If you have trouble falling asleep because of racing thoughts, you are not alone.
This problem is so common that there are literally hundreds of thousands of sources where you can find lists of ideas about how to calm yourself down before you go to bed.
These include breathing techniques, meditation apps, and even lifestyle adjustments such as exercising moderately, avoiding caffeine late in the day, eating carbs to stimulate serotonin and getting sunlight in the morning. The list can be seemingly endless.
Why you may have trouble falling asleep
When your thoughts won’t stop racing it’s because there are feelings in your body that have split off from your consciousness. For whatever reason, you don’t want to feel them. Your mind is working really hard to keep you from feeling them. But by doing that, it’s creating a problem than if you were to simply feel your feelings.
During the day, there are lots of ways you can distract yourself from the sensations of your body and avoid your feelings. But at night, these feelings inevitably resurface and cause you to have trouble falling asleep.
The secret
Generally, the feelings that make your thoughts race are fear and sadness, mostly generated due to a feeling of helplessness. If you can’t figure out which feeling it is, then the content of your worrisome thoughts will probably clue you in. Once you can recognize feelings associated with your racing thoughts, you can try to let them move through you.
In other words, the secret to getting rid of the racing thoughts is to feel the feelings associated with them. It’s really the only way. You will never get relief from a feeling that isn’t expressed. And even if you try to avoid it, it will always find its way to being expressed, either directly or indirectly. Hence, the racing thoughts.
What this means is that if you follow this advice, you will probably find yourself feeling more emotions than usual. If you follow this advice and can’t seem to get to your feelings, there is some other work you need to do to prepare yourself to feel them more easily.
When you breathe more, you feel more
To feel more easily, you must deepen and expand your breathing. There are many ways to deepen and expand your breathing, but one of my favorites is sitting for five minutes over a stability ball with your arms raised. Once you have started breathing at a steady rhythm you are much more likely to notice and have access to emotions in your body. Now you can try to feel the feelings associated with your racing thoughts.
Once you have expressed whatever feelings you have inside you, your body will naturally return to a state of equilibrium. The racing thoughts will be gone and you will relax, and if you are tired, you will have no trouble falling asleep.