Last week we were looking at ways to help you switch off from work and allow your mind to relax better and in turn, help you get a better night’s sleep. It is important that we support our minds, or they can easily get overwhelmed with things, the more we carry the more difficult it will be to switch off. Let’s use the analogy of the library again as this is a great way to help you see better how your mind is working beneath the surface. As we know, if we don’t find ways to help our minds switch off then we just take these issues with us to bed. This for many of us will lead to a poor night’s sleep, as we toss and turn trying to juggle all these things in our minds. By using the voice memo detox approach, it can help us create a new holding system in our libraries and allow our library assistants to relax more as they know that these items are just placed on hold until you return to work. This keeps that main desk in your library clearer and so, in turn, our mind won’t feel so overwhelmed or under pressure with trying to hold onto everything until the next workday. Remember all those approaches need to be right for you, so if the voice memo hasn’t worked for you, try typing these things down and emailing them to yourself. Or you can just go old school and put pen to paper and pop the note by your keys, ready to take to work with you.
Now that we have sorted out the front desk, let’s have a look around the rest of our library and consider how we have other things in our lives that might be impacting how we feel and getting in the way of a good night’s sleep. I think in life we need to find the balance in things, not too much and not too little is the best plan for most things in life. Let’s imagine this is how we keep order in our lives, and how this order can affect how we feel and react to things. If we wander around our libraries and things are a mess, nothing is in order and we can’t find anything we need, this can be a problem. If we live our lives like this then the impact on our inner mind will be quite big, we might not have put them both together and realised therefore we are feeling stressed all the time, but our mind beneath the surface will have. But also, on the other hand, if things are too immaculate, you may fear moving around your library, terrified in case you make a mess, if this is the case then being ordered has gone too far. It’s all about that healthy balance we need in our lives, and that space within our minds, where we can just comfortably relax.
For me being severely dyslexic, this need has always been greater for me, as holding on to things in my mind is like trying to carry water in a cullender. I can, at times, have put the dinner on, wandered off to do something else, and then thought, “Wow who has lit a bonfire?”, and of course, it’s not, it’s the dinner burning! I learnt a long time ago to find the ways that help to keep me in order, as this makes a massive impact on my stress levels.
You may be surprised that just setting an alarm and alerts or making sure you always leave 10 minutes early for everything you do, can dramatically reduce your stress levels and this will also help aid a good night sleep. If everything is a frantic rush then guess what, your mind, body, and nervous system will also be in a frantic panic. This is something you need to avoid at all costs, as living your life this way will not only be super stressful but over time will take its toll on your health. Also living like this for extended periods could lead to panic attacks that seemingly come out of nowhere. This is because if we are constantly living in heightened anxiety then it could take just one more thing to tip you over the edge and trigger a panic attack. If this has happened to you, then it’s time to look at your life and the things that are not getting done or the disorder you might be living in. These underlying aspects won’t normally trigger a panic themselves but will be that underlying level of stress we carry with us daily.
We can all have a lot of things constantly popping onto our phones, tablets and computers and these types of technology are becoming like an extension to our brains. If these are messy and not in order then we might be carrying that stress with us, also when we come to do a task, if we can’t find what we need or are overwhelmed with things that are just junk then it’s going to make us stressed. I find that a good order to how we deal with the masses of information that come our way, is key to having this lovely space in our minds to relax. Emails can be deleted if not needed daily, if possible, because if we let this build up then it can become a task we put off. Then of course more emails just keep coming and the more our minds will feel this internal stress and anxiety carrying all that unresolved stuff. If there are things that need answers that you don’t have time for at that moment, you can flag them and then come back to them when you do have the time. This keeps you more up to date but also doesn’t stop you from checking things and not having time to finish them as this can lead to avoidance of the tasks. Also, it can stop that internal fear of thinking you have missed something and will also help to prevent things from slipping through the net. The thing that doesn’t need action can be stored in relevant folders such as “holidays” to enable you to find what you need later down the line. You can also just leave a message unread and come back to it later, if you are up to date with your messages this can also be a good way to not miss things and have that alert on your phone as well to remind you to do this.
Set aside some time to get everything up to date and then going forward have your new plan of action, imagine with how tidy and organised things are, your mind will feel so much more relaxed, stress levels will be reduced, and better sleep patterns will prevail. Have a great stress free day. Sara x
HYPNOSARA 