Everyone has a busy, jam-packed, often frustrating, always stressful life. Each day we have to deal with difficult people and impossible situations which can leave us angry, exhausted, frustrated, and stretched to our breaking point. Unfortunately for our families, we often bring these emotions home with us, storming around and snapping at people when we should be relaxing and rejuvenating. Unfortunately for us, these feelings often hang around well into the wee hours of the night, leaving us tossing and turning and unable to get the sleep we need to recover from the demands of our day. This can easily morph into a never-ending cycle where you are always tired, always stressed, and always on the brink of some kind of breakdown.
No one wants to live like that.
This month, in honor of Let It Go Day, which was celebrated on June 23, take a breath, brace yourself, and let them all go so you can sleep tonight. Free yourself from negative thoughts and emotions and let go of regrets and guilt. Let go of the rude person in the grocery store that stole your parking space or the colleague at the office that took credit for your idea. Let go of the fight you had with your mother, the ongoing fear that you won’t be able to pay for college, and the constant concern about paying the bills.
Let it all go, because there is very little you can do about most of those things anyway and holding on to them is just taking up space in your life and keeping you stuck in that never ending cycle. Let them all go so you won’t spend dinner seething or snapping and you won’t spend all night tossing about in bed. Let them go so you can get a good night’s sleep tonight.
Follow these steps to Let Go of those things that are keeping you stuck and see how quickly you settle in for a good night’s sleep tonight.
- Figure out which instances you need to let go by identifying where other people backed you into a corner, put you in a bad position, took away your power, or pushed your buttons.
- Figure out what emotion is driving your response to each of these instances.
- Do something physical to work the tension out of your body while you are working it out in your mind. Exercise, practice breathing, or go for a walk.
- Talk to yourself like you would to a good friend and encourage yourself to let it all go.
- Identify the warning signs that stress and emotion are building in your body and commit to participating in things that ease that build up before it becomes untenable.
Stress can wreak havoc with our sleep schedule by keeping our minds and our hearts racing. Combat this by designing and committing to a bedtime routine dedicated to helping you let all this tension go so you are relaxed and ready for bed.
Related Articles:
- Build a Better Sleep Environment (valleysleepcenter.com)
- 6 Ways that Managing Stress Can Help You Sleep (valleysleepcenter.com)
- 4 Mistakes You Might Be Making That May Be Costing You Sleep (valleysleepcenter.com)
