{"id":18014,"date":"2013-09-05T22:05:30","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T06:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=18014"},"modified":"2015-09-14T20:17:23","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T04:17:23","slug":"5-ways-quiet-racing-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/5-ways-quiet-racing-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways To Quiet a Racing Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Yawn!<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s exactly how I started every morning when I was feeling the impact of burnout.<\/p>\n<p>I was tired and exhausted during the day, and then my mind would be amped up all night\u00a0 just racing.<\/p>\n<p>I ended up laying in bed just about all kinds of details from:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What I &#8220;had to do&#8221; the next day<\/li>\n<li>What I &#8220;should have done&#8221; during the day I just completed<\/li>\n<li>Random worries about friends, family, our house, my job, my health&#8230;you name it<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Well, after struggling with this personally I&#8217;m extremely well versed in how to quiet your mind so you can get a good nights sleep.<\/p>\n<p>This is crucial because when you rest well:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You\u2019ve got <strong>more energy<\/strong> for your work and your family<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;re <strong>happier<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>You let things <strong>bother you a lot less<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;re <strong>more flexible<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>And you just <strong>think better<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1><strong>Sleep Deprivation from a Racing Mind is a Growing Problem<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Today sleep deprivation is becoming a more common problem.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes it is because we fill up every possible hour of the day and night with to-do\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes it\u2019s the constant temptation of readily available technology.<\/p>\n<p>But other times it\u2019s because we just can\u2019t fall asleep or stay asleep because our minds are racing with an ever cascading flow of stress and yet-to-do\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>According to the National Sleep Foundation, a proper night\u2019s sleep for adults is 7-9 hours.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know about you, but when my mind is racing, getting 7-9 hours sleep is impossible.\u00a0 According to Sleep in America polls, about 20{54c12dad2cc2b53ae830e39915b1a3e70288dbcbbeb8bbf8395437c5dc3c512c}\u00a0of Americans report that they get less than 6 hours of sleep on average\u00a0\u00a0 So, of course, this has become a big issue.\u00a0 And it affects our daytime as much as our night.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>What\u2019s Happening When Your Mind is Racing<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>A racing mind is the stress that comes with you not being able to stop thinking.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t have the opportunity to fall asleep because you can\u2019t let go of those thoughts long enough to drift.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re mind is swirling around thought of past, future, and present.<\/p>\n<p>In general when you\u2019ve got a racing mind at night, your thoughts fall into 3 categories:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>What Should I have Done Today<\/strong> &#8211; You go over and over all those things that you wish you\u2019d accomplished, but didn\u2019t have the time or energy to.\u00a0 Oftentimes, this leads to a negative emotional place where you start to beat yourself up for not getting enough done.<\/li>\n<li><strong>What do I need to get Done Tomorrow<\/strong>&#8211; This, of course, doesn\u2019t just encompass your workload, though that\u2019s often the lead stress-causer.\u00a0 It\u2019s really just a hodge-podge of everything that turns your tomorrow into a daunting mountain.\u00a0 And the temptation can be to jump up and get a head start.\u00a0 But that will only leave you exhausted and far less productive.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Losing Sleep over Sleep<\/strong> &#8211; That frustration and feeling of defeat when you realize how much worse your day will be tomorrow when you don\u2019t get any sleep tonight.\u00a0 And your thoughts start to focus on, \u201cO my gosh, I should really be asleep right now!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhy am I not falling asleep?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h1><strong>Why \u2018Counting Sheep\u2019 doesn\u2019t Usually Work <\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>The process of counting sheep doesn\u2019t actually deal with any of the racing thoughts or the stress that accompanies them.<\/p>\n<p>All it does is create a tug-of-war for your attention.<\/p>\n<p>And the thoughts that win out over the sheep seem all the more important because it<br \/>\nappears that you can\u2019t shake them even when giving it your best shot.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>5 Methods of Quieting Your Mind When You Can\u2019t Sleep<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>While there are a lot of resources out there for people who struggle with racing thoughts or an inability to sleep well, there are a couple things that I\u2019ve found particularly helpful.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Practice the Eckart Tolle Kung-Fu Way<\/strong> &#8211; It really helpful to bring you attention fully to the present when you trying to get to sleep.\u00a0 A great way to do this I picked from\u00a0 watching Oprah interview Eckhart Tolle. He held both hands out straight (like a Kung Fun Master), then he said outside the right hand is the future and outside the left hand was the past.\u00a0 Now bring your attention to the distance between your two hands that represents the present.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Create Inward Focus<\/strong> &#8211; Focus on the physical world that you can control.\u00a0 Focus on your own body.\u00a0 Start by turning your attention to your hands over and really thinking about what you\u2019re doing to the exclusion of all else.\u00a0 When that begins to work, move your elbows or roll your shoulders.\u00a0 The idea here is to focus so much on your body\u2019s movements that your thoughts begin to fade.\u00a0 The added benefit being that these exercises will leave your body relaxed and ready for sleep.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Breathe<\/strong> &#8211; Try taking deep breathes in through your nose and out through your mouth, holding each breathe for 3 seconds.\u00a0 Notice the tension leaving your body on each exhale.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pattering Quiet Activities<\/strong> &#8211; Think about activities that calm you and put you in a more open minded or relaxed state.\u00a0 For some people, it\u2019s painting, reading, knitting, or puzzle books.\u00a0 The activity shouldn\u2019t be overly physical or mental.\u00a0 Start making it a habit of this activity being the last thing you do before you go to bed.\u00a0 If you mind starts to race, for on the activity you just completed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Recount Your Successes<\/strong> &#8211; Buy a journal and before you lay down, make a list of your successes from the day or the moments which you were grateful for.\u00a0 This will slow down your thoughts and send out off to sleep in a positive mindset.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Note that the solution for each person varies depending how fast and frequently you find your mind racing.<\/p>\n<p>So don\u2019t be afraid to try any or all of these methods.<\/p>\n<p>And if you stumble across a different one that works for you, feel free to comment and share it.<\/p>\n<p><em>This is an article by Burnout Specialist, <a href=\"http:\/\/benfanning.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Fanning<\/a>. He helps frustrated professionals rekindle their passion for the job and get to the next level in their careers. He burned himself out working in several Fortune 500 companies, and now\u2019s leading the movement against career burnout. <strong>He&#8217;s reignited his own career, and you can now apply his wisdom to your own by <a href=\"http:\/\/benfanning.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">clicking here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today sleep deprivation is becoming a more common problem.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes it is because we fill up every possible hour of the day and night with to-do\u2019s. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/5-ways-quiet-racing-mind\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1735,"featured_media":18016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[24,210,29,30,6],"tags":[158,4654,4639,4629],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>5 Ways To Quiet a Racing Mind<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How to quiet a racing mind so you can get a good nights sleep.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/5-ways-quiet-racing-mind\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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