In a previous post I have introduced the topic of sleeping disorders and how to treat them in natural ways with proper positive mental techniques. I have listed some tips to sleep better, and after discussing the first three, I am going to cover now the fourth one, that is, the good habit of working through your thoughts about the day, so to put them aside, and then saying positive affirmations to yourselves.
Work through your daily thoughts before sleeping
The first issue is connected with that of keeping a worry log, which I discussed in a previous post. My suggestion was to keep always with you a pen and a notebook during the day, and on the bedside table at night. When a worry thought pops up in your mind, don’t allow yourself to brood on it, but immediately write it down, with some few notes and considerations, and deliver it to your worry period (see this post). The prompt effect of doing this, is to relax your mind and slow your brain, because you know, now, that whatever problem it is, it will have its proper time and opportunity to be managed, and therefore you don’t have to think about it in that moment.
If your life is such that it is difficult to find a worry period during the day, to process all of your daily worries, then you definitely must take some time to do it just before sleeping. Michael A. Grandner, Ph.D., instructor of psychiatry at the Behavioral Sleep Medicine program at the University of Pennsylvania told HuffPost in 2013:
A better approach would be [to] take some time in the evening to work through the day, make lists to do tomorrow and clear your mental desktop of the stuff that you still have to think about. Then, get into bed.
Doing this will relax your brain, and will give you the calm assurance that all of your problems are under control. Now, you can strengthen this state of consciousness through positive affirmations, that will sow in your subconscious the confidence needed to let yourself go to sleep peacefully. For example, affirmations like these are very potent to wash away stress and anxiety as well as silly thoughts:
- I have done my BEST for today.
- I have earned my REST for tonight
- I have put my LOVE into all my deeds.
- I have used KINDNESS in all my thoughts.
- I close this day with PURE JOY and now drift into SOUND ASLEEP.
But you can find yourself other affirmations, more specific to your own case. Let’s now go deeper into this subject.
How to say positive affirmations
Affirmations are simple statements you say to yourself that help to insert positive ideas and suggestions into your brain, where they can be surprisingly effective. The key to effectiveness is in frequent repeating of these positive statements — preferably outloud, softly, to yourself, — so that your subconscious can absorb these thoughts and eventually come to act on them, automatically.
To start, you’re going to take a few deep breaths to help you relax and be receptive to the benefit of the affirmations. Here we go.
- Take a good deep breath through your nose, nice and deep, and gently blow the air out your pursed lips, very slowly, long and drawn out, almost like whistling.
- Then do it again, take a deep long breath through your nose, deeper, feel your lower chest swell up with air, and slowly let the air out your pursed lips…
- And do it one more time, a good deep breath, and let it out slowly through your lips.
Now feel yourself relaxing as you get ready to speak affirmations. You can choose from several sets of affirmations. Here follows some examples.
Affimations to calm you down from upset, stress, frustration and anger:
- I take good care of myself
- I am calming myself
- I am soothing myself
- I am calming and soothing myself so that I may fall into a deep and satisfying sleep
- I am prepared to deal with my problems in the morning
- So, I can now allow myself to fall into a deep and satisfying sleep
- I now release all my upset
- I now release all feelings of stress
- I now release all my anger
- I am letting go of frustration
- I let all negative feelings fly away
- I am letting go of my problems
- I am letting go of my worries
- I can picture a little trap door on the top of my head
- I open this little door on the top of my head, and let all negative emotions fly away from me
- I am releasing all negative emotions from my system
- As I release my negative emotions, I am feeling more and more relaxed
Affirmations to calm you down from depression and negative thinking:
- I take good care of myself
- I take good care of myself by taking positive actions to help myself
- I enjoy taking good care of myself
- I take good care of myself even when I feel down
- I am taking care of myself now by soothing myself
- I am soothing and calming myself
- I am taking care of myself now by letting go of all negative thinking
- I am letting go of my depression
- I am allowed to let go of my depression
- I am allowing myself to let go of depressing thoughts and negative thinking
- I am allowing myself to relax
- I am letting my muscles relax
- I am calming down and relaxing now
- I am releasing all tension
- I am releasing all negativity and sadness
- I let all these tense, negative feelings fly away
- I am letting go of depression and sadness and negative thinking
- I can picture a little trap door on the top of my head
- I open this little door on the top of my head and let all negativity and depression and sadness fly away from within me
- I am releasing all negative thoughts and depression from my system
- As I release negativity and depression, I am feeling more and more relaxed
- I am allowing myself to feel very relaxed
Affirmations to calm you down from over-stimulation, over-tiredness and over-excitement:
- I am calming myself down now
- I am calming down
- I am soothing myself
- I am calming and soothing myself, so that I may fall into a deep and satisfying sleep
- I now allow myself to fall into a deep and satisfying sleep
- I am letting go of all tension
- I am relaxing now
- I am calming down and relaxing now
- I am letting my muscles relax
- I am releasing all tension
- I am releasing all stimulation
- I am releasing all sense of excitement
- I am calming down and releasing all tension
- I am letting go of all tension and stimulation
- I can picture a little trap door on the top of my head
- I open this little door on the top of my head, and let all over-excitement and over-stimulation fly away from within me
- I am releasing all over-excitement from my system
- I am releasing all over-stimulation from my system
- I am feeling more and more relaxed
Affirmations to help you with grieving:
- I am helping myself now
- I am helping myself now by acknowledging my grief
- I am acknowledging the full extent of my grief
- My grief is very great
- My grief is bottomless
- My grief is endless
- My grief is so deep and endless I cannot express it adequately
- I am holding nothing back
- I have many tears within me
- I cry when I feel the urge
- I cry fully
- I hold nothing back
- I am grieving fully
- When I feel the urge to cry, I let the tears flow
- I let the tears within me flow freely
- I let all the grief within me flow out of my system
- Although I feel wounded, I know I am whole inside
- I feel my wholeness, despite my loss
- Grieving fully is a natural part of my wholeness as a human being
- When I grieve, I am being my whole self
- I give myself permission to cry and grieve fully
- I recognize the importance of fully grieving
- I recognize my right to fully grieve
- I have sustained an unbearable loss
- I have a right to fully grieve my loss
- I hold nothing back
- I have a right to cry my tears to the fullest
- I am helping myself to heal by grieving fully
- It is good to help myself by grieving fully
- I am helping myself to heal by crying and weeping and grieving
- As my tears flow out, I am feeling more and more sleepy
- As my grief flows out of my system, I feel myself getting sleepy
- I have a right to feel sleepy
- I have a right to fully grieve and to feel sleepy
Each one of the above sets of affirmations may end up with the followings:
- I am allowed to feel peaceful and good
- I am letting my muscles relax
- All the muscles in my body are relaxing
- I am feeling more and more relaxed and I am getting sleepy
- I am relaxing and I am feeling more and more sleepy
- I am giving myself permission to fall asleep
- I am giving myself permission to drift into a restful sleep
- I am giving myself permission to fall into a deep and satisfying sleep
- I feel peaceful and sleepy
- I am feeling very relaxed and peaceful and sleepy
- I am ready to fall asleep now
- I’m almost asleep
- I’m happy to fall asleep…
Now at this point, you can place yourself in a beautiful, peaceful, pleasurable environment — perhaps some place where you’ve been in the past, some place where you have happy memories — or maybe some place you can simply imagine — like a lush tropical island, a beautiful garden on a perfect spring day — or a fairytale castle — and see yourself in that lovely, peaceful environment — experiencing a sense of peace and enjoyment… Now you cannot help but sleep!
Read something uplifting
Also, you may find useful allowing yourselves to read something uplifting before going to bed. Everyone may have his favourite reading, according to his/her philosophical and spiritual view; anyway, it should be something “spreading light“, inspiring confidence and joy, optimism and love, and, of course, not too demanding for your brain, otherwise you may risk to re-activate your system, after all your previous work to relax it!
Well, I hope that the above information may be useful for your precious sleep. Feel free to leave any comments here below. Thank you very much!