies that can help deal with such, learning self-hypnosis, relaxation skills and mindfulness processes are very good starting places.
Today, I thought I’d share a basic technique for dealing with such occasions. This process shows you how to dissociate from the constant flow of unwanted thoughts and thereby stop those thoughts from having a physiological effect upon you. You can then relax and get back to sleep much more easily.
You see, often there is a degree of resistance that creates more of a problem. For example, when someone panics, they are medically safe to all intents and purposes (though the behavior that accompanies panic can cause a potential problem!) – if they were to step back and let the panic happen, without resistance, it would subside. What fuels it, are the thoughts, fears, worries and realistic imagery inside the head, all combining.
So with this process, we learn to step back, let the thoughts just happen without resisting them, without fighting them and dissociate from the thoughts also to leave a relaxed body behind. We start with some mindfulness, then move on to use the unwanted thoughts – we dissociate from them and then actually utilise them to help us relax and lull ourselves back to sleep.
Here is the process to use as and when you require it:
Step One: Induce Hypnosis.
You can do so by any means you desire or know of. You can use the process in my Science of self-hypnosis book, use the free audio we give away on this website to practice or have a look at the following articles as and when you need them; they are basic processes to help you simply open the door of your mind:
Heavy Arm Self-Hypnosis Induction Method
Using Eye Fixation for Self-Hypnosis
The Chiasson Self-Hypnosis Method
Hand to Face Self-Hypnosis Induction
Using Magnetic Hands for Self-Hypnosis
The Coin Drop Self-Hypnosis Induction
However, with this process, an induction is potentially too much activity, so I teach my clients how to adopt a hypnotic mindset and simply have a mindset that is positive and expectant. Again, to really understand the cognitive set of the hypnotic mindset, go grab a copy of my Science of self-hypnosis book where it is explained in simple but comprehensive terms.
Once you have induced hypnosis, or just adopted the hypnotic mindset, move on to the next step.
Step Two: Now, begin by being aware of your entire body as one… From the top of your head, all the way down into your fingers and finger tips… and down into the tips of your toes… Be aware of your entire body as one… Just be aware of it and watch it.
Don’t try to change anything; don’t try to stop anything from changing. Sometimes things change all by themselves when you watch them, that’s ok… Embrace what is happening within you instead of fighting or resisting it…
Be passive, a detached observer, just be contented to notice what you notice, feel what you feel… Once you really feel tuned in and aware of your body, move on to the next step.
Step Three: Tune in to your breathing next… Notice the sensations of your breathing… notice your tummy… rise as you inhale… and fall as you exhale…
Notice your chest expand… and relax…
Notice even the faintest of sensations… even the tiniest feelings caused by the breath anywhere and everywhere in the body.
Don’t try to change the breathing… don’t try to stop it from changing… just be a passive observer… let the body do the breathing… Observe it, as if you were watching a bird on a tree breathing, or as if you were watching someone else breathing or as if you were watching a well-maintained machine. When you are truly tuned in to your breathing, very aware of it in it’s entirety, then move on to the next step.
Step Four: Be more and more comfortably absorbed in the feelings of the body… in this moment.
Turn your attention to the sensations in your arms, legs, chest, tummy, head and everywhere else… One by one.
As you focus on each area, let your awareness spread over the surface of your skin… deep into the muscles… and even into the bones and joints…
Let the breath guide your awareness… deeper and deeper into the body… let your mind be more patiently absorbed in even the smallest feelings…
Once you have been through the entire body, let your awareness rest on your entire body as one.
Let your body continue to do the breathing… Once you have this deep sense of awareness of yourself physically, then move on to the next step.
Step Five: Now turn your attention even deeper… toward your mind… to consciousness itself… Turn your attention to your thinking…
Become more aware of your thoughts… of anything you say to yourself, in your mind… Notice the imagery that is there and the speed at which it is all moving… Become mindful even of unspoken thoughts at the back of your mind… Notice deliberate thoughts, or one’s that just happen to cross your mind… Don’t judge them… just accept the fact that they are happening, and allow yourself to become a detached observer of your own stream of consciousness…
Notice in particular, how you respond to your thoughts, as they occur, moment by moment… how you feel about them as they happen… Just watch them happening, then move on to the next step.
Step Six: Imagine that out there in front of you is a huge screen of some kind. Maybe it is a television screen, maybe it is a cinema screen, maybe it is just a vast frame of some kind. Create it in your mind in detail.
Simply let your entire stream of consciousness move into and upon the screen. Let it all be up there on that screen or in that frame, dissociated from you and out there.
Now just watch it all happening over there and start to notice the difference that you feel in your body as you lighten up, relax deeper and drift comfortably back to sleep.
Imagine your body relaxing more with each image that you watch on the screen before you.
Just keep on suggesting to yourself that you relax further with each thing you watch and see on the screen, keep dissociated from it all, observe it and enjoy relaxing more. Let yourself drift away from there.
There it is, there you have it. You just lull and enjoy from there onwards…
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Have some of themes here resonated with you? Then have a read of these pages:
1. Do you need help or support in a particular area of your life?
Coaching with Adam Eason Or Hypnotherapy with Adam Eason
2. Would you like a satisfying and meaningful career as a hypnotherapist helping others? Are you a hypnotherapist looking for stimulating and career enhancing continued professional development and advanced studies?
Adam Eason’s Anglo European training college.
3. Are you a hypnotherapist looking to fulfil your ambitions or advance your career?
Hypnotherapist Mentoring with Adam Eason.
Likewise, if you’d like to learn more about self-hypnosis, understand the evidence based principles of it from a scientific perspective and learn how to apply it to many areas of your life while having fun and in a safe environment and have the opportunity to test everything you learn, then come and join me for my one day seminar which does all that and more, have a read here: The Science of Self-Hypnosis Seminar. Alternatively, go grab a copy of my Science of self-hypnosis book.
