Do you ever have trouble shutting off your mind as you lay down to go to sleep at night? You know that feeling when your body is exhausted, but there’s just that ember of anxiety that smolders in your mind that prevents your body from relaxing. That “fire in your belly” can be a good thing if it helps motivate you to complete tasks, accomplish new goals, or practice a new skill. But when that feeling turns into a more persistent worry that won’t go away, then you need to take an active role in rest some calmness and balance to your life.
Here are a few tips for helping your mind shut down at night:
1) Create a “to do” list – sometimes there are just more tasks than there are hours in the day. Creating a list of things that you want to accomplish tomorrow can help get them out of your mind at night.
2) Actively think about a calming place. We often find what we are looking for, so think about a place or person or activity that is relaxing and mentally put yourself in that place. Think about how the place, person or activity looks, sounds, feels and smells. The more detailed you can be, the easier it will be to go there mentally.
3) Distract yourself with some type of white noise or nature sounds. Sometimes just having a fan running or listening to some nature sounds recording can help take your mind off of your worries.
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